Robert Reich: Blame Both Sides
By Shaun Kenney | Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 | PolicyInteresting article in this morning’s Salon War Room:
Imagine your house is burning. You call the fire department but your call isn’t answered because every firefighter in town is debating whether there will be enough water to fight fires over the next 10 years, even though water is plentiful right now. (Yes, there’s a long-term problem.) One faction won’t even allow the fire trucks out of the garage unless everyone agrees to cut water use. An agency that rates fire departments has just issued a downgrade, causing everyone to hoard water.
While all this squabbling continues, your house burns to the ground and the fire has now spread to your neighbors’ homes. But because everyone is preoccupied with the wrong question (the long-term water supply) and the wrong solution (saving water now), there’s no response. In the end, the town comes up with a plan for the water supply over the next decade, but it’s irrelevant because the whole town has been turned to ashes.
OK, I exaggerate a bit, but you get the point. The American economy is on the verge of another recession. Most Americans haven’t even emerged from the last one. Consumers (70 percent of the economy) won’t or can’t spend because their major asset is worth a third less than it was five years ago, they can’t borrow as before, and they’re justifiably worried about their jobs and wages. And without customers, businesses won’t expand and hire. So we’re trapped in a vicious cycle that’s getting worse.
The former labor secretary’s solution? More stimulus… but the case in point is worth referencing, namely that European Union is in much deeper trouble than the United States is in, our collective wealth and disposable income allows us to shrug off body shots that effectively killed the British Empire, and — in worse case scenarios — we are the reserve currency of the world and can devalue our currency to meet existential threats.
Europe is scared of what’s happening in the United States — but it’s not America’s faux “debt crisis” that’s spooked them. It’s the slowdown here (and the likelihood of another recession), made all the worse as our debt obsession prevents the U.S. government from doing what it should. A slowdown and recession here mean fewer exports from Europe to America. When combined with their genuine debt crisis, this could push Europe’s economy over the edge.
…and as I’ve said before, the S&P downgrade is just that — a European attempt to fend off capital flight when (not if) European markets collapse.
Meanwhile, everyone wants what was promised to them by government and politicians, yet no one here in the United States (in either political camp) could “live free or die” even if they wanted to.
Still, Reich misses the greater point. If there is no “debt crisis” then there is no reason to spend on stimulus. Rather, Americans need to turn the TV off and enjoy what’s left of the summer. The world is a far better place without the mainstream media outlets cheerleading their perspective political camps over the abyss. Good ratings… but terrible brinkmanship.
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Shaun Kenney is the Chairman of the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors, former Communications Director for the Republican Party of Virginia, and an active blogger since 2002. Shaun lives in Thomas Jefferson's backyard with his wife, six children, and a modest attempt at a farm in Kents Store, Virginia.
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14 Responses to "Robert Reich: Blame Both Sides"
I think what Reich is saying is
“go ahead and party like it’s 1999. You don’t need anything to party other than colored paper. And since everyone is to blame no one is to blame, especially the Left. The Leftists are the wise caring folks telling oyu Live Life today. Don’t worry about history and don’t think about the future. The leftists are the ones you have today and there is only today forever.”
I think what Reich is telling us is that JOBS, not DEBT is the primary problem facing America’s economy right now. The best way to lower our debt is to get the economy moving again. Without that, any deficit reduction plan is going to be trying to stem a sucking chest wound with a bandaid.
Yes, it is about job growth as indicative of a healthy economy. Every one of the three commissions that made recommendations had the same basic points; reduce expenditures, but mostly after 2013 so as not to threaten the nascent recovery, tax reform of loop holes and entitlement reform as well, and increased revenue from growth. Yet the republican mantra of cuts only is threatening our economic health, driving us back into recession, all over the their prospects in the next election. That is, as McConnell has said, it is our duty to do anything to ensure the President has only one term. Well, if anything means the nation’s economic health is imperiled, these guys have to be stopped.
SV,
If you know Reich his idea of jobs are New Deal govt make work jobs. His big concern about the Porkulus was that there weren’t enough ethnic quotas for the “infrastructure jobs” touted therein. Will those kind of jobs restore the economy? Didn’t work for FDR. If we leave Reich and leftists out of it then I agree with your post.
Organic jobs will not come back until housing returns and this could be years in the making. Until then any real jobs growth will need to be borrowed and funded through the fed or state gov’ts. It really is as simple as that and this is obvious by just watching what has happened in the markets over the past few days. There would be no rush to treasuries if there were a REAL debt problem. Look at today – fed say “no” to QE3 (fed stimulus) we drop another 100 points immediately. The market wants jobs and demand to return to the economy and they could care less where that “water” comes from … for now.
Val, Well, I don’t think all the jobs need to be government jobs. Actually, i don’t think may need to be government JOBS although they might be on government PROJECTS. And not WPA type projects. The country has very real infrastructure needs, particularly keeping up the highways and bridges we built in the post WWII boom. That’s work that private companies can bid on and puts the construction industry back in business without waiting for an upturn in the housing market. Because I agree with Eric that recovery in the housing market is years away. There’s too much inventory out there.
Reich is another leftist with a view that government is the only valid “entrepreneur” in our economy. He is also a different kind of “community organizer” than Obama where he is focused on developing a social infrastructure and public investments (spending) as the cornerstone of economic policy rather than capitalism with companies who make profits. In his book, “Locked in the Cabinet” he is famous for inventing dialog that never occurred and embellishing events where he placed himself as the linchpin of every major decision while he worked in the Clinton administration. In other words, he lies.
In this post, Reich makes only one gratuitous reference to “business” in an attempt to confuse and confound the casual reader: “And without customers, businesses won’t expand and hire.” That statement is logically disconnected from what he subsequently says: “our debt obsession prevents the U.S. government from doing what it should.”. In Reich’s world it’s all about government, nothing about business while fear mongering in this case using a lame “scorched earth” analogy of a town where Republicans won’t let the Democrats put out the fire. That followed by more fear mongering about how inextricably we are connected to Europe through exports and how we are holding hands with Europe as we both jump off the cliff together while crying the tears of recession instead of having a grownup discussion about debt.
Reich is nothing more than a stuttering political hack that makes up fairy tales, invents lame analogies that are tied to leftist goals and agendas and fabricates and embellishes talking points for the rest of the mind numbed leftists to repeat. He does make a lot of appearances on lame stream news and opinion shows, but his real calling is to be a co- star on Bill Maher’s HBO show, to wear an “It” clown suit with pointy teeth and to make up stories and spin yarns that scare leftist children about Tea Parties and Republicans.
“Reich is nothing more than a stuttering political hack that makes up fairy tales, invents lame analogies that are tied to leftist goals and agendas and fabricates and embellishes talking points for the rest of the mind numbed leftists to repeat.”
The irony of this statement is rich…rich indeed. Thank you, Tim.
Yes, of course, it is easy to dismiss Reich, but of course, an expert ex Senator Alan Simpson recently interviewed about the recommendations of the Bowles-Simpson Commission made essentially the same points as Reich. Interviewed this morning on NPR, he could have not been more damning of the strategy of the intrasigent republicans. Only on forums like this do you see the circling of the wagons and a total inability to see or hear the truth; that is, if we are to deal with the deficits and the debt, we need to cut expenditures, close loop holes, and pass tax and entitlement reform. Only republicans refuse to put tax reform on the table, and continue to deny the need for additional revenue to reduce the deficit and the debt. So call Reich a political hack, but soon, with your attitude, everyone in the country except the intrasigent republicans will have earned that same label, but you will be on the outside looking in.
Eric, your funny!
Mike, we’re deeply sorry that you are one of the leftist “children” who have been scared and victimized by the clown.
MB: Let me argue with your “only Republicans” construction. While many Republicans do take “no taxes” as a commandment, there are Democrats who are as hostile to any significant entitlement changes as Republicans are to generating more revenue. Both these private social clubs are working against the interest of America.
Yes, there are Democrats resistant to required reforms as well, yet the policy of intrasigence of the republican party is the major impediment to reform.
Everything the republicans propose entails putting someone out of work and everyone that is put out of work will pay less or no taxes. The loss of those taxes means the deficit will increase so we would cut spending more to make up for the loss of tax revenue until nobody will have to pay taxes because we will be a third world country. Jobs are the only way out of the hole we were put in by you know who. I forgot what his name is. Is he still alive? I haven’t heard a republican mention his name since Jan. 20, 2009
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