Austerity Is Poisoning The Economy

[UCmeNdc]

Austerity is like a bad tattoo: It's going to be with us, causing misery, for years to come.

The broad spending cuts that were the fruits of the Republican Congress' budget obsession of the past few years have already cost the U.S. economy $351 billion in lost economic activity, according to a new study by the Center for American Progress. This austerity will cost a total of $633 billion by the year 2020, according to the study.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/16/austerity-cost-633-billion_n_5592026.html

[rurallib]

1. we should literally have millions at work fixing bridges

before another one falls. There is so much that needs done in this country yet the 'no tax the rich' have poisoned the idea of the government doing anything.

[world wide wally]

2. This is what people vote for when they vote Republican

Now find a cure for that and we'll all be better off

[Igel]

3. Austerity has a couple of components.

One is spending cuts. Most of those were restored. Most "cuts" are "reductions of projected increases." I don't count reductions in projected spending increases as actual cuts. The whole counting chickens before they're hatched business. If I'm planning on buying a computer in September but in August decide to not buy a new computer, I haven't reduced my spending from previous levels. (Many still like counting the incredible budget surpluses under the final Clinton projections; the recession that started the month after Bush II's inauguration by itself accounts for the disappearance of the budget surpluses, even without Bush tax cuts and increased military spending for Afghanistan.)

Another component of austerity is tax increases. If you like tax increases, you like austerity. Even if they're progressive, they're still austerity measures. That's the prefered (D) austerity measure. There are projections for the hit to GDP that the tax increases will cause, as well. But they're from the CBO, which at least is supposed to try to be non-partisan and not lobby for a specific policy. The CBO showed a short-term Keynesian GDP uptick, but a much larger long-term reduction in the GDP.

[Blue Idaho]

4. Toxic Treason

Any political party that promotes austerity as an economic policy is willfully working to destroy America. Austerity puts a significant drag on economic recovery: lowering wages and limiting job opportunities. More importantly - austerity is rotting our infrastructure. Any political party that refuses to maintain our "commonwealth" of freeways, bridges, rail lines, and countless state and community projects lowers our quality of life and makes it much more difficult for us to sell our goods at home and abroad.