november 2 Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

Monday Evening News Roundup

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has leverage from now until November 2nd. After the election, his leverage with the United States President is significantly lessened. So, look for him to continue to ratchet up the pressure to try to push, cajole and/or coerce Barack Obama into taking some offensive action against Iran.

I really don’t like replacement refs. If a quarterback gets a forearm to the head, one would think that would be an easy call. Not for the replacement refs. They missed it.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street protests. Some feel that the Occupy Wall Street protests haven’t been successful. Others have argued that we have focused too much attention on these protests. First of all, The Occupy Wall Street protests have been successful just in the fact that here we are, talking about Wall Street and their shenanigans. Occupy Wall Street garnered media attention and the attention of politicians (both right and left). They have indeed been successful. Yet, I would argue that they need to do more. We need more than simple recognition. We need to morph into the next stage. We need to start combating some of the problems the protesters have identified. The excesses of Wall Street continue.

Joe Scarborough from MSNBC has reinforced the idea that all Americans are stupid by stating that Muslims hate us because of their religion. Completely moronic. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that we have supported ruthless dictators.

More News Roundup After the Break (more…)

The Economy and the Party of No

I have been staring at the following graph for a couple of days now. What do you see?

Private sector jobs

As I was staring at the graph, I came across an article by Dean Baker, an economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research. He writes the following:

From now until November 2, the Republican Party will be the party of unemployment. The logic is straightforward; the more people who are unemployed on Election Day, the better the prospects for Republicans in the fall election. They expect, with good cause, that voters will hold the Democrats responsible for the state of the economy. Therefore anything that the Republicans can do to make the economy worse between now and then will help their election prospects.

While it might be bad taste to accuse a major national political party of deliberately wanting to throw people out of jobs, there is no other plausible explanation for the Republicans’ behavior. The Republicans have balked at supporting nearly every bill that had any serious hope of creating or keeping jobs, most recently filibustering on bills that provided aid to state and local governments and extending unemployment benefits. The result of the Republicans’ actions, unless they are reversed quickly, is that hundreds of thousands more workers will be thrown out of work by Election Day.

The story is straightforward. Nearly every state and local government across the country is looking at large budget shortfalls for their 2011 fiscal years, most of which begin July 1, 2010. Since they are generally required by state constitutions or local charters to balance their budgets, they will have no choice except to raise taxes and/or make large cutbacks and layoff workers to bring spending and revenue into line.

State and local governments have cut their workforce by an average of 65,000 a month over the last three months. Without substantial aid from the federal government this pace is likely accelerate. The Republican agenda in blocking aid to the states may add another 300,000 people to the unemployment roles by early November

The blockage of extended unemployment benefits promises similar dividends. Unemployment benefits are not just about providing income support to those who are out of work, they also provide a boost to the economy. Since unemployed workers generally have little other than their benefits to support themselves, this is money that will almost immediately be spent. The benefits paid to workers are income to food stores and other retail outlets.

I think that it is obvious that we need more stimulus. I really don’t care what has been spent and what hasn’t. We need to spend money on infrastructure projects, now.