Needless economic damage of the 'sequester'

Just in case you forgot how much damage the idiotic, Tea Party-inspired budget sequestration did to the U.S. economy, here's a reminder: at least $351 billion. 

"Less austerity in the short term would have meant more growth, less unemployment and an even faster-shrinking deficit in the long term," concludes Mark Gongloff.

We should never again allow conservative debt fetishists to impose their confusion about cause (economic downturn) and effect (rising deficits) on the rest of us.  

Austerity Is Poisoning The Economy, In 2 Charts

By Mark Gongloff

July 16, 2014 | Huffington Post

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. Here's a chart from CAP to help put it in perspective:

"Congress has severely damaged the economy with deep spending cuts in a misguided attempt to solve a short-term debt crisis that simply does not exist," wrote CAP economists Harry Stein and Adam Hersh.

The progressive think tank's analysis is based on the latest budget outlook from the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan congressional research group, which was released on Tuesday.

The CBO found that, despite relentless panic about supposedly out-of-control government spending, the long-term path of federal debt has dramatically improved lately. You can see that in this second CAP chart, showing the CBO forecast for the ratio of federal debt to gross domestic product:

Budget cuts have probably helped bring down the long-term debt outlook a bit. But an improving economy has helped much more, by raising tax revenue and dramatically shrinking the government's annual budget deficit.

The CAP study is the latest in a series of studies tallying the costs of austerity. The long and short of it: Less austerity in the short term would have meant more growth, less unemployment and an even faster-shrinking deficit in the long term.

GOP cost U.S. nearly 1 million jobs in 3 years

Before my Republican friends roll their eyes and dismiss this study as some lib'rul media/Media Matters hack job, please note that this study was commissioned by the Peterson Foundation, the founder of the "Fix the Debt CEOs" group that wants to cut the U.S. federal safety net in order to decrease the national debt.  

Republicans can't be trusted as stewards of the U.S. economy. They've got two tricks in their bag: tax cuts and deregulation. But after they've cut taxes to the bone and given business license to do anything, anywhere, to anybody... they're worthless.

Republican Debt Crises Have Killed 900,000 Jobs: Study

By Mark Gongloff

October 15, 2013 | Huffington Post

URL: http://huff.to/18i1lHb

We cut science funding at our peril

Not good:

The US still leads in biomedical research spending, and output measured by research publications, but it has been declining for over a decade. Funding for the NIH is now down to 2000 levels, taking inflation into account. NIH funding was doubled under presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton; it should be doubled again.

Worse, its budget has been slashed by another 10 per cent for the second half of this year under "sequestration", the US's austerity programme. And things are going to get worse. Sequestration will lead to an additional 9 per cent cut next year in overall government spending, and the non-profit Coalition for Health Funding reports that the House of Representatives is considering NIH cuts of a further 19 per cent, stopping work in progress and shutting down new ideas.

Additional cuts will also strike the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the finger in the dyke against new pandemics – there is abad one fulminating right now in the Middle East. The CDC is in the process of cutting virtually all of its funding to schools of public health for research on epidemic preparation.

Thanks, Tea Parties!

Apocalypse soon, if we keep on cutting science

By Andrew Feinberg

August 5, 2013 | New Scientist

URL: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929280.200

RIP, Bob Woodward's reputation

I wasn't even going to mention this tempest in a teapot that is the Bob Woodward-Gene Sperling "threatdown," because it just seemed made for right-wing talk radio and cable news talking heads. Not a real story.

But this non-story has had more legs than I thought. People still give Woodward cred for stuff he did in the '70s, I guess.

So first, let me ask you, is this how a man who was threatened responds to that threat, much less to something that made him feel "uncomfortable"?

Gene: You do not ever have to apologize to me. You get wound up because you are making your points and you believe them. This is all part of a serious discussion. I for one welcome a little heat; there should more given the importance. I also welcome your personal advice. I am listening. I know you lived all this. My partial advantage is that I talked extensively with all involved. I am traveling and will try to reach you after 3 pm today. Best, Bob

And second, it is now known that Woodward probably embellished parts of his Deep Throat story, his Wash Post editor Ben Bradlee never bought it entirely, and when Woodward's own research assistant started to write about it, Woodward told him to kill the story. Woodward let his young assistant know that he would regret publishing quotes from Woodward's old boss. No word yet on how uncomfortable this made Woodward's assistant feel, and the global implications it had for the profession of journalism.

So now we know for sure: Bob Woodward is a dissembler, a fame hog, a whiner, a hypocrite and a bully.

UPDATE (03.11.2013): Check out this story by Max Holland: Bob Woodward's Dark Days.

Goodbye, Bob

By John Cook

February 28, 2013 | Gawker

URL: http://gawker.com/5987586/goodbye-bob?tag=clowns

A well-run government has the leisure to debate zombies

No, this is not from The Onion, and yes, you are reading the headline below right.

OK, granted, it's another question why Canada's elected leaders don't have anything better to do than debate hypothetical illegal zombie migration. Then again, they're not wasting their time debating whether to pay for the bills they voted for, to "sequester" their budgets, or to disapprove of Cabinet ministers' nominations because those nominees agree with the Prime Minister who nominated them. 

So on the whole I still give Canada's parliament the edge.

Canadian Parliament: ‘Canada Will Never Become a Safe Haven for Zombies’

By Taylor Berman

February 13, 2013 | Gawker

URL: http://gawker.com/5984147/canadian-parliament-canada-will-never-become-a-safe-haven-for-zombies

Baker: 10 years of economic doldrums ahead

With a recalcitrant GOP House and sequestration coming, if Obama sticks to his guns but makes no progress in negotiations, then we'll have spending cuts and tax increases in 2013, or austerity by default.  And zero chance of more necessary fiscal stimulus.  

Here's how liberal economist Dean Baker sums up U.S. economic prospects:

The number of jobs in the economy is roughly 9 million below the trend level. The recent pace of job growth has been approximately 170,000 a month. The economy needs to generate 100,000 jobs a month just to keep pace with the growth of the labor force.

This means that it would take almost 130 months, more than 10 years, for the economy to generate enough jobs to make up its 9 million shortfall at its recent growth rate. That is not a very good picture.

It is difficult to envision a scenario that looks much better. The housing market is recovering and that will provide a modest boost to growth, but it is not likely we will return to the construction rates of the boom years. Trade may be a small positive in the years ahead, but with the economies of most U.S. trading partners also weak, it is unlikely that trade will provide much of a boost in the near future.

The Post-Election Economic Blues

By Dean Baker

November 16, 2012 | Counterpunch

URL: http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/11/16/the-post-election-economic-blues/