First, the good news; March was the 30th consecutive month the Bureau of Labor & Statistics has announced that seasonally-adjusted job gains outpaced losses. The bad news? At 88,000 jobs gained, March was a poor month of “gains.” More good news, though: January and February gains were revised upwards. January was revised from 119,000 to 148,000 jobs gained, and February was ticked up from 236,000 to 268,000 jobs added.
Compare that 88,000 from March to either of those months, though, and the report is only more alarming. Remember, at the beginning of March, the previously agreed upon “sequestration” cuts were signed into being. Federal agencies went into “budget cutting mode.” Jobs were either cut or furloughed.
We’ve been bombarded with this “full-court press” P.R. campaign from the right, since, oh, about January 21, 2009: government spending is bad for the economy; we have to reduce the deficit; the deficit is going to straddle ‘our kids’ with untenable debt; and so on and so forth.
That wasn’t much of a concern prior to that date, though; why? Because those politicians (and their punditry army in the conserva-media) know full well that sharp cuts in government spending have a negative impact on the economy – at the local, state and federal level. Can’t have that happen on their watch, so wait’ll a Democrat’s in the White House, then start railing on “spending.” And for awhile, it worked; President Barack Obama’s (ahem) “reckless” spending “binge” became “enemy number one” to many Americans, and after a stimulus spending package effectively ended the Great Recession, and the Affordable Care Act was signed into law, big numbers suddenly looked daunting. Progressives also did a piss-poor job pointing out that much of Obama’s spending stemmed from policy decisions made in the prior administration (but point that out, and those on the right only roll their eyes and howl “how long are you going to blame Bush?” … as if the costs of his decisions somehow ceased to come home to roost on January 19, 2009).
It took ’em awhile, but I think the results of the 2012 general election indicate that those on the left might have finally convinced enough American voters that Bush’s decisions were still largely to blame for the nation’s deficit and economic malaise.
The recovery is, and has been, for quite awhile, “real.” The problem is, it’s been “real” slow, and is in danger of dying on the vine if politicians in D.C. continue to focus on deficit reduction – when even John Boehner admits there is no immediate debt crisis. Personally, I believe the right’s known that deficit reduction (read: government spending and jobs cuts) would (at best) slow or (at worst) derail the recovery all along.
Congratulations to them, then; they’ve been successful at such economic sabotage. And that brings us to March’s numbers. The sequestration cuts were created to be so outrageously bad for both sides of the aisle that they’d SURELY come up with a spending plan to avoid it; but they didn’t. Why that’s so surprising given the current House/Senate make up and Obama still being in office is beyond me. We’ve seen our economy taken to the brink countless times by the right in order to politicize the deficit many of those on the right – in office – created, to begin with. In their minds (my belief), sending the nation into another economic tail-spin, this time under Obama’s watch, only benefits their party, so what’s a few years of more grueling anxiety for the poor and middle class of America if it means the GOP can snag back control of the White House and Senate?
Need we any MORE evidence, friends, that the economy needs a BOOST, and that the federal (and state and local, frankly) government(s) need to focus more on creating jobs? Can anyone argue that our infrastructure ISN’T in need of expansion and refurbishing, for example?
And even if we ARE having to “get serious” about the deficit, say the right, how can we allow them to look “serious” about the deficit when they’ll do ANYthing to protect income tax rates and capital gains rates of billionaires, subsidies to big agriculture, oil and banks? (All the while threatening to target Social Security checks and Medicare benefits, of course).
Will March’s jobs report be the “wake up call” Washington needs? I don’t have any doubts: those that “get it” have known awhile – on both sides of the ideological spectrum, and both know the solutions. Which is why those on the right won’t allow those solutions to happen. It may benefit us all economically, but it doesn’t benefit them politically.
At least we know where their priorities lie.
The Blue Dawg 