[Peace-discuss] [OccupyCU] Closer Than You Think: Top 15 Things Romney and Obama Agree On

[Michael Weissman]

Damian- things are bad enough if you describe them accurately. Making stuff
up doesn't help. This list is half truths. Let's start with the first item.



>     15
>
> *Although unemployment is the highest it's been since the Great
> Depression, **the federal government** should **NOT **enact any sort of
> WPA-style program to put millions of people back to work.* Under Democrat
> Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s, Depression-era unemployment was tackled
> head on by direct federal hiring to dig subways, build roads, schools,
> parks, sewers, recreational facilities and public buildings. Oblivious of
> this history, Democrat Barack Obama maintains that only the private sector
> can or should create jobs.
>

Neither the first sentence nor the last sentence there is true. First,
check any standard plot of unemployment vs. time. Second, Obama pushed
through the major stimulus which included lots of funding for direct public
jobs (teachers,...), public-created private jobs (hiring contractors to
build bridges...) and, generally bad tax breaks, needed to get the bill
through the Senate, due to almost unanimous R opposition. The D's are
pushing fairly big (still way too small) new stimulus bills, again a
mixture of direct funding of state jobs and building things by hiring
contractors. Can't get anything through the R House.

A discussion about what is to be done is really hard at best, but worthless
if it's not based on real data.

One could go through the other points, but after this start why bother.
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