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

[Michael Weissman]

Carl- Yes, it had a lot of truthiness.

On Sun, Sep 2, 2012 at 10:50 PM, C. G. Estabrook <cge at shout.net> wrote:

> Come on, Mike.  The statement may be slightly hyperbolic, but it's an
> accurate description of what the Obama administration is (not) doing.
>
> (1) The first sentence is true if in need of specification, such as
>
> (a) "Chronic unemployment highest since Great Depression" <
> http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18563_162-20069136.html>; and
>
> (b) "Longest Period of High Unemployment Since Great Depression" <
> http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/02/16/cbo-longest-period-of-high-unemployment-since-great-depression
> >.
>
> (2) The last sentence expresses the conscious decision of the Obama
> administration not to create WPA-like government jobs as an alternative to
> jobs controlled by private business:
>
> Jared Bernstein, former chief economist for Vice President Joe Biden,
> wrote on May 30, 2011, "There will be no WPA-type programs in our near
> future. There was no appetite for them in the Obama admin in the midst of
> the worst recession since the Great Depression and there's a lot less now.
> The reasons for that are interesting and I'll speak to them another
> day. But it ain't happening" <
> http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/shoulds-versus-coulds/>.
>
> "...on a WPA program, Bernstein explicitly says it was *the White House*,
> not Republicans, who had no appetite for direct, public job creation during
> the first term. Bernstein says he made the arguments about public works
> jobs inside the White House, but he was clearly outvoted. He doesn't give
> the arguments made in response, tantalizingly alluding to 'interesting'
> reasons that he will 'speak to another day.' But he says very clearly that
> the reason we did all of this hoops-jumping and nudging in the stimulus
> package rather than just paying people to work at jobs that needed to be
> done was a philosophical decision inside the White House. In a sense we
> already knew this, but it's important that a former White House insider
> re-emphasized it" <
> http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/05/30/jared-bernstein-lets-slip-interesting-info-about-wh-economic-views/
> >.
>
> --CGE
>
> On Sep 2, 2012, at 10:00 PM, Michael Weissman <mbwmbwmbw at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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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>
>


-- 
Michael Weissman
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