It’s too damned late on so many fronts …
Posted: August 13, 2011 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign | Tags: stupid White House policy advisor tricks 29 Comments
I really try not to do late, wonky economic posts on any night, let alone a Saturday night. It’s probably because I’m deep in the midst of writing a monetary policy paper that I’m even remotely in the mode of doing stuff like this right now, but really, it seems like this discussion is coming late on all fronts. It’s late for the jobless. It’s late for the businesses who don’t have customers. It’s late for economists who can’t figure out why everything they’ve learned over the last 70 years is being suddenly ignored. I personally can’t believe the NYT is reporting that there’s a debate in the White House on the necessity of doing something other than seeking bipartisan surrender. Their internal polling must be worse than we think.
As the economy worsens, President Obama and his senior aides are considering whether to adopt a more combative approach on economic issues, seeking to highlight substantive differences with Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail rather than continuing to pursue elusive compromises, advisers to the president say.
Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Plouffe, and his chief of staff, William M. Daley, want him to maintain a pragmatic strategy of appealing to independent voters by advocating ideas that can pass Congress, even if they may not have much economic impact. These include free trade agreements and improved patent protections for inventors.
But others, including Gene Sperling, Mr. Obama’s chief economic adviser, say public anger over the debt ceiling debate has weakened Republicans and created an opening for bigger ideas like tax incentives for businesses that hire more workers, according to Congressional Democrats who share that view. Democrats are also pushing the White House to help homeowners facing foreclosure.
I simply highlighted the ideas that are wrong, wrong, wrong and now we know where they are coming from. How much domestic economic boost can you get from free trade agreements, improved patent protections for inventors, and yet MORE tax incentives for businesses to hire more workers when they have very few customers? The answer is little to none. I’ll be generous and say a smidgin. If Daley, Plouffe or Sperling were economists we wouldn’t even be seeing these STUPID ideas.
Why on earth would any Democratic President want to compromise with the absolutely wrong voices in the GOP that are basically supporting economic policy that’s custom made to tank the US economy during his re-election cycle? These idiots have to believe the aforementioned crap. That’s the only excuse that I can come up with.
The boasts of Congressional Republicans about their cost-cutting victories are ringing hollow to some well-known economists, financial analysts and corporate leaders, including some Republicans, who are expressing increasing alarm over Washington’s new austerity and antitax orthodoxy.
Their critiques have grown sharper since last week, when President Obama signed his deficit reduction deal with Republicans and, a few days later, when Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit rating of the United States.
But even before that, macroeconomists and private sector forecasters were warning that the direction in which the new House Republican majority had pushed the White House and Congress this year — for immediate spending cuts, no further stimulus measures and no tax increases, ever — was wrong for addressing the nation’s two main ills, a weak economy now and projections of unsustainably high federal debt in coming years.
Instead, these critics say, Washington should be focusing on stimulating the economy in the near term to induce people to spend money and create jobs, while settling on a long-term plan for spending cuts and tax increases to take effect only after the economy recovers.
The absolute lack of a knowledgeable voice on fiscal policy these days in policy circles that matter absolutely boggles my mind. We can argue the fine points of whether focused tax cuts or spending initiatives are required to jump start aggregate demand and create customers with jobs but really, that’s about the extent of the controversy between economists, financiers, and people that know what they’re doing.
“I think the U.S. has every chance of having a good year next year, but the politicians are doing their damnedest to prevent it from happening — the Republicans are — and the Democrats to my eternal bafflement have not stood their ground,” Ian C. Shepherdson, chief United States economist for High Frequency Economics, a research firm, said in an interview.
Yup, exactly so.
Journalistic standards and modern political norms place some restrictions on what a reporter can and will say in a news article. It’s what too often leads to unhelpful he-said-she-said reporting (“Eric Cantor today said two plus two equals five; Democrats and mathematicians disagreed”).
Yup, people can say bat-shit crazy, impossibly false things and it still gets reported as just some one’s opinion. Further more, FOX news will drag on at least five republican politicians that will insist that 2+2=5 and there’s a liberal media bias and that’s the only reason there could be any different answer. It’s enough to make a financial economist drink. Okay, I keep writing rants these days. I’m going to take a late bath with a late nightcap. Hopefully, you’re all in the middle of some sweet dreams.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
I agree Dak! I often wonder how these experts who have never had any practical hands on experience running a business become experts with 2+2=5 sum ups! The Republicans represent BIG business…explains the fuzzy math as there are no Bail Outs for Main Street Mom ‘N Pops 😦 Bangs head on desk!
My didn’t make it in 2 2=5 😯
It is more understandable when you realize the President is not a Democrat and he is not listening to Prof. Krugman or any other economist who knows what he/she is talking about.
But it does frustrate me.
djmm
Republicans never used to be as bad even.
And that is what gets me so mad, both the Republicans and the Dems have gone way right…it is sick.
Interestingly enough, I heard Santorum [of all people] say tonight that all energy subsidies should be eliminated [he was quick to point out this was ‘not’ a tax increase]and that compromise is the only way to get things done in DC. He stated that finding common ground should never compromise core principles but reiterated that a win-all/take-all position isn’t the way government works.
Surprised me but also made me wonder if those still capable of thinking in the GOP are waking up to the fact that 100% obstructionism is not playing well across the country.
As for Obama and his crew? It’s always about Obama and what ‘strategy’ will work for his benefit. I cannot remember any Democrat leader being so utterly divorced from the American public and the genuine pain and fear that detachment is causing on Main St. It’s as if the only audience Obama and his sychophants play to is the DC, Wall St. and press corp. crowd.
The man would do the country a huge favor by stepping aside. He obviously has no ideas. Free trade agreements and patent protection? More tax incentives to hire? They must be kidding. The company my husband works for has had a hiring freeze in place since before the 2008 crash and has already announced a wage freeze, referred to as market pricing. The work teams are stripped down to the bone. The only job hiring is for upper management; the guys at the tippy top are playing musical chairs, hopping from one company to the next. They get the bucks and bennies. Everyone else gets the shaft but end up grateful for having any job at all. It’s a great piece of razzle-dazzle.
As for Independents. Obama lost them long ago. Most Indies, I know are looking for a Republican who doesn’t sound crazy and isn’t a Jesus freak.
“I know are looking for a Republican who doesn’t sound crazy and isn’t a Jesus freak.”
That is the rub. the world is upside down and inside out. I forgot what I was watching, but a panelist said that “Ron Paul was Tea Party before there was a Tea Party,” and it hit me. Kat has long said that the Tea Party was astro turf, but now I realize that it’s much worse than that! Body snatchers have eaten the real Tea Party, and it is just more statist religious cons and even a few neo cons acting as if they were were for smaller government and more liberty. These folks may have successfully appropriated the label, but they continue to advocate state power over individual choice, more war, and bigger prisons. The Tea Party is dead, and the maggots of tyranny are animating the corpse!
“The Tea Party is dead, and the maggots of tyranny are animating the corpse!”
I agree, Rick. The original Tea Party movement was pushing against the huge bailout to the financial houses, something that nearly 90% of the public agreed was a stupid idea, particualrly when there was absolutely no requirement to clean up the mess these same greedy financiers had made in this country and around the world. The banks ran with the money to save their own skins and have continued the same fraudulant operations of the past. Pays to have friends in highplaces. Pays even better when you own them.
The TP movement quickly became the arm of Freedom Works and the corporate lobbyists/clients they serve. Dick Armey is a hired gun for the oil companies, Big Pharm and the insurance industry. Last thing on his list is ordinary citizens or those TP activists running around in their silly revolutionary costumes. Ditto for the Koch brothers. It’s a total joke, hiding behind a screen of so-called ‘liberty,’ which equates to King of the Mountain or ‘our way or the highway.’ Or more pointedly, Riches for Me Not for Thee.
The really sad thing is that there are middle class people still defending and falling for this nonsense. Because in the end, they’re just cutting their own throats. Rick Perry is the perfect frontman for this sort of fraud. I listened to his announcement in NC yesterday. What a flim-flam man! Wrap it all up in the flag and religion and you have another scam in the making, the flip side of Barack Obama and his minions.
We’re cooked!
Btw, there are two excellent essays today over at Firedoglake this morning, definitely worth a read. One on the snake oil salesman, Rick Perry:
http://firedoglake.com/2011/08/14/is-rick-perry-a-person/
And the other, even more worrisome–how we’re losing our grip on The Enlightenment:
http://firedoglake.com/2011/08/14/the-enlightenment-in-the-us-faces-slow-demise/
Sad days in America.
Yeah Peggy, I just saw that enlightenment one…and going to read it now.
All I have to do is talk to the many small business people in my neighborhood. They’ve been hurting for a consistent customer base now for nearly 5 years. We can’t even get a grocery store built in the area or the lower 9th ward. The refrain is continually not enough customers. I hear it from plumbers, car mechanics, innkeepers, and restaurant owners. They’re all just holding on. They don’t need more tax breaks or confidence in Wall Street. They need paying customers.
It’s a vicious cycle. There will be no customers with massive unemployment and people worried about losing the jobs they’re desperately hanging onto. That’s why when I listened to Perry and his lying speech yesterday I wanted to throw something. The man is pushing a state budget now that will strip $10 billion from education, slash 33% from Medicaide funding, putting nusing homes around the state in jeopardy, and is planning to privitize a huge toll highway/road project, most of the financing coming from foreign investors. Texans will get smoked with the same sort of ‘parking meter’ disaster that Chicago is stuck with, all in the name of ‘not raising taxes.’ The so-called Texas Miracle is low wages, rotten environmental standards, poor education, no health care and debt on the public into perpetuity. And, oh yes, lying about using Federal Stim money to plug up the state’s huge budget deficit.
We’re being led to slaughter in this country. The fact that the red, white and blue is flying over the abbatoir doesn’t make me feel any better. Nor do prayers for salvation.
Ugh! I’m having one of my hopeless days.
Great comment, Peggy Sue.
0bowma — the endless campaign. This is all he can do. Back in 2008 he didn’t have any ideas of his own — he stole ideas/plans from Clinton and Edwards. He is not a creative nor original person. He can read a teleprompter.full of lies and not even blink.
One jerk wad at the Wall Street Journal claims that 0bowma has never changed — at least that was the headline. Click on the article and Mr. Jerk Was starts with a false statement that 0bowma is the same liberal blah blah blah — that he’s always been.0bowma is NO liberal 0bowma has no real core values — he is whoever his pay masters want him to be. He is as slippery and dishonest as he has always been. (He did say he wanted to “fix” entitlements — so he has kept this goal.) At his age I doubt he even knows who he is — as long as he gets attention he doesn’t give a flying f*&** about anyone except himself.
Seems like 0bowma has following GW bush’s lead and surrounding himself with ego polishers — not truth tellers (like Economists etc. — real ones who have experience). I read Econ blogs every day and seems like all of them are running around like Cassandra — speaking the truth.
All the economists were saying that the stimulus package was too small and the money wasn’t being used effectively. We can see that the Economists were telling the truth. Paying millions of dollars for naked scanners in airports is one example of a foul waste of money. The Germans has evaluated the naked porn scanners and they have found them to be useless. 35% false positives — Damned stupid.
I just read about the pensioners in R.I. who are only going to be paid $10,000 per year — most don’t have Soc. Sec. since the state opted out.
The White house is relying on political operatives and speech writers — liars all.
OMG, that NYT article is the most shocking thing I’ve seen all week. These stories only get written because of leaks–most likely from the WH. I can’t believe Obama is comfortable with having his craven cowardice and stupidity published on the front page of the Sunday NYT!
These people obviously have no interest in what will be good for the country–just what what will help Obama get reelected. And even then, they are clueless about what people really want. The polls show that people want the government to spend money to create jobs. Business people–including the right wing Chamber of Commerce have expressed alarm at the austerity agenda. Even they know the problem is lack of demand.
A number of times Obama has said he’d rather be a good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president. But it’s more and more clear that he’d rather be a devastatingly bad two term president than lift one finger to improve the economy or help struggling people.
These people are just plain evil. There’s no getting around it.
Thanks for staying up late to keep us informed, Dak! I’m truly horrified.
I trust Dak most of all. 🙂
I know what you mean foxy, every day I am so thankful that both Dak and BB are writing this blog.
If you can believe it, I was out reading the NYT to clear my mind a bit. I’m knee deep in worse stuff to read.
and thanks for the votes of confidence!! Some times I feel like everything I learned is for naught.
From that NYT piece, something that makes me scream in my coffee
“The president’s team puts a premium on being above the partisan fray, which is usually the right strategy,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate. “But on this issue, when he knows what the right thing to do is, and when a rather small group on one side is blocking any progress, you have to be willing to call that group out if you want to get anything done.”
From the NYT link:
WTF? His ideas suck ass! these people are clueless, or just blatantly trying to ruin the country.
I’m beginning think it’s the latter, Minx. These are true neoliberal believers, even though the evidence shows that socially and economically these policies will prove to be an utter disaster. But then, true ideologues always have a problem with reality.
I used to think that, but I’m beginning to believe that they’re just incompetent. Obama obviously never reads anything–he’s like Bush in so many ways. What a loser.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/little-or-nothing/
Mark Thoma Watches the White House Lose to Itself in Eleven Dimensional Chess
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/08/mark-thoma-watches-the-white-house-lose-to-itself-in-eleven-dimensional-chess.html
White House Debates Doing Little or Nothing
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/08/white-house-debates-doing-little-or.html
A Devastating Look At Obama’s Economic Policy Strategy
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/obamas-economic-policy-disaster-2011-8?op=1#ixzz1V2X059JE
Free Market — this is more of a religious belief than based on Science.
“Critics of the free market argue that the imitation of the laws of life in society is awkward, has no solid basis in the natural sciences and may lead to adverse or unpredictable consequences.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market