The House Republicans' plan to extinguish the fragile recovery under a tsunami of budget cut driven job cuts stands a good chance of succeeding. That would go a long way toward the Republican's' goal of keeping the economy bad until next year's election campaign is well underway.
Republican-proposal to ‘right our fiscal ship’ throws more workers overboard
Rebecca Thiess
Update:
Since this piece was posted last week, the magnitude of discretionary funding cuts for the duration of this fiscal year proposed by House Republican leadership has grown substantially, especially considering the short time frame for implementation. After the House Appropriations Committee detailed $74 billion in cuts last Wednesday, a number of conservative members demanded $26 billion in additional cuts to make good on the “Pledge to America,” bringing the total level of cuts relative to President Obama’s FY 2011 budget request to $100 billion. A full $100 billion cut to discretionary spending would likely result in job losses on the order of 994,000, using OMB’s GDP projections (CBO’s projections are based on current law) and assuming a fiscal multiplier of 1.5.
The new GOP budget proposes cutting non-security discretionary spending by $81 billion relative to the president’s $478 billion request for 2011. Non-security discretionary cuts of this magnitude would likely result in job losses of just over 800,000. (2/15/2011)
We aren't the only ones who see something wrong with this picture. The MSM is starting to point out that these Republican Emperors have no clothes.
This comes from the L.A. Times:
Criticism mounts as GOP presses ahead with budget cuts
House Republicans' plan to reduce 2011 spending by about $61 billion includes tax breaks for oil companies and cuts in medical research. The rollback could threaten thousands of jobs, to which one GOP leader says, 'So be it.'
February 16, 2011
Despite the political and economic risks, congressional Republicans are forging ahead with proposals for severe budget cuts this year, even though party leaders acknowledged the reductions could lead to job losses in the name of deficit reduction.
This strikes me as Speaker Boehner's Marie Antonette moment, "So be it." saying in effect "Let them Eat Cake". Republicans are heedless to the plight of working Americans. They must satisfy Grover Norquist and his Tea brained minions.
But Republicans also take the risk that the cuts will appear extreme, and GOP strategists privately worry about the tenuous link between spending cuts and voter concerns over job growth.
No shit? The last 30 years have shown that the Republicans' "tenuous link" between spending cuts and job creation is nothing but magical thinking to benefit uber-wealthy elites.
This Republican budget cutting Snake Oil failed miserably in the Reagan years. It failed disastrously when George W. Bush increased the dosage. Now the House Republicans are are prescribing a massive overdose of budget cut Snake Oil.