Isaiah J. Poole at the Campaign for America’s Future writes—Stoke Job Growth Or Choke It? The GOP Makes The Wrong Choice Again:
The response by the Republican-controlled and deeply conservative House Budget Committee later that day was to ignore a growing chorus of economists from around the globe who are saying that it is more important for the federal government to spend smartly on rebuilding the middle class and on the fundamentals needed by a 21st-century economy than to bull-headedly try to balance the federal budget by an arbitrary date, regardless of the consequences.
In that context, the People’s Budget formally released this week by the Congressional Progressive Caucus is not a symbolic exercise. It is central to a debate that the country must have to challenge economic thinking in both political parties that is keeping people who need work from getting it and is choking our economy’s ability to grow. [...]
[T]he Democratic leadership is not using this as an opportunity to push the boundaries of the budget debate and tap into the growing consensus of economists – not just among liberal economists in the United States but economic experts around the globe – that we need more, not less, federal spending on the fundamentals of economic growth in order to head off a recession, or at least better weather one if it comes.
That task is being taken on by the Progressive Caucus People’s Budget, which is expected to be debated on the House floor in early April.
The emerging pro-growth economic consensus was most recently highlighted by a Bloomberg News article about “a school of dissident economists” who would like to see the U.S. and other governments get off their fixation over the size of their budget deficits and instead focus on using government spending to accelerate growth and create jobs.
“Calls for governments to take over the relief effort are growing louder. Plenty of economists have joined in, and so have top money managers. Bridgewater’s Ray Dalio, head of the world’s biggest hedge fund, and Janus Capital’s Bill Gross say policy makers are cornered and will have to resort to bigger deficits,” Bloomberg reported.
The formal name of the theory these economists are turning to is “modern money theory.” Where many economists and politicians, including President Obama, say that governments are much like households and should not spend more than they earn, modern money theorists say that governments that print their own currency, as the United States does, do not have to budget the way that households do. They can print money to finance their spending, and their deficits, and should do so in order to push the economy to its productive limits. [...]
To declare yourself a citizen co-sponsor of the People’s Budget, and to show Congress that the ideas in the People’s Budget have broad support, sign this petition that will be delivered to Congress when the House begins floor debate.
If it’s green growth, sustainable growth, the kind of growth that, for example, transforms global energy into a low-carbon system, then it’s a definite plus. But just shifting growth for growth’s sake shackled to monopoly capitalism is not even a short-term solution to our economic problems.
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127 women branded as witches, killed in Jharkhand
The women were murdered in the Indian state of Jharkhand between 2012-14 after being branded as witches, said the Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary during a session of the Indian parliament. Such killings usually take place in rural communities. Villagers using sticks, knives and sometimes stones murder women who they claim have cast spells and curses leading to poor harvests, illness or other misfortune. To avoid police scrutiny, the murders are often disguised as longstanding family feuds or land disputes.
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BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—$90 billion for war:
Bush will ask Congress for $90B for War after the shooting starts. And, that number assumes just one month of combat. While some of that money would go to homeland security and aid to Israel, the bulk of it—over $80 billion, would be for combat operations.
This expense will push the budget deficit well into the $400 billion range, and that's assuming a short war. The occupation and reconstruction will likely cost hundreds of billions more, not all of it recoverable by Iraqi oil revenues.
And Bush's plan to pay for it all? More tax cuts.
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On today's Kagro in the Morning show, Armando previews his Sunday Kos account of his foray into the Trumpster lion’s den, at the Boca Raton, Florida, rally. More about what’s under the hood in the GOP (or Dem, really) convention machine: the mechanics of how to change a nomination outcome.
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