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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKRUGMAN Explains Sequestration: “This was designed to be stupid”
While the effect of the spending cuts would take time to manifest, Krugman told Schultz, they would definitely be felt by late 2013.
This is exactly what the doctor did not order, he said.
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If we would just stop cutting, the growth would probably keep going, Krugman answered. If spending had grown as fast in this recovery as it has in past recoveries, wed be spending something like $200 billion a year state, local and federal more, maybe $300 billion a year more. Maybe $300 billion a year more. Wed have about a million and a half more public sector workers than we do right now, because weve been laying them off at [an] unprecedented pace. So, I think $300 billion a year of additional spending would be appropriate and would mean, if we did it, that we would be pretty close to full employment at this point.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/01/paul-krugman-sequester-was-designed-to-be-stupid/
Skittles
(153,174 posts)DJ13
(23,671 posts)Im starting to think neither party wants full employment any longer, its bad for their corporate donors.
Buns_of_Fire
(17,191 posts)Sorry, but I've long since become totally unimpressed with the mental abilities of the so-called "leaders" in Washington.
I Cant Dance
(42 posts)is stupid enough? That seems like am impossible task.
Cleita
(75,480 posts)pointed heads together, they could come up with something.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)and Todd Akin, and you'd have stupidity and cruelty rolled into one!
TheKentuckian
(25,029 posts)No confidence at best. There are no white hats to be found here, the options range from willful malpractice to French Revolution reaction inducing wickedness.
saidsimplesimon
(7,888 posts)sad march to the bottom line by corporate America.
oldhippydude
(2,514 posts)if we had been dealing with Republicans, we would be a troublesome stain on radioactive slag.....
Cleita
(75,480 posts)n2doc
(47,953 posts)and the deficit would probably be lower than it is now.
This would not make the Republicans happy.
abelenkpe
(9,933 posts)But with or without the sequester the entire VFX industry has been decimated by offshoring with hundreds of animators and artists losing work in the last couple of years. It's picked up pace recently with studios gong bankrupt and in dreamworks case deciding to move to China. So personally, while I agree the sequester is stupid and unnecessary, the economy for myself and hundreds of my coworkers was NOT improving.
Now it just gets to be worse.
What we need is a massive wpa style jobs program, to end subsidies and tax incentives that send work overseas (leaving qualified experienced workers unemployed) and a single payer healthcare plan so that US workers aren't more expensive than workers in Canada, New Zealand, England and heck, everywhere else. Everything about our tax code and current employer based healthcare practically begs corporations and businesses to send jobs anywhere else in the world and rewards them for doing so. And good luck doing that when the house is controlled by Republicans.
We need to raise taxes on the wealthy who can afford to pay a bit more. And to cut defense spending. But no, some in government seem bent on cutting the remaining social programs oblivious to the fact that the 99 percent has already sacrificed and is continuing to do so.
Yay, Thank you Republicans for giving us a world of no hope for meaningful, secure jobs and no possible retirement.