Deficit Messyfit: It Is the Jobs Stupid

Robert Reich is dead on as usual in keeping the focus in the right place. Grandpas and Grandmas will always lament about the future burden we will place on future generations; they said the same the same thing when I was a kid. But it is not the point in a sagging economy. Governments should be spending during a time of recession and recoup those losses during the good times (admittedly we don’t do a very good job of the later.) This is basic macroeconomics, not the economics of the home (however, sometimes it is, i.e. student loans). If we concentrate on getting jobs, good jobs not just minimum wage ones that will generate taxes so we can reasonably pay down the deficit. Decreasing debt in a weak economy is akin to shooting yourself in the foot.

As Reich points out in the 1990’s Clinton balanced the budget and had a surplus because they had faster job growth than expected. This is where some countries in Europe are screwing up; they are reducing debt during recessions causing fiscal crises.

Another red herring is taxing the rich slows the economy. Just listen to Bill Gates, and the other billionaires who are telling us to tax them. 

I do not understand why more is not made of the inequity of wealth in this country. That happened because of government deregulation and to the detriment of middle and lower classes.

Another area we constantly ignore is the cost of healthcare which really stops fiscal growth. Entrepreneurs should be clamoring for national health care not opposing it; it is against their own interests.

Leave misdirection to the football field, the economy is more than a game.