Such as it is, I mean. But sheesh, if the Democratic Party isn't going to have a hair-on-fire moment about 10% unemployment, exactly what is the point of having a Democratic Party?
Krugman, this morning:
[T]his isn’t a recovery, in any sense that matters. And policy makers should be doing everything they can to change that fact.
The small sliver of truth in claims of continuing recovery is the fact that G.D.P. is still rising: we’re not in a classic recession, in which everything goes down. But so what?
The important question is whether growth is fast enough to bring down sky-high unemployment. We need about 2.5 percent growth just to keep unemployment from rising, and much faster growth to bring it significantly down. Yet growth is currently running somewhere between 1 and 2 percent, with a good chance that it will slow even further in the months ahead. Will the economy actually enter a double dip, with G.D.P. shrinking? Who cares? If unemployment rises for the rest of this year, which seems likely, it won’t matter whether the G.D.P. numbers are slightly positive or slightly negative.
All of this is obvious. Yet policy makers are in denial.
After its last monetary policy meeting, the Fed released a statement declaring that it “anticipates a gradual return to higher levels of resource utilization” — Fedspeak for falling unemployment. Nothing in the data supports that kind of optimism. Meanwhile, Tim Geithner, the Treasury secretary, says that “we’re on the road to recovery.” No, we aren’t.
As Cassandra Krugman points out, there isn't a whole lot the Dems can do in the way of legislation right now, but there are some limited actions that the Administration can take independently. As Krugman says, "It can revamp its deeply unsuccessful attempt to aid troubled homeowners. It can use Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored lenders, to engineer mortgage refinancing that puts money in the hands of American families." And the Administration can and should lean on the Fed to do everything it can, regardless of prospects for success.
Finally, the very least that the Dems can do is pound at the GOP legislative roadblock 24/7 between now and the election. If the Dems don't propose anything, then the GOP doesn't have to block anything, and both sides look exactly the same to the typical low-information voter. Every Dem worth his or her salt should be deeply angry about the fact that the GOP refuses to let them help ordinary Americans, and should be expressing that anger every time they have a TV camera on them or a microphone in front of them.
And they need to craft legislation - big legislation, dammit, no pussyfooting around - that would get money into people's pockets, and put people back to work. Let's have aid to states, food stamps, further unemployment aid extensions, and every unsexy infrastructure investment we're going to have do do sometime anyway: legislation that would repair or replace every last aging, crumbling water or sewer system in this country, that would rebuild a few thousand of our most dangerous crumbling highway bridges, and that would remove some of the major bottlenecks in our freight rail system (e.g. Chicago, Baltimore) and build freight lines on major transportation corridors where existing freight lines are either inadequate (e.g. I-95 in the Southeast) or nonexistent (I-81).
We're gonna have to do this stuff anyway. So it's insane not to do it now, and put people to work at a time when far too many people simply can't find a job. And that's what every Democrat in Congress, or running for Congress, ought to be saying right now. Over and over again, loudly, at the top of their lungs. On every damned Sunday talk show, every damned week. And making the GOP block debate on such legislation, over and over again.
Finally, they ought to promise that if they're still in control of Congress in January, they'll end the filibuster so that they can pass this legislation whether the Republicans like it or not.
And it wouldn't hurt if, on top of this, Obama shut down the silly (and potentially dangerous) Catfood Commission. If there was ever a time to talk about cutting Social Security benefits or raising the retirement age, it certainly isn't now. Obama should say so, clearly and unambiguously, and send them home.
Let's at least give people something to vote for, okay? Because if the Dems keep treating this moment like it was no big deal - the GOP's blocking everything, there's nothing we can do, so we're just not going to treat unemployment as an issue - then the Dems will lose control of at least one house of Congress, maybe both, this November, no matter how terrible the GOP is.
Sure, people like us will support the Dems, no matter what. But think on this: during his 1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out to Adlai E Stevenson 'Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!' Stevenson called back 'That's not enough, madam, we need a majority!' We, too, need a majority. And we're damned sure not going to get one unless we are visibly fighting for that majority. If the Dems aren't fighting for those who are hurting from our continuing economic troubles, then the people who should be voting Democratic probably won't vote Republican, but they may well just give up, drift off, and conclude that neither side is worth voting for, so why bother?
It's hard to blame them. And that's the danger here.
Recent Comments