Winning Progressive

By Josh Marks

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman’s new book “End This Depression Now!” has made him a popular progressive. His Keynesian ideas are as refreshing as mountain air after years of conservative deficit hawks punishing the American people and holding back the economic recovery with draconian cuts to the public sector. But while it is empowering to hear Krugman talk about how to really create jobs and grow the economy through government spending, many of us have been waiting for President Obama to go on the offensive and back the radical right-wing Republicans into a corner.

If his recent weekly address is any indication, Obama is getting the message. He is starting to pound away at the obstructionist Republicans for blocking his jobs legislation that would put a million teachers, firefighters and police officers back to work; and would put countless construction workers back on the job rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure — roads, bridges, rail, runways, broadband, piping, etc…

It’s working. In response, Mitt Romney actually came out against federal aid to state and local governments so they can hire back teachers, firefighters and police officers. Romney says “it’s time for us to cut back on government” by laying off more firefighters, police officers and teachers. And this isn’t just election year talk to appeal to the radical right-wing Republican base. Romney has a proven record of cutting the public sector and destroying jobs while governor of Massachusetts. In fact, when he left office the Bay State was 47th out of 50 states in job growth.

Krugman and other progressives need to keep the pressure on the Obama campaign to stay on the offensive about how public sector cuts are hurting the economic recovery. In turn, Obama can be emboldened knowing the people are behind him to box the obstructionist, do-nothing House Republicans and Romney into a corner and put them on the defensive for rejecting the majority of the $447 billion American Jobs Act proposed last September that would have put millions of Americans back to work and put us on a path to a more robust recovery. Last September, the President gave a speech to a joint session of Congress in which he mentioned “jobs” 38 times and repeatedly implored Congress to pass the bill right away.

And what was in the American Jobs Act?

– $50 billion on infrastructure projects and establishment of National Infrastructure Bank

– $35 billion to prevent more teachers, firefighters and police officers from being laid off

– $30 billion to modernize public schools and community colleges

– $15 billion for construction workers to rehabilitate foreclosed homes and businesses

– Expanding access to high-speed wireless service to at least 98% of Americans

– Funding Pathways Back to Work program for low-income youth and adults

Obama is right to go after the Republicans for rejecting the American Jobs Act. Pounding away at the GOP’s obstruction of this job creation legislation and telling the American people how public sector cuts are hurting the overall economy is the right thing to do politically and the right thing to do for the country.

Here is Obama in his own words in his weekly address last Saturday. This is the kind of message not just progressives, but all Americans can and should get behind:

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been talking a lot about America’s economic future. I’ve told you how I believe we should go about creating strong, sustained growth; how we should pay down our long-term debt in a balanced way; and most of all, what we should do right now to create good, middle-class jobs, so people who work hard can get ahead.

This isn’t some abstract debate or trivial argument. I’ve said that this is the defining issue of our time, and I mean it. I’ve said that this is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and I believe it. The decisions we make over the next few years will have an enormous impact on the country we live in, and the one we pass on to our children.

Right now, we’re still fighting our way back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The economy is growing again, but it’s not growing fast enough. Our businesses have created 4.3 million new jobs over the last 27 months, but we’re not creating them fast enough. And we’re facing some pretty serious headwinds – from the effects of the recent spike in gas prices, to the financial crisis in Europe.

But here’s the thing. We have the answers to these problems. We have plenty of big ideas and technical solutions from both sides of the aisle. That’s not what’s holding us back. What’s holding us back is a stalemate in Washington.

Last September, I sent Congress a jobs bill full of the kinds of bipartisan ideas that could have put over a million Americans back to work and helped bolster our economy against outside shocks. I sent them a plan that would have reduced our deficit by $4 trillion in a balanced way that pays for the investments we need by cutting unnecessary spending and asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little bit more in taxes.

Since then, Congress has passed a few parts of that jobs bill, like a tax cut that’s allowing working Americans to keep more of your paycheck every week. But on most of the ideas that would create jobs and grow our economy, Republicans in Congress haven’t lifted a finger. They’d rather wait until after the election in November. Just this past week, one of them said, “Why not wait for the reinforcements?” That’s a quote. And you can bet plenty of his colleagues are thinking the same thing.

I think that’s wrong. This isn’t about who wins or loses in Washington. This is about your jobs, your paychecks, your children’s future. There’s no excuse for Congress to stand by and do nothing while so many families are struggling. None.

Right now, Congress should pass a bill to help states put thousands of teachers, firefighters and police officers back on the job. They should have passed a bill a long time ago to put thousands of construction workers back to work rebuilding our roads and bridges and runways. And instead of just talking about job creators, they should give small-business owners a tax break for hiring more workers and paying them higher wages.

Right now, Congress should give every responsible homeowner the opportunity to save an average of $3,000 a year by refinancing their mortgage. They should extend tax credits for clean energy manufacturers so we don’t walk away from 40,000 good jobs. And instead of giving tax breaks to companies who ship jobs overseas, Congress should take that money and use it to cover moving expenses for companies that are bringing jobs back to America. There’s no reason to wait.

Every problem we face is within our power to solve. What’s lacking is our politics. Remind your Members of Congress why you sent them to Washington in the first place. Tell them to stop worrying about the next election and start worrying about the next generation. I’m ready to work with anyone – Republican, Democrat, or Independent – who is serious about moving this country forward. And I hope Members of Congress will join me.

Thanks, and have a great weekend.

(By Josh Marks, cross-posted at Green Forward)

Right now the disconnect between Washington’s political-media class and the American people is astounding. Somehow in the midst of this economic catastrophe, the conversation steered away from fiscal stimulus and job creation to deficits and spending cuts. Meanwhile, millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans continue struggling to make ends meet.

Along comes Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman with his new book “End This Depression Now!”. Since 2008, Krugman (and a few other courageous individuals like former Obama economic adviser Christina Romer and economist Joseph Stiglitz) has been a voice in the wilderness calling for bigger and bolder government intervention to stimulate job growth while political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic fail to meet the challenge of this economic crisis with timid half measures and awful austerity. In America, the Republican Party is ruled by anti-government hysteria and free-market fundamentalism.

Krugman is a disciple of 20th century British economist John Maynard Keynes, who advocated against austerity measures and for public spending to tackle unemployment during an economic downturn. Keynes’ magnum opus was “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money” and his ideas came to a successful realization during World War II when the U.S. government borrowed money and started massive wartime spending that eliminated unemployment and brought the economy roaring back.

WWII is what plowed America out of the Great Depression and shut up the deficit hawks of the time, the Hooverites who feared government intervention and put their faith in private industry to solve the Great Depression. No one wants another war, so Krugman often jokes that we need a fake alien invasion to rally the public behind more fiscal stimulus (although Krugman glaringly omits climate change and global warming as the very real threat that could be used to justify expansionary fiscal policy).

Krugman is critical of American and European leaders for failing to learn the lessons of the Great Depression. Of course Republican free market radicals like Alan Greenspan are hammered for deregulating Wall Street to the point where the bankers brought down the entire global economy. But also Ben Bernanke is singled out for not being forceful and creative enough at the Federal Reserve. And Krugman criticizes the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for not being big enough and not making a large dent in unemployment. He argues this made it harder to pass a second stimulus package because Republicans would wrongly argue that public spending doesn’t work. And President Obama is criticized for at times going along with the Republican narrative that deficits and spending cuts must be dealt with now, even though there is no evidence that approach works. In fact, spending cuts can actually prolong the recession and even potentially create a second recession.

But Krugman argues that there are simple solutions to these problems, and that if the right policies are put in place, unemployment could be significantly reduced in less than two years.

The first solution is a federal aid package to states and localities so they can start hiring back teachers, firefighters and other public employees. Krugman writes that with federal aid to reverse budget cuts, state and local governments could be spending $300 billion a year that would create more than a million direct jobs and possibly up to three million jobs when indirect effects are taken into account.

Upgrading the nation’s crumbling infrastructure is another area that could create millions of jobs. There are many delayed or canceled projects that could be restarted with fiscal stimulus — roads, bridges, rail, airports, water pipes, broadband cables and more. And of course if we are capable of still thinking big, there are visionary projects like clean energy, the smart grid and high-speed rail that could transform our inefficient passenger rail system into the best in the world (the Recovery Act committed $8 billion to high-speed rail, but more federal money is needed).

Other solutions include environmental regulations boosting the renewable energy sector and incentivizing energy efficiency upgrades; Bernanke’s Fed having “Rooseveltian resolve to do whatever is necessary” by being “aggressive and experimental”; fully addressing the housing crisis with robust debt relief for homeowners, “a program of mass refinancing”; and taking a tougher stance on China and other currency manipulators.

But what about the political will? It isn’t there right now, but can it be? Krugman devotes the last chapter to this subject. And he has some timely advice for President Obama as he enters a tough reelection fight:

“The experience of Obama’s first term suggests that not talking about jobs simply because you don’t think you can pass job-creation legislation doesn’t work even as a political strategy. On the other hand, hammering on the need for job creation can be good politics, and it can put enough pressure on the other side to bring about better policy too. Or to put it more simply, there is no reason not to tell the truth about this depression.”

For this weekend’s reading list we have articles on racial disparities in Presidential pardons, policy primers on state and federal spending, how economic inequality harms economic growth, the backlash against a Medal of Honor recipient who questioned military contractors selling technology to Pakistan, and the numerous problems with the killing of US citizen Anwar Al-Awlaki based on secret evidence.

If you have any feedback on these articles, or would like to recommend an article for next weekend’s reading list, please let us know at Winning Progressive’s Facebook page.

Presidential Pardons Heavily Favor Whites - a ProPublica investigation of Presidential pardons during the W. Bush Administration finds that whites are four times more likely to get pardoned than members of other racial groups, even when factors such as the type of crime or the length of the sentence are factored in.   The rest of ProPublica’s series on Presidential pardons can be found here.

Policy Basics: Where Do Our Federal Tax Dollars Go? – a great primer on how approximately 60% of federal spending goes towards military, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and 14% goes towards safety net programs.  A similar primer on state spending details how more than 50% of state spending goes towards education and Medicaid, with only 1% directed towards public assistance. 

The 1 Percent Club’s Misguided Protectors - an essay explaining how high levels of economic inequality in a society harms everyone by stunting economic growth.    

The Case of Dakota Meyer - how the first living Marine to receive the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War has allegedly been blacklisted from future employment with military contractors after raising concerns about their sales of military technology to Pakistan.

Killing Our Citizens Without Trial - the disturbing nature of the Obama Administration’s secret decision to kill a US citizen not on the battlefield in the “war on terror” based on evidence in a memo that remains secret.