“..The question at the core of America’s upcoming election isn’t merely whose story most voting Americans believe to be true -
- Mitt Romney’s claim that the economy is in a stall and Obama’s policies haven’t worked -
- or Barack Obama’s that it’s slowly mending and his approach is working.
If that were all there was to it, last Friday’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing the economy added only 96,000 jobs in August -
- below what’s needed merely to keep up with the growth in the number of eligible workers -
- would seem to bolster Romney’s claim.
But, of course, congressional Republicans have never even given Obama a chance to try his approach.
They’ve blocked everything he’s tried to do -
- including his proposed Jobs Act that would help state and local governments replace many of the teachers, police officers, social workers, and fire fighters they’ve had to let go over the last several years.
The deeper question is what should be done starting in January to boost a recovery that by anyone’s measure is still anemic.
In truth, not even the Jobs Act will be enough.
At the Republican convention in Tampa, Florida, Romney produced the predictable set of Republican bromides: cut taxes on corporations and the already rich -
- cut government spending (mainly on the lower-middle class and the poor) -
- and gut business regulations.
It’s the same supply-side nonsense that got the economy into trouble in the first place.
Corporations won’t hire more workers just because their tax bill is lower and they spend less on regulations.
In case you hadn’t noticed, corporate profits are up.
Most companies don’t even know what to do with the profits they’re already making..”
(cont..)
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Robert Reich: The Biggest Economic Challenge of Obama’s Second Term.
