THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 176, July 16, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
FLATLINING THE ECONOMY
By Alan Caruba
WHAT IS REQUIRED TO TURN THE AMERICAN ECONOMY AROUND & ACHIEVE BOTH ECONOMIC RECOVERY & ECONOMIC
GROWTH: REDUCE TAXES, REDUCE GOVERNMENT SPENDING, PUSH FOR DEREGULATION TO REDUCE THE COSTS OF DOING
BUSINESS, & EXERCISE RESTRAINT WITH MONETARY POLICIES -- NO CHANCE OF JOB GROWTH IN AMERICA UNTIL
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, HIS FAR-LEFT ADMINISTRATION, & THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY LIBERAL MAJORITY IN THE U.S.
SENATE ARE GONE & GENUINE CONSERVATIVES OF SUPPLY-SIDE ECONOMIC PERSUASION FIRMLY CONTROL THE
PRESIDENCY & BOTH CHAMBERS OF THE U.S. CONGRESS -- UNTIL THEN, WHAT TO EXPECT: CONTINUED LOSS OF
THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN JOBS, AS INDUSTRY CONTINUES TO MOVE MANUFACTURING TO FOREIGN COUNTRIES WHERE
THERE ARE LOWER CORPORATE TAXES & LESS REGULATORY DRAG
FULL STORY:
As is well known, I am an expert on practically everything. This is why I am obscenely wealthy, sought after by the major
media, and am an object of desire, even in my early 70s. And! I have a bridge to Brooklyn to sell you!
Despite my shortcomings, I can and I will share with you a bit of economic forecasting that takes no great genius to detect.
The U.S. economy is going to flatline all the way through the next election in November, 2012. It’s going nowhere and
prospects thereafter are dim as well.
Millions of Americans, including those so deluded to think that a guy who had never run a business in his life could
actually run a nation, put him in the White House. Let me rephrase that. He has run a nation…right into the ground.
It doesn’t matter if you think he’s a Marxist, a Muslim, a narcissist, a sociopath, or any other name for his behavior. The fact
is no one is going to spend a dime more than necessary until he’s out of office and on a plane back to Chicago, Hawaii or
Kenya, as of January, 2013.
Take, for example, the news on July 8, 2011, that unemployment had risen to a six-month high of 9.2%. Non-farm payrolls
had risen to just 18,000 in June. Peter Ferrara, a senior fellow for Entitlement and Budget Policy at The Heartland Institute,
responded to the news saying, “Since the Great Depression, recessions on average in America have lasted 10 months, with
the longest previously being 16 months. Yet, here we are 42 months, or 3 ˝ years, after the recession started, and
unemployment is still rising.”
Historically, noted Ferrara, “the deeper the recession the stronger the recovery. Instead, we are suffering no real recovery
at all.”
No recovery!
If Obama and the moronic economic advisors he brought into office with him — only Treasury Secretary Geithner remains
--- wanted to turn the economy around, all they had to do was cut tax rates, cut government spending, push for
deregulation to reduce the costs of doing business, and exercise restraint with monetary policies. They did none of this.
Instead, they doubled-down with a massive, failed “stimulus” program, cash for clunkers, and comparable measures.
Obama’s policies are mostly oriented toward public service unions and others that have been sucking billions out of public
treasuries to such an extent that they have bankrupted entire states. Their private industry counterparts have virtually
destroyed industries such as the auto manufacturers.
Then, too, there’s the regime’s preference to buy votes from the least productive elements of the population. On July 12,
the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it had awarded “more than $1.9 billion to public
housing authorities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rice, and the U.S. Virgin islands.”
The money is allegedly intended to “build, repair, renovate, and/or modernize the public housing in their communities,”
but Secretary Shaun Donovan asserted that “Housing Authorities need nearly $26 billion to keep these homes safe and
decent for families, but given our budget realities, we must find other, innovative ways to confront the decline of our
public housing stock.” Yeah, sure, but can we even afford the $1.9 billion being shelled out? No. It has to be borrowed, just
like 40 cents of every dollar the government spends.
The reality is that this government keeps shelling out billions at a time, when the big debate is whether to raise the debt
ceiling!
The U.S. government is leaking billions. Just watch C-Span on any given evening as the Senators and Representatives
discuss and vote on the expenditure of millions for everything short of another trip to the moon. It’s like watching drunks
ordering a new round of drinks for everyone in the bar.
The GOP is not going to allow the U.S.A. to default on its debts. There is sufficient revenue coming into the government
to avoid that. The debt ceiling will be raised.
So long as President Obama keeps blathering about corporate jets, millionaires and billionaires and all the usual efforts to
blame “the rich” (now considered to be anyone earning $200,000 a year), those who generate jobs are going to keep as
much of their earnings as possible and, for businesses, that means hiring as few people as possible.
There will be no chance of job growth until Obama is gone, but, overall, the U.S.A. is losing jobs by the thousands as
industry moves manufacturing overseas. Since 2001, the U.S.A. has lost approximately 43,000 factories. Why? Lower
corporate taxes, less regulatory drag.
The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are living in poverty, the highest number of poor Americans in
the 5l years such records have been maintained. As of November, 2010, 14% were using food stamps, 43.6 million
Americans.
Look at any statistical chart about the U.S. economy today, and these ugly truths leap out at you.
---------------------------------------------------------
© Alan Caruba, 2001
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Fiscal Policy: Taxation & Government Spending
The U.S. Constitution & the American Economic Order:
Civil Liberties -- Private Property Rights
Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at Warning Signs, his popular blog -- and thereafter on dozens of other
websites and blogs. His monthly report on new books is posted at Bookviews.
A business and science writer, Caruba is the Founder of The National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information
about "scare campaigns" designed to influence public opinion and policy.
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity