The government is reopening, and we didn’t default on our debt. Happy days are here again, right?[Bolds mine. - SB]
Well, no. For one thing, Congress has only voted in a temporary fix, and we could find ourselves going through it all over again in a few months. ...
... the economic damage from obstruction and extortion didn’t start when the G.O.P. shut down the government. ... And the damage is large: Unemployment in America would be far lower than it is if the House majority hadn’t done so much to undermine recovery.
...
Yet it would be a mistake to conclude that Macroeconomic Advisers overstated the case. The main driver of their estimates is the sharp fall since 2010 in discretionary spending as a share of G.D.P. — that is, in spending that, unlike spending on programs like Social Security and Medicare, must be approved by Congress each year. Since the biggest problem the U.S. economy faces is still inadequate overall demand, this fall in spending has depressed both growth and employment.
What’s more, the report doesn’t take into account the effect of other bad policies that are a more or less direct result of the Republican takeover in 2010. Two big bads stand out: letting payroll taxes rise, and sharply reducing aid to the unemployed even though there are still three times as many people looking for work as there are job openings. Both actions have reduced the purchasing power of American workers, weakening consumer demand and further reducing growth.
...
The damage is large. Some of the damage is permanent. Most of the damage falls on our society's most disadvantaged people. And Republicans are gearing up to do it all over again in a few months. Do you still insist "both sides do it"? I'm sorry; I don't care what pundit told you on what TV outlet, it's still a baldfaced lie. Republicans, and only Republicans, and only one species of Republicans, do it, damn them.
On the positive side, Prose Before Hos has gathered some great cartoons, and quotes the following tweet:
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