Conventional wisdom has it that Democratic candidates will suffer in November if the jobless rate is still stuck at 9.5 percent.
This is curious, since the Dems were the ones to pass programs to lessen the job losses from this Great Recession that hit just before Barack Obama's election, such as the $800-plus billion job stimulus program, as well as work to extend unemployment compensation and the like.
The rescue of General Motors and Chrysler saved hundreds of thousands of jobs and, in truth, saved Detroit and the U.S. auto industry. Without those acts, the unemployment rate would now be near 15 percent. Republicans in Congress have been united in voting against these job-saving and creating acts.
More than 6 million people lost their jobs in the past two years, at no fault of their own. With one in six Americans unemployed, working short hours or settling for minimum-wage jobs, why should the Republican Party candidates, who display no interest in the idea of a safety net, get a majority of the vote? It sure wasn't that way during the 1930s Depression.
Are the voters stupid enough to reward the party that brags about doing nothing other than reducing taxes on the well-off as their solution to recovery? We'll see.
Victor Reilly
Aiken, S.C.
Victor, ‘It sure wasn't that way during the 1930s Depression.’
Your are correct and that is the reason we had the GREAT depression and Hussein is taking us that way again if we don't stop him.
Wasn't the "Great Depression" brought on by fast and loose play on Wall Street before the establishment of the Securities Exchange Commission? Lot of speculating on the "margin" as it was called in those days? History has a habit of repeating itself.
Victor: If the Dimbos have created jobs, then why are MILLIONS still unemployed????? As for the "stimulus" package, the only thing that got stimulated what the banks coffers because they are still sitting on their handouts. As for bailing out the auto manufacturers, what a bunko story that is; here is Ford, who took none of the government "stimulus" and look at how they have done (quite well, thank you very much--and more than GMC can say) as opposed to those who took the scam money. I am not a Ford person, but when I purchase my next car, it won't be from a company that took the big Os blood money. Ford looks better every day in my book! As for "saving jobs in Detroit," I wouldn't go up there and tell those folks that--because their unemployment rate has gotten larger, not smaller.
dwb619, ‘Wasn't the "Great Depression" brought on by fast and loose play on Wall Street before the establishment of the Securities Exchange Commission?’
The "Great Depression" was brought on by policies of FDR. The world had a depression in the 30s but the US had a GREAT depression thanks to FDR. We are headed for another one if we don’t stop the idiots running our guvamint, DUMocrats and repuds.
dwb619, ‘Wasn't the "Great Depression" brought on by fast and loose play on Wall Street before the establishment of the Securities Exchange Commission?’
That is what we have been told but it is not true.
In 2004 two UCLA economists say they figured out why the Great Depression dragged on for almost 15 years, and they blame a suspect previously thought to be beyond reproach: President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
After scrutinizing Roosevelt 's record for four years, Harold L. Cole and Lee E. Ohanian conclude in a study that New Deal policies signed into law 71 years ago thwarted economic recovery for seven long years.
"Why the Great Depression lasted so long has always been a great mystery, and because we never really knew the reason, we have always worried whether we would have another 10- to 15-year economic slump," said Ohanian, vice chair of UCLA's Department of Economics. "We found that a relapse isn't likely unless lawmakers gum up a recovery with ill-conceived stimulus policies." Remember this was in 2004.
FDR did one sure thing for the depression he put the GREAT in it.
Politicians of that era could see the harm that FDR had done and in 1947 passed the Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution that prohibits a president from serving more than 2 terms.
The dems are great at creating jobs alright --- taxpayer funded, money sucking government jobs!The private jobs the dems claim they saved with the stimulus packages cost about $400,000 per job. Wow, money well spent.
In reality though, no politician can create a real job. All they can do is provide a pro-business environment that encourages private business to create jobs. That does not exist right now, in fact quite the opposite has occured. This anti capitalist administration and congress has sucked the life right out of private industry.
Vic, you've hit the nail right on the head! But I'm afraid that you are correct twice because the dumb & delusional electorate has once again fallen head first for the populace rhetoric. In 2004 it was the gays and the family values; and today it's the Mosque and the moaning and complaining. I thought America was better than that, but I'm afraid that they are not. If the GOP returns to power by taking over the House, it will be a repeat of 1994. They will do things that by 2020 will have another democratic President and control of both houses again. I'm for cutting taxes too, and I agree with the GOP on that (except for the rich), but they can never control spending. Those boys & girls know how to shop & spend. But they are dumb enough to do it when they have little or no income. Isn't that how the country got into this mess in the first place? You betcha, wink, wink!
Time may heal all wounds, as the saying goes, but it obviously dulls the senses as well. FDR had Americans jumping through the same hoops as the current great incompetent. Trouble is, a decade following the Wall Street crash, we were still looking for a way out of the crushing depression. It finally ended when we entered World War II and had to mobilize the entire country and economy to support the war effort. FDR didn't get us out of the economic doldrums any more than the poser we have in the Oval Office now.
Saved Detroit!!!! Reilly you have written some stupid things but this LTE is unbelievable. Detroit, MI has the highest unemployment in the nation not to mention a crime rate to go along with the unemployment. And liberals wonder why they are made fun of by the GOP. GOOD LORD!!!!
chillen: 'This anti capitalist administration and congress has sucked the life right out of private industry.' I kindly disagree sir. Pro no regulation capitalist financiers are to blame. Greenspan said so well as he hung his head in shame at a committee hearing last year: 'I was wrong about self regulation of the financial markets'. Mr. Greenspan thought that good men did not need any government oversight. Well they did and we the people now suffer because of their incompetence. We have in Washington the best government money can buy, on both sides of the aisle.
The best things created by Democrats is their "talking points". They can create some lu lus.
Actually, chascush, the two UCLA economists did not find any such thing; they were complaining about FDR's failure to enforce antitrust laws. Read the whole article instead of just cribbing the press release. Actually, even the press release is enough to put the lie to your post. Your post is just another case of a conservative misquoting someone for their own purposes. Shame on you.
Actually, no, as has become usual in the last couple of years, the conservative talking points are fact-free. The Depression did not hit its worst points under FDR; not even close. The Depression hit its lowest point just before FDR took office and there was a reasonably steady improvement after he took office, with one extra dip that didn't even compare with the disaster that Hoover and his conservatives created. Here's a chart showing the Dow-Jones. (Note that FDR took office in March 1933.) http://stockcharts.com/charts/historical/djia19201940.html
Although the jobs haven't returned, corporate profits surely have and, at $1.2 trillion annually, are now higher than they were at the height of the bubble. It turns out that companies have found ways to produce as much as they ever did, but with fewer workers. As a result, over the past year, output for each hour worked rose more than 6 percent, even as average hourly earnings have risen less than 2 percent. The rest of those productivity gains have gone straight to the bottom line, creating a record stash of cash on corporate balance sheets.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/29/AR201007...
Charliemanson has discovered the secret of capitalism, innovation. If a resource becomes scarce or to expensive find an economically alternative plan. Obama and the Democrates have made having employees more expensive. Time and time again this has happened. Obama PROMISED, you know read my lips, gave an oath, a solemn procolmation,dun said, (how ever you want to phrase it) that unemployment would not reach 8.8% if the stimulus package was passed. Obama owns those unemployment numbers, he bought them with your, your children's and your grandchildren's tax dollars. Building windmills in China will not help our unemployment. Paying union thugs money to close plants won't increase employment. By the way, the economy takes a dive every so many years. During the stock market crash just before Bush the younger took office Greenspan talked about the irrational exhuberance for the stock market. this time the housing market was over valued (brought on by government policies that loaned money to people who could not afford them) and crashed. Happens every 8 to 10 years. These cyclic recessions and depressions are called market adjustments. Every body paniced on this one and has really messed up. The health care (well know whats in it when we read it), bill is killing jobs,. employers don't know if they can hire people and keep a profit margin with the increased employer costs related to the health care bill. If government can declare salaries as being to high what can't government do? The final issue is the fact that if all this business regulation is good why aren't Fannie May and Freddie Mac (who will cost us about over 300 billion dollars www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/business/20foreclose.html in the years to come) being regulated? OH! Obama and Barney Frank thinks they are just fine and don't need to be regulated dispite the fact that they were instrumental in the housing market crash because they guaranteed loans!! LOL Democratic logic on parade!!
Question (2 parts): 1), How many Board Members, CEO's, Executive Managers, etc. are in the banking and manufacturing industries? 2) How many of the Captains of Industry and Commerce are liberals?
Question (1 part): 1) How many of the above would deliberately sabotage this administration by freezing employment opportunities in America while expanding manufacturing and employment overseas?
Question (2 parts): 1) Are the Senators and Representatives of the party of "NO!" doing anything to counter the influence of the Captains of Industry that are economically burying America as this administration struggles to turn the tide of economic disaster? And 2 “Are the voters stupid enough to reward the party that brags about doing nothing other than reducing taxes on the well-off as their solution to recovery?”
I believe they are; and in IMHO, your answer could surely indicate that you should be charged with sedition.
GGpap
Dems create jobs? Is that why unemployment is almost 10% and climbing? I'm not following your logic.
Gpap got it! Companies are not hiring people just to make Obama look bad! That's got to be it. They aren't interested in making profit.....just being mean!
Reducing taxes on the well off? You mean ALL the taxpayers like Bush did? Are you saying that ALL taxpayers are well off?
rheteor as usually you are wrong ...if you gage FDR by the stock market then you gage GW by the same standards ..the height of the stock market was during GW time in office.. FDR did indeed prolong the depression which in the USA lasted about twice as long as the rest of the world..it was govt interference in the economy that made a mess of things. unemployment actually was higher in the mid thirties to late thirties after govt intervention..money does not magically appear ..you take it from the producers and it will directly affect the economy..and if you print and borrow at the rate obama is doing now..heaven help us in a couple of years..our great depression will look like an OBAMA white house party.
ToT, "They aren't interested in making profit...just being mean?"
Obviously, you believe that ALL overseas business interests are "money losers." I think you're not being realistic!
And yes, those "earning" (and I say the latter tongue in cheek) $250,000 annually are certainly NOT dumpster diving in order to feed their families.
GGpap
Bush tax cuts were for ALL taxpayers....when they expire, taxes will go up for EVERYONE....not just those making over $250,000 as you seem to imply.
Madness.
You do not "create" jobs by taxing the money away from families and entrepreneurs and turning over to government bureaucrats who take 10% off the top for their own salaries and the misallocate what is left.
Victor, as long as you rely on PBS, the AP and the like for your information, you'll only parrot the far left leaning perspective of big government and the unions. Unfortunately, you'll also come across as foolishly misinformed.
To deny the economic efforts by the "progressive" left is having a negative effect on this country is to ignore the facts and the history of previous efforts, both in this country and in Europe.
Easily tricked people, socialism doesn't work ... and it certainly doesn't work as well as capitalism and the market forces.
ToT, I do not believe that folks earning $80,000 or less will be significantly effected by dicontinuing the Bush tax cuts; and I know that the real folks that cannot afford tax icreases (25,000-30,000 or less) will not be affected.
And Dixieman: you argue apples and oranges. Government bureaucrats "milk" the tax revenue no matter the percentage of individual or corporate tax that is collected.
Constitutional Amendments and TOTAL voter rebellion against ALL incumbents are the only thing that "may" deal with the problem you cite. Sadly, I must say, don't hold your breath, sir.
Every single taxpayers taxes will go up. You don't consider that significant? Especially when Obama said our taxes won't go up one dime.....another of his lies.
Why don't you "believe" they won't be significantly affected? On what are you basing that belief?
And I notice the standard for "well off" keeps dropping...........now it's $80,000?
Look at our current economic condition and look at how it has "progressed" since the takeover by the radical left.
Is this how you wish to live and have your descendants live?
Do you really dislike the American exceptionalism that has drawn people from all over the world to move and invest here? This is what obama is killing.
The only reason the current unemployment rate is called 9.5% is because those no longer drawing unemployment and those working at grossly underemployed jobs are not counted.
The Bush policies allowed a 4.5% rate and the only reason it wasn't lower is because subsidy programs provide an option too many choose.
Are things really better wearing the obama collar?
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