When President Obama took office, the previous Bush administration bequeathed to him an imploded economy that was bleeding out 780,000 jobs each month. With the private sector having added 2.2 million jobs over the past year, there is no doubt that the president has been effective in stabilizing the economy and sustaining relatively small but consistent job growth.
Despite the president’s good economic record, America should be shocked to know that we could have at least 2.2 million more jobs if the Republican Party had not dug in its heels and done everything in their power to impede economic growth and prolong the Bush Recession.
Breaking tradition with over 50 years of Keynesian economic policies, today’s federal government is acting very unlike its historical self. Normally, following a depression, our federal government will boost government employment and spending in order to offset the drop in private sector production.
However, since the modern Republican Party is trying to drive the American economy into a ditch in order to score political points and dismantle the government, America’s state, local, and federal government employment has declined by 89,000 within the past year, including significant losses to teachers and emergency responders.
By forcing the sequestration upon the American people, the across-the-board budget cuts to discretionary spending that took effect on March 1st will negatively impact the public sector and the recovery even further. Forecasters at the Congressional Budget Office project that the sequester could reduce yearly GDP growth in the United States by .6% and cost economy 750,000 jobs by the end of 2013.
According to a new study published by the Brooking Institution’s The Hamilton Project, today’s Republican assault on public sector employment during the aftermath of an economic recession is unprecedented, leading specifically to 2.2 million fewer jobs relative to what would have occurred if the policy response had been typical of the five preceding recessions.
Image courtesy of Mother Jones
The Obama Administration’s economic policies were able to stop the U.S. from hemorrhaging jobs and started producing net increases starting in March 2010. The economy has added jobs every single month since then, a total of approximately 6.8 million jobs. Unfortunately, the Republicans have forced the public sector to contract, and instead of adding to jobs during a time of economic peril when citizens need our government the most, it has shed 625,000 jobs in the same period.
By forcing austerity measures down the throats of the American people, today’s Republican Party is purposely ignoring decades of empirical data and nearly every respected economist in an un-American ploy to bring down the President and dismantle the government on behalf of corporations.
The good thing is, the American people will remember in 2014.
Watch President Obama, Rachel Maddow and Paul Krugman call Republicans out for their public sector attack here:
