The Optimism Cure and Romney's Substance-Free Economic Plan - Opinion Piece

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In fairness to Mr. Romney, his assertion that electing him would spontaneously spark an economic boom is consistent with his party’s current economic dogma. Republican leaders have long insisted that the main thing holding the economy back is the “uncertainty” created by President Obama’s statements — roughly speaking, that businesspeople aren’t investing because Mr. Obama has hurt their feelings. If you believe that, it makes sense to argue that changing presidents would, all by itself, cause an economic revival.



There is, however, no evidence supporting this dogma. Our protracted economic weakness isn’t a mystery; it’s what normally happens after a major financial crisis. Furthermore, business investment has actually recovered fairly strongly since the official recession ended. What’s holding us back is mainly the continued weakness of housing combined with a vast overhang of household debt, the legacy of the Bush-era housing bubble.



By the way, in saying that our prolonged slump was predictable, I’m not saying that it was necessary. We could and should have greatly reduced the pain by combining aggressive fiscal and monetary policies with effective relief for highly indebted homeowners; the fact that we didn’t reflects a combination of timidity on the part of both the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve, and scorched-earth opposition on the part of the G.O.P.
But Mr. Romney, as I said, isn’t offering anything substantive to fight the slump, just a reprise of the usual slogans. And he has denounced the Fed’s belated effort to step up to the plate.

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Muddy Creek said:

The Optimism Cure and Romney's Substance-Free Economic Plan | Common Dreams



The man NEVER has anything to offer of substance except the same failed republican policies of the last 30 years. The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

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MaggieD said:

Please list what Obama's plans are for the next four years. I'll wait. Please provide that list from a credible source. Not flapping gums.

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MaggieD said:

Please list what Obama's plans are for the next four years. I'll wait. Please provide that list from a credible source. Not flapping gums.

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Bookmark
Obama's Economic Plan, Healthcare, The Recession, Reagan & The Middle Class

Obama for the win
Welcome to Obama FTW: your source for political news regarding our current president. Here you will find facts and trends that are common knowledge among mainstream economists but rarely make their way into our allegedly liberal media.
Obama Economic Plan - 2012 & 2013

Obama has recently reintroduced the American Jobs Act (filibustered by Republicans in late 2011). The plan has received appraisals from independent private sector agencies like Moody’s Analytics who forecasted the jobs plan would create up to 1.9 million jobs and Macroeconomic Advisers whose estimate was 1.3 million jobs.
The American Jobs Act (PDF)

1. Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow
2. Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America
3. Pathways Back to Work for Americans Looking for Jobs.
4. Tax Relief for Every American Worker and Family

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Obama explaning his jobs plan


Paying for the American Jobs Act

The American Jobs Act would be paid for by slightly raising taxes on millionaires (this is largely based on Warren Buffett's "Millionaire Tax"). This is a reasonable method considering the lowered tax burden on the wealthy and the concentration of wealth that has occured over the last 30 years. The GOP economic plan has been a failure, but their alternative is a more extreme version of the same failed economic politices of the last 30 years. And while private sector analysis of Obama's jobs plan has been positive, the same analysis shows that Mitt Romney's jobs plan will be a failure.

Read More:

• Jeffrey Liebman: Republicans Are Blocking Obama's Jobs Plan
• American Jobs Act (full text)
• Obama has a Jobs Plan. Romney Doesn't
• American Jobs Act Summary
• Obama Jobs Plan vs Romney Jobs Plan
• President Obama / Mitt Romney
• Romney's Jobs plan would create jobs overseas
• Romney's Tax Plan taxes the middle class
• Republicans Are Blocking Obama's Jobs Plan
• Obama's Economic and Jobs Plans

Timeline of Obama’s Jobs Plan: The American Jobs Act

• 9/8/11 – Obama introduces his jobs plan: the American Jobs Act
• 9/8/11 - Macroeconomic Advisers predicts the American Jobs Act would create 1.3 million Jobs
• 9/9/11 - Moody’s Analytics states the American Jobs Act would create 1.9 million Jobs
• 10/13/11 – Republicans filibuster the jobs plan
• 6/7/2012 – Romney claims Obama has no obs plan
• 6/12/2012 -Mark Hopkin, a senior adviser at Moody's Analytics claims Romney's Jobs plan “would push us deeper into recession and make the recovery slower.”

A quick note on irony: While Mitt Romney continues to criticize Obama for jobs lost under his first few months in office, a video of Romney defending his jobs record as Massachusetts governer actually provides a rebuttal to his own arguments.

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Although the presidential fight between Barack Obama and his opponent Mitt Romney has been almost universally focused on jobs and the economy, education is another campaign talking point that voters are paying close attention to as November approaches. On Thursday (August 23), a nationwide conference call was held by the Obama campaign to shift the focus away from jobs for a moment and take Romney to task for his stance on education. SEE ALSO: Study Finds Negative Media Bias In Obama, Romney Coverage
Opening his education report by saying his current stance is an “economic necessity,” Obama wisely listed how his efforts contrast greatly with Romney in the report and adds a new wrinkle to the debate. Democratic strategist Melody Barnes and Florida Congresswoman Frederica Wilson helmed the conference call, laying out how President Obama intends to reinforce the economy by making a stronger commitment to education.
Since day one, President Obama has set our nation on a forward course through stronger schools and better teachers. But as we’re seeing out on the campaign trail – and through his record as governor, Mitt Romney would take us backward and undo all the progress we’ve made for millions of African-American students, said Barnes.
Barnes was direct in her criticism of the Romney-Ryan ticket, most specifically on Romney’s differing stances on educational measures such as private-school vouchers and the size of classrooms and prepping young students for college. With a focus on the ills of the well-meaning but ineffective No Child Left Behind law, Obama’s plan is most certainly geared toward all American students, but there is an even deeper investment in African-American students considering the educational disparity between minorities and Whites.
Rep. Wilson, a former educator, spoke from the unique perspective of someone who has seen the inner workings of the classroom and highlighted what needs to be changed:
The President believes education has to be a commitment from cradle to career, especially for the African-American community…. His college tax credit is helping millions of students and families pay for college – last year it helped more than 9 million students and families save on tuition. That’s going to help 200,000 more African-American students go to college over the next decade. As our economy recovers, we need a President who understands that education is an investment in our future – an economic necessity that should be within the reach of every family, not a luxury for just a few, said Rep. Wilson.
When asked in what precise ways President Obama intends to assist African-American students, especially those residing within urban centers, Barnes was clear that the administration is committed to showing equity between poor and affluent districts.
The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans was also mentioned on the call and within the report, further cementing that commitment to Black students nationwide. Rep. Wilson reinforced an earlier point referencing Obama’s “Educate to Innovate” campaign, which is geared toward improving student performance in critical STEM classes nationwide.

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President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan would help avoid a return to recession by maintaining growth and pushing down the unemployment rate next year, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
The legislation, submitted to Congress this month, would increase gross domestic product by 0.6 percent next year and add or keep 275,000 workers on payrolls, the median estimates in the survey of 34 economists showed. The program would also lower the jobless rate by 0.2 percentage point in 2012, economists said.
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President Barack Obama holds up the American Jobs Act as he speaks at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C. Photographer: Gerry Broome/AP Photo

Audio Download: Farr Says U.S. Still Has Chance of Recession
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President Barack Obama holds a copy of his proposed American Jobs Act as he speaks at Abraham Lincoln High School in Denver, Colorado. Photographer: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images



Economists in the survey are less optimistic than Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who has cited estimates for a 1.5 percent boost to gross domestic product. Even so, the program may bolster Obama’s re-election prospects by lowering a jobless rate that has stayed near 9 percent or more since April 2009.
The plan “prevents a contraction of the economy in the first quarter” of next year, said John Herrmann, a senior fixed-income strategist at State Street Global Markets LLC in Boston, who participated in the survey. “It leads to more retention of workers than net new hires.”
Some 13,000 jobs would be created in 2013, bringing the total to 288,000 over two years, according to the survey. Employers in the U.S. added 1.26 million workers in the past 12 months, Labor Department data show.
Obama’s plan, announced on Sept. 8, calls for cutting the payroll taxes paid by workers and small businesses while extending unemployment insurance. It also includes an increase in infrastructure spending and more aid for cash-strapped state governments.

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President Barack Obama says programs like Medicare and Social Security are not ‘‘handouts,’’ telling seniors that he will defend health and retirement benefits for today’s seniors and future generations.

Obama says in a video address to the AARP that Medicare and Social Security ‘‘are not handouts. You paid into these programs your whole life. You earned them.’’

The president says that some of the discussion during the presidential campaign ‘‘hasn’t been completely on the level,’’ pointing to allegations that Republicans Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would remake Medicare in a way that would hurt future seniors.

Obama was taking questions from AARP members attending a ‘‘Life(at)50+’’ conference in New Orleans.end of story marker

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Muddy Creek said:

Here's the economic plan

Obama FTW - The Obama Economic Plan - 2012 & 2013, Health Care, Jobs Plan, Deficit, Middle Class & Reagan

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1. Tax Cuts to Help America’s Small Businesses Hire and Grow

Cutting the payroll tax in half for 98 percent of businesses: The President’s plan will cut in half the taxes paid by businesses on their first $5 million in payroll, targeting the benefit to the 98 percent of firms that have payroll below this threshold. A complete payroll tax holiday for added workers or increased wages: The President’s plan will completely eliminate payroll taxes for firms that increase their payroll by adding new workers or increasing the wages of their current worker (the benefit is capped at the first $50 million in payroll increases).
Extending 100% expensing into 2012: This continues an effective incentive for new investment.
Reforms and regulatory reductions to help entrepreneurs and small businesses access capital.

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2. Putting Workers Back on the Job While Rebuilding and Modernizing America

A “Returning Heroes” hiring tax credit for veterans: This provides tax credits from $5,600 to $9,600 to encourage the hiring of unemployed veterans. [I like this.]
Preventing up to 280,000 teacher layoffs,while keeping cops and firefighters on the job. [Ridiculous. Your money and mine used to keep teachers/cops/firefighters on the job instead of asking them to make the same sacrifices the rest of us are making This may make sense to you? But not to those of us already burdened by so much debt and taxes we can't take deep breaths.]
Modernizing at least 35,000 public schools across the country,supporting new science labs, Internet-ready classrooms and renovations at schools across the country, in rural and urban areas. [What a waste of money. We don't need new science labs. We need to spend that money finding a way to teach inner-city kids to READ.]
Immediate investments in infrastructure and a bipartisan National Infrastructure Bank, modernizing our roads, rail, airports and waterways while putting hundreds of thousands of workers back on the job. [Why didn't he do this when he had a majority in both houses??]
A New “Project Rebuild”, which will put people to work rehabilitating homes, businesses and communities, leveraging private capital and scaling land banks and other public-private collaborations. [I can't even imagine what this program looks like.]

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4. Tax Relief for Every American Worker and Family

Cutting payroll taxes in half for 160 million workers next year: The President’s plan will expand the payroll tax cut passed last year to cut workers payroll taxes in half in 2012 – providing a $1,500 tax cut to the typical American family, without negatively impacting the Social Security Trust Fund.
Allowing more Americans to refinance their mortgages at today’s near 4 percent interest rates, which can put more than $2,000 a year in a family’s pocket.

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MaggieD said:

Thank you for this. I looked up The American Jobs Plan. Have you read it?



WTH? 98% of firms with under $5 million in payroll won't be paying full FICA benefits for their employees? OMFG. New hires themselves as well as the companies won't pay ANY FICA taxes on either end?? If you think this is a good plan? You are sadly misinformed. Good God. Social Security is already a mess. This oughta' be the nail in the coffin. And you wonder why Republicans filibustered it?

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Expanding access to high-speed wireless as part of a plan for freeing up the nation’s spectrum. [WI-Max . . . let private enterprise do it. Let locals do it. Let the City of Chicago do it for the City of Chicago, for God's sake. The Federal government? Why??]



Another shot at FICA. Honestly? This isn't good fiscal policy. Why would anyone think it was? Obama has had programs in place (supposedly) to help people refinance. It/they were a total failure.

I'm glad you posted this. I've learned something. Here's the link to it. And it's no WONDER Republicans fought it.

Here's a link to the whole plan: Fact Sheet: The American Jobs Act | The White House

Read it and weep.

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