Invitation to Disaster by Bob Herbert: "the country is still faced with a economic emergency"

[Better Believe It]

Op-Ed Columnist
Invitation to Disaster
By BOB HERBERT
January 8, 2010

We didn’t pay attention to the housing bubble. We closed our eyes to warnings that the levees in New Orleans were inadequate. We gave short shrift to reports that bin Laden was determined to attack the U.S. And now we’re all but ignoring the fiscal train wreck that is coming from states with budget crises big enough to boggle the mind.

The states are in the worst fiscal shape since the Depression. The Great Recession has caused state tax revenues to fall off a cliff. Some states — New York and California come quickly to mind — are facing prolonged budget nightmares. Across the country, critical state services are being chopped like firewood. More cuts are coming. Taxes and fees are being raised. Yet the budgets in dozens and dozens of states remain drastically out of balance.

This is an arrow aimed straight at the heart of a robust national recovery. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has pointed out that if you add up the state budget gaps that have recently been plugged (in most cases, temporarily and haphazardly) and those that remain to be dealt with, you’ll likely reach a staggering $350 billion for the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years.

This is not a disaster waiting to happen. It’s under way.

.... the country is still faced with a national economic emergency, with tens of millions out of work or underemployed. We can hardly afford any additional economic shocks. Turning our backs on the desperate trouble the states are in right now is nothing less than an utterly willful invitation to disaster.

Please read the full article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/09/opinion/09herbert.html

[jpak]

1. Congress has to step up and address this - massive teacher layoffs must be averted

Repugs can bitch all they want but this vital to our nation's future -and it's a hometown issue that affects ALL Americans.

They have to step up too.

[BR_Parkway]

2. "We" didn't all ignore this stuff - many of us who spoke up got called

traitors for years for pointing some of this crap out.

The rest of the article makes perfect sense