400,000 Newly Unemployed Workers Celebrate Budget Agreement

[Hannah Bell]

Has anyone told the White House press corps about the economic downturn? We have 8.8 percent of the workforce unemployed, more than 8 million people employed part-time who would like full-time jobs, and millions more who have given up looking for work altogether.

The reason is simple: there is not enough demand in the economy. When we cut government spending, there is less demand in the economy... If we cut government spending, then we have reduced demand, unless we think there are a lot of firms who will be inspired to hire people because the government is cutting back its spending.

Moody's estimated that the original Republican plan for $61 billion in cuts would lead to a loss of 700,000 jobs. Goldman Sachs had a similar number. Since the final deal had a bit less than two-thirds of these cuts, the implication is that somewhat more than 400,000 workers will lose their jobs.

And the remarkable part of the story is that these newly unemployed workers are not even mentioned in the coverage in the NYT, the Post, or it seems anywhere else. Hey why ruin a great budget drama by talking about the people who will have their lives ruined?

http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/400000-newly-unemployed-workers-celebrate-budget-agreement

[safeinOhio]

1. Koch brothers

increase their wealth by 9 billion dollars in the last year. Mine didn't budge.

[HughBeaumont]

2. All the while saying Obama has "Marxist" tendencies.

Amazing. This "taxathon Marxist regime" :eyes: doesn't really seem to be hurting THEIR prospects much.

[Scruffy1]

3. But that was the object-to destroy us.

The fascists care nothing about deficits only about power. The worse they can make the economy the easier it is for them to cement their hold on power. Singing folk songs and being "peaceful" ain't going to save our ass.
I think what we have here is a lack of recognition of how much power the corporate run state has. By controlling the media, and the election funding they call the tunes. It is way too late in the game to retrieve any kind of redemption through the electoral process alone. They have managed to wipe out a hundred years of progress in a few decades and its going to take a long hard struggle by committed activist to even begin the process. The act of voting every couple of years is not enough. We must be organized at every level to combat the powers that are taking us back into the dark ages. It will take leaders who are not compromisers and are willing to make the decision that Martin Luther King did in Birmingham-that there would be no turning back until death.