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The Republican’s Big Lies About Jobs (And Why Obama Must Repudiate Them)
"And if all others accepted the lie which the party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became the truth." – George Orwell, 1984 (published in 1949)
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was in town yesterday (specifically, at Stanford’s Hoover Institute where he could surround himself with sympathetic Republicans) to tell this whopper: “Cutting the federal deficit will create jobs.”
It’s not true. Cutting the deficit will creates fewer jobs. Less government spending reduces overall demand. This is particularly worrisome when, as now, consumers and businesses are still holding back. Fewer government workers have paychecks to buy stuff from other Americans, some of whom in turn will lose their jobs without enough customers.
But truth doesn’t seem to matter. Republicans figure if their big lies are repeated often enough, people will start to believe them.
Unless, that is, those big lies are repudiated – and big truths are told in their place.
What worries me almost as much as the Republican’s repeated big lies about jobs is the silence of President Obama and Democratic leaders in the face of them. Obama has the bully pulpit. Republicans don’t. But if he doesn’t use it the Republican’s big lies gain credibility.
Here are some other whoppers being repeated daily:
“Cutting taxes on the rich creates jobs.” Nope. Trickle-down economics has been tried for thirty years and hasn’t worked. After George W. Bush cut taxes on the rich, far fewer jobs were created than after Bill Clinton raised them in the 1990s.
To his credit, President Obama argued against Republican demands for extending the Bush tax cut for those making more than a quarter million. But as soon as Republicans pushed back he caved. And the President hasn’t even mentioned that the $61 billion Republicans are demanding in budget cuts this fiscal year is what richer Americans would have paid in taxes had he not caved.
“Cutting corporate income taxes creates jobs.” Baloney. American corporations don’t need tax cuts. They’re sitting on over $1.5 trillion of cash right now. They won’t invest it in additional capacity or jobs because they don’t see enough customers out there with enough money in their pockets to buy what the additional capacity would produce.
The President needs to point this out – not just in Washington but across the nation where Republican governors are slashing corporate taxes and simultaneously cutting school budgets. President Obama says he wants to invest in American skills, but many states are doing the opposite. Florida Governor Rick Scott, for example, says his proposed corporate tax cuts “will give Florida a competitive edge in attracting jobs.” They’ll also require education spending be reduced by $3 billion. Florida already ranks near the bottom in per-pupil spending and has one of nation’s lowest graduation rates. If Scott’s tax cuts create jobs, most will pay peanuts.
“Cuts in wages and benefits create jobs.” Congressional Republicans and their state counterparts repeat this lie incessantly. It also lies behind corporate America’s incessant demand for wage and benefit concessions – and corporate and state battles against unions. But it’s dead wrong. Meager wages and benefits are reducing the spending power of tens of millions of American workers, which is prolonging the jobs recession.
President Obama and Democratic leaders should be standing up for the wages and benefits of ordinary Americans, standing up for unions, and decrying the lie that wage and benefit concessions are necessary to create jobs. The President should be traveling to the Midwest – taking aim at Republican governors in the heartland who are hell bent on destroying the purchasing power of American workers. But he’s doing nothing of the sort.
“Regulations kill jobs.” Congressional Republicans are using this whopper to justify their attempts to defund regulatory agencies. Regulations whose costs to business exceed their benefits to the public are unwarranted, of course, but reasonable regulation is necessary to avoid everything from nuclear meltdowns to oil spills to mine disasters to food contamination – all of which we’ve sadly witnessed. Here again, we’re hearing little from the President or Democratic leaders.
Look, the President can’t be everywhere, doing everything. There’s tumult in the Middle East, we’re suddenly at war in Libya, Japan is struggling with the aftermath of disaster, and surely Latin America is an important trading partner.
But nothing is more central to average Americans than jobs and wages. Unless the President forcefully rebuts Republican’s big lies, they’ll soon become conventional wisdom.
Robert Reich, one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including his latest best-seller, Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future; The Work of Nations; Locked in the Cabinet; Supercapitalism; and his newest, Beyond Outrage. His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.
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62 Comments so far
Show AllI am just about sick and tired of the likes of bourgeois liberals like Krugman and Reich in their ivory towers, still believing that the D-brand of lying puppet-whore is going to do us justice.
You insult our intelligence Prof. Reich, by implying that our political sytem has not been corrupted to the bone. Is it not painfully obvious by now?
Folks like Reich, while criticizing the most pathological destructive policies, are implicitly apologizing for a corrupted system that cannot, CANNOT, produce outcomes that are less than corrupt.
We now have another war on our hands, we have a Bankster Mafia thieving and pillaging our retirement and savings, we have a necrophagist health profit system that is beyond immoral and disgusting, we have neo-liberal "free trade", we have support for nuclear weapons and nuke power, support for Monsanto control over food supply., etc. etc. etc. and this was the D-brand at work. The Ds need the R "bad cop" foil to fool gullible folks, and apologists like Reich. Reich is part of the problem, not the solution
For an honest discussion of economics, I recommend Dr. Michael Hudson.
socialist,
I am puzzles how could a compulsive liar repudiate other liars. Yes, I too like Michael Hudson. He's from UMKC in Kansas City. There is another economic professor from the same university, either Michael Hudson or the other one was Kuncich economic advisor during the 2008 Presidential election.
Where in this article is the Democratic party being promoted?
They are not being directly promoted in this article. However, there is an implication that the democrat party and obama are disappointing and that Reich has the expectation that obama is really *for* the working man/woman, but is just not assertive enough. I find it nauseating. But, to each his/her own. At the risk of nauseating everyone here, as well as myself, once again, i have always been on record regarding how obvious he was.
Amazing that Reich still hold out hope that Obama will suddenly morph from a corporate shill into a populist.
Anybody not afflicted with terminal denial syndrome would understand that if Obama has yet to use his bully pulpit to do more than pay lip service to the plight of 98% of Americans, there is next to 0% probability that he will use it during the remainder of his tenure in the white house.
"Unless the President forcefully rebuts Republican’s big lies..."
Unless Larry Summers forcefully rebuts Republican’s big lies..."
Reich is always good for laughs. He won't call things by their real name.
Until commenter "corvo" kindly clued me in recently, I hadn't realized that Reich and Robert Kuttner were colleagues, i.e. co-founders of "The American Prospect". I'd been lumping them together because of the twin-like resemblance in their points of view; without a byline, their commentaries would be impossible to tell apart.
And now here's "Frack" again; I'll repeat what I wrote in response to a Kuttner article published here on Monday: "Poor Kuttner. Like Robert Reich, he seems to be a decent, well-meaning sort. But he really is doomed to think inside an obsolete political box-- and a small, flat box at that, like the kind gift neckties or gloves come in."
To be a "Frack" of my own to readytotransform's "Frick": if it truly isn't clear that Reich is indeed promoting the Democratic Party, you're missing the donkey in the room.
Reich's persistent perspective is that the malignant, mendacious Republicans have falsified and distorted important economic questions, and deliberately proposed self-serving, pernicious pseudo-solutions. All of this is true enough, as far as it goes.
But Reich obviously believes that Democrats are a bona-fide "opposition party" to the dastardly Republicans, and a relatively virtuous opposition party to boot. So he laments that although the ball has clearly shifted to the Democrats' court, superstar center Obama seems to be just standing there double-dribbling.
In a superficial, concrete, literal sense, Reich seems to be bashing the Democrats, not "promoting" them. But Reich's "bashing" is, as always, hortatory. He's hollering from the sidelines in his season-ticket seat behind the Democratic bench, constantly urging Obama and the Dems to, in effect, "do the right thing". That can only mean that Reich implicitly endorses the Democrats as intrinsically politically and ethically superior compared to the rotten-to-the-core Republicans.
Reich and Kuttner are probably also frustrated and perpetually heartbroken Washington Generals fans.
Excellent explanation.
Thanks OS, well said. I used words like "implicitly" and "imply". Either some cannot understand certain vocabulary, or are trying to hijack one's post by intentionally mis-reading it. I thought my crude style was rather straightforward, but I guess I am too subtle. Perhaps I should use more Carlin-esque language so as to leave no ambiguity whatsover.
O.S. you said it so much better than i.........Even though i never understand sports metaphors. Is the Washington Generals a name of an actual team or do you mean generals who live in DC?
the washington generals are the team that plays the Harlem Globetrotters and lose to them every single time..... on purpose at that - their job is to make the globetrotters look good.....
Thank you, mtdon. That gives me more insight into O.S's prose!
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Don't look now, but the bank bailout is starting to turn a profit.
The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that the money it gave to banks during the financial crisis has been paid back, and then some.
The bank bailout -- part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program -- is now $6 billion in the black, a profit that might ultimately rise to $20 billion, according to the Treasury.
We are in big trouble, and when the solution is to create more government jobs, we are not even headed in the right direction. We have way more than enough government jobs right now.
Yes, we don't need people earning good living wages building or running useful things highways, railroads, public transit, and pollution control projects, schools, universities, research and development etc.
Are you thinking that "free markets" will give us all these things? Just look at totally free market countries like Colombia or El Salvador or impoverished post-Soviet Russia - where average life expectancy plummeted 7 years after they sold all their publicly-owned factories, land, and infrastructure to capitalist gangsters.
With more and more corporations writing our laws, owning our government, and gaining direct access to the treasury, there will be more and more "government jobs" gained by graft, corruption, and the biggest transfer of wealth from "We the People" to "We the Corporate" in our nation's history.
Those facts make your position ironic.
As far as I'm concerned, every single American should have a government job, with paid healthcare and a comfortable pension to supplement Social Security which would start at the age of 55. The individual's job can involve watching paint dry, for all I'm concerned. And the government job can be paid for with money stolen from us over the years by the oil companies, the defense industry, the healthcare industry, and Wall Street.
Professor Reich, as an apologist for Obama and Democrats, you are part of the problem, one more defender of the corporate oligarchy. Your man, Obama, is an unprincipled whore for the moneyed interests and is interested in doing even less for the average person than is Colonel Qadaffi.
.
Yes, your conservative friends and neighbors should definitely NOT read this article! I'm glad to see that you agree that Big Government and environmental, health and safety regulaiton kills jobs.
if i may speak for vforvendetta
He/she is pointing out the folly of Reich and others to believe that Obama, and the Democratic leadership, want anything much different than what the Republicans want, on those issues (and many more).
Obama and the current leadership of the Democratic Party, have gone further, than to just simply let the Republican lies stand. Rather, they have adopted many Republican policy positions, framing of issues, and rationales.
(to other astute CD readers/posters…yes yes I know it is no longer simply about party, but rather oligarchy, corporatism, fascism, or whatever the hell else one wishes to call it)
It boils down to Class Warfare: the Corporatist-Militarist Ruling Class, with its two political parties infecting all branches of federal, state & local governments; its enforcement branch: the U.S. military, the 16 national intelligence agencies, the FBI & state & local police, and private mercenaries; and its Ministry of Propaganda, the Corporate Media, against all the rest of us and the planet. Sadly, many of us are willingly serving in the enforcement and propaganda branches, against our own best interests.
Unfortunately, as Warren Buffet told us years ago, his side, the wealthy, are winning.
You are way out of line. You know nothing about Sabocat, and are jumping to outlandish conclusions based on little or no evidence.
Why are you attacking the strongest leftists here and making it sound as though you are arguing with right wingers? You are either very confused - and I would think that you would want to know that and clear the confusion up - or you are using some bizarre new disruption technique and trying to inject as much confusion and rancor as you can into the discussion.
The president has shown little interest in vociferously repudiating much of anything. I used to believe in compromise and cooperation, but he takes them beyond anyplace that makes any sense to me.
I wish he would, as my grandmother used to say, "show some gumption."
You're making the same mistake as Reich, assuming that Obama's "heart is in the right place" (after all, he talks so intelligently) and all he needs is "gumption."
There is no evidence for that theory. His actions in office are in line with his record, and even with his campaign positions, if you looked closely. In reality, he's in league with the Republicans.
This is the real Obama and the real Democratic Party. They're in power; what you see is what you get.
Agreed Dennab. But this time it will be a new slogan...."This Time Things Will Truly Be Different". Or. "Now I Can Do What I Promised Before". And he will have a different VP candidate.
Actually, I haven't a clue where his heart is. Being president is being a performance artist for anyone who is there. I have long suspected that the theory that he's a Secret Government plant who does exactly what his handlers tell him is the most likely explanation for his presidency. But he's there and he could use his speechifying skills at the "bully pulpit" if he really decided that was in his best interest, unless there is a hidden gun that he knows is pointed at his head.
And to all the people who post saying "we knew all along," good for you. Next time I'll know too.
Probably true. Obama supporters are putting the message out there that we have to wait for the second term when he doesn't have re-election to worry about for him to reveal his "true" colors and champion good causes. Wait till next year, as the old baseball saying goes.
"Wait till next year, as the old baseball saying goes."
Better said "Wait till next year as the old Cubs saying goes."
I'd say Obama has shown gumption - he continually insults and works against his base, continually goes against the very things he ran on - attacks the unions and organized labor - deepthroats the banskters that crashed the economy....etc etc etc
I'll be surprised when the oilybomber actually does something progressive - or forces some Austerity on the rich -
until then be naive and think obama is some progressive -
theses articles are getting old! how smart can these people be when they trot out the same tired and wrong analysis time after time.
I'm not much for poetry as I'm sure you all will tell me, but I had something to say and this just expresses it in rhyme.
Obama the Candidate
Promises made
Obama the President
Now just a shade
His words became
Ethereal things
Now he works for
Imperial Kings
A naked American
Stands in the cold
His secrets exposed
For the secrets he told
The men in orange jumpsuits
Will never be tried
At the gulag in Cuba
They all still reside
For big banker bonuses
The unions must pay
But the money to loan us
Has all blown away
Obama the candidate
Told all sorts of lies
Obama the president
George Bush in disguise
I think you did fine!
Thank you! I liked it but it's hard to be objective about one's own work. And it's hard to share and anticipate criticism.
"What worries me almost as much as the Republican’s repeated big lies about jobs is the silence of President Obama and Democratic leaders in the face of them." -
That's deeply clueless. There is nothing surprising about the "Republican’s repeated big lies" - it's just their standard schtick, and loses them elections. What's worrisome, and extremely dangerous, is the Democrats' complicity. That's against their own political interests - it's precisely what lost them the last election. So we know it's the result of corruption. And it means that we have no real choices as long as we buy into the "2-party", which of course is really just one.
"Unless the President forcefully rebuts Republican’s big lies, they’ll soon become conventional wisdom." - but of course, letting those become "conventional wisdom" is precisely what he's being paid to do - by his REAL paymasters. Hell, I think he believes them, or just doesn't care as long as he gets his. There is absolutely no evidence that his "heart's in the right place."
I'm not even sure if the Dems care about losing the last election. After all, now they can play their favorite role of embattled saviors. It's easy to react to the obviously suck-a-riffic Republicans by running around and hollering. When the D's are in power and have the ability to actually legislate against the robbery of our rights, they do no such thing. (That could stop their cash flow.) This role enables them to act like good guys when they're really the same guys.
If they lose, they can always become lobbyists. Lobbyist pay is better anyway.
"Obama has the bully pulpit. Republicans don’t. But if he doesn’t use it the Republican’s big lies gain credibility."
Poor Reich, still doesn't understand just who Obama is.
Great article Professor Reich.
cutting the deficit by taxing the rich could be part of a program to create jobs
obama caved on not extending the tax cuts for the rich for one main reason
the republicans would not agree to annual "patch" on the alternative minimum tax
and this would have caused 30 million middle class americans to have to pay an average of like 3,600.00 dollars extra in federal income tax
it was in a small part extending unemployment insurance, but it was mainly the alternative minimum tax that forced obamas hand
Wrong! You are misusing statistics to excuse Obama.
First, the CBO estimated 27 million more would pay AMT tax. And whether number is 27 million or 30 million, you call them the middle class? The median household income in the US is around $50,000 (half earn less, half earn more). That means about half the households would see zero effect as the AMT would only start phasing in at $45K. Average incomes can't be used because the distorted effect the super-rich have on average income. On top of that, the Census Bureau reports that 80% of households have income of less than $100,00 a year.
Second, the use of a $3,600 average is misleading. With AMT, households making over $200,000 would have been the hardest hit, on average paying over $11,000 more in taxes. Those making between $100,000 and $200,000 would have paid an average of $2,500 more in taxes, and those between $50,000 and $100,000 would have paid $1,000 more in taxes. That is, less than 50% of the 80% of households that make less than $100K would only pay $1,000 more in taxes. Apparently, by you saying the average AMT tax bill will be $3,600 more, you are including households making more than $200,000 a year and calling them middle class? As much as they like to call themselves middle class, they are not, and more than 50% of the additional AMT tax would come from this group. I'll give in that some of those households making over $100K a year could be called upper middle class, but not those at the $200K range.
Third, the AMT effect in 2011 would be about half on the families if the Bush tax cuts wouldn't have been extended and the tax rates were raised to the pre-Bush era. In other words, by Obama extending the Bush tax cuts, the effect on AMT is amplified.
Finally, Obama and the Democrats had all of 2010 to pass AMT Patch legislation (the old legislation expired in 2009) but put it off until after the elections. It is legislation that could have easily passed by itself without having Bush tax cuts associated with it. Democrats could have changed the rules making harder for Republicans to filibuster and even if they did, so what? Now both Obama and the Republicans are threatening social spending cuts because of the $900 billion tax cut bill sprinkled with a little bit of unemployment relief. And by the way, the Senate Democrats helped pass the tax cuts during the Bush years.
the problem with expecting Obomber to support working folks or tax the rich policies is that the oilybomber doesn't believe in those things AT ALL.
Of course Obama could use the bully pulpit and drive the STORY - but he doesn't because he doesn't want to empower Labor or the poor working class aka "middle class workers" - he wants them continually on the defense - reacting to attack after attack and if the left can hold their ground then they win - when holding their ground means falling further and further behind but FEELING GOOD ABOUT IT!
Obama is there simply to suck the energy out of the LEFT and drop it down the blackhole known as Democratic Party Politics.....
It's an old story and is covered quite extensively by Nader and even Howard Zinn in his People's History of America - ZInn shows how historically supporting Democrats into pushing helpful change basically Never happens UNLESS pushed by 3rd parties that are to the left of the demonrats.
Zinn shows multiple times that supporting and trying to change the democrats from within is throwing your energies down a blackhole and useless....
Only by supporting 3rd parties from the Farmers, Populists and Socialists did the Story get changed to one of Worker Rights........
By pushing the Story you can drive the Debate - if you allow the other side to push the Story then the left can only react and play catchup - a losing strategy that Obomber loves -
Sometimes the best defense is a good Offense - but the dem's have ZERO Offense because they don't want it - they are simply the other side of the same crooked coin as the rethug's......
Screw both parties as they are both truly FASCIST.
Hence JP Morgan as Chief of staff, GE - the inventors of outsourcing as Economic Advisor and 25+ goldman scumsuckers in the Obama white House - the Fed printing press running full time to enrich the banksters at our expense.
Change you can bereave in - aka meet the new boss - same as the old boss.....
this author was President Clinton's labor secretary...can you say NAFTA?
Herr Reich went right through the golden revolving door from one great Gov't job to even better one. He'll collect two huge Gov't pensions paid for by the rest of us when he retires. Does he really care if most of us won't get any pension or for that matter any SSI or Medicare as long as his pals in DC from both parties hold sway? No, he just makes like he does so he can be a hero to the rest of the Ivory tower liberals in DC and Berkley. Then he'll write another book and go to some Int'l conference all paid for by us again. He won't lose any sleep over the millions without any job or home etc,
you can't understand reich until you understand that he's angling to be brought back into the obama fold......four more years...four more years!!!!!!!
Hey, Robert, have you not yet figured out that Barry doesn't give two shits about Republicans lies? Remember, the same corporations that pay the Republicans pay Barry also. So, it's just the old good cop-bad cop game. Jeez, don't you get it?
tom....you don't get it.......he gets it.......he wants to play with the "big" boys
when obama next runs for the presidency, he will look directly into the camera and confess that up til now he "didn't get it".....he'll now show he gets it by hiring herr reich (seaglass gets it).....and then all the fools will once more line up and declare in unison: HOORAY, HE GETS IT.........and then amerika will get it for four more years......get it?
I'm not holding my breath.
Have to FAIL you Professor Reich.