Posted: 11/04/12 11:16
by Alan Anderson
Wow. Republicans are telling us the President Obama's stimulus didn't work and the economy is in shambles . Funny, we've had 34 months of job growth, the Dow is more than double its March 2009 total, and many companies are doing well for the third year in a row. Seems like some Republicans are lying about the totally negative aspects of the economy.
Now we learn the cost of those lies. A report from research advisors to the San Francisco Federal Reserve indicated that the unemployment rate would have been 7% if there had not been "the current level of doubt among consumers about economic issues, including fiscal policy." Imagine, unemployment at 7%! Where did that doubt come from?? It appears the Republican policy after Obama was elected was to do everything possible to make him a one-term president. That included constantly complaining about the poor economy and lack of recovery in the employment sector. Even though there has been consistently good news in many sectors of the economy, such as the return of the auto industry, the return of AIG, etc. Republicans have hammered the President as the cause of the economic "malaise." They knew if they could keep consumer optimism down they could help block a rise in economic activity and positive consumer attitudes...which would have led to a more robust economy.
Anyone who has run an economic forecasting model knows that the consumer attitude variable can dramatically affect the economy if it is either positive or negative. Republicans were willing to sacrifice the economic health of the country in order to position themselves for a possible win in the 2012 elections. So, anyone who knows this should punish Republicans severely at the polls as payback. No political party should ever put their self interest above the good of the country.
