So the jobs report sucked, what a surprise. Republicans are of course saying it's the president's failed policies that are killing jobs but I live in a different reality, one that Steve Benen describes nicely in The The road not taken.
"It seems like ages ago, but it was just last September when the president delivered an address to a joint session of Congress, laying out a detailed plan to boost job creation. It's easy to forget, but it was a credible, serious plan -- the AJA would have prevented thousands of layoffs for teachers, cops, and firefighters; invested heavily in infrastructure; and cut taxes intended to spur hiring."
"Despite public clamoring for action on jobs, congressional Republicans reflexively killed the American Jobs Act, saying it was unnecessary. The House wouldn't bring it up for a vote, and a Republican filibuster killed it in the Senate. For GOP policymakers, this was a time when Washington should stop investing in job creation and start focusing on austerity -- lower the deficit, take capital out of the economy, and everything would work out fine."
I want to hear Democrats blaming the Republicans for this. I want the DNC to be working at winning Congress as well as reelecting the president.
Jared Bernstein gives some advice in What's To Be Done?. Quantitative easing, dealing with taxamageddon, yet again extend unemployment insurance benefits and if at all possible enact some stimulus.
Brad DeLong wonders What Can Ben Bernanke Do Now To Summon The Confidence Fairy? and saying that QEIII won't help, comes up with only two ideas: stimulus and a new Fed chairman.
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