Because, as we all know, the party of Hoover has none.
More people are unemployed for longer periods of time than at any time in the last 40 years:
This recession has been deeper than any economic downturn since the end of the Great Depression:
(The graphs are from
Calculated Risk.)
The employment figures are sobering. The shattering job losses seem to have largely abated, but job creation is not there.
What is needed is another kick to the economy. The stimulus passed last year seems to have stopped the slide, but things are not getting better.
The Republicans, however, will operate in their routine hive-mind mentality and prevent anything from being done. The party leadership, largely a bunch of born-to-privilege white dudes, has no idea what it is like to go from being able to provide for one's family to watching one's saving evaporate away or watching the county marshals move your stuff to the curb.
But let's face it: The Republican party separated itself from the moorings of reality years ago. The GOP was largely willing to throw the county, if not the world, into an economic depression in order to stay pure to its principle of "no bailouts". But then, once the large banks survived, the Republicans have fought tooth-and-nail to try to prevent any meaningful reform of the banking system. The Republicans have been virulently against either breaking up the largest banks so that they are not too big to fail, or making the banksters pay into an insurance fund so that any future bailouts are already paid for.
Does any of this make a modicum of sense?
But it doesn't stop there, Gentle Reader. Once the Republicans were thwarted from making this recession into another depression, they have done everything that they can to ensure that the recession drags on for as long as possible. Their motivation is two-fold:
First off, as far as Republicans are concerned, Tevye the Dairyman was wrong when he said: "It's no shame to be poor." To Republicans, being poor (or a worker or even middle class) is a sin, if not a crime, and they will do everything they possibly can to grind down the poor and the middle class.
Second, Republicans would rather completely wreck the national economy than do anything to repair it if even a smidgen of the credit for an economic recovery were to go to a Democrat. They are either the party of spoiled toddlers or the party of saboteurs. The Republican politicians, at least the senior ones, know that even if they lose their posts, they'll just hop over to a well-paid no-show job at the American Enterprise Institute or some other right-wing "think tank" under a program that I and others refer to as "wingnut welfare".
Our economy remains fragile. If something is not done to spur job creation, we could find ourselves in a long recession/depression that could drag on for many years. But Republicans are against doing anything to ameliorate that situation for fear of adding to the deficit.
If they are so concerned about the deficit, then let's bring the troops home from everywhere. If a country or region wants to have our troops based there or our fleets present, let them cough up the cost of it. We can spend the money from that on fixing our highways, our bridges. We can build high-speed rail and invest in renewable energy, the way that the Chinese are doing (has it escaped everyone's notice that the Chinese are becoming the global leaders in both fields). Everyone seems to forget that it took massive government incentives to build the transcontinental railroads, but they seem to be of the opinion that the money for a new high-speed rail network is going to materialize out of thin air. Everyone also forgets that the reason that rural America has electricity today is because the Federal government provided the incentives to run the power lines.
Military spending is the ultimate in wasteful government programs. If it does not directly contribute to our own national security, we should not be doing it. If the Europeans want to have a missile defense system against Iranian IRBMs, fine, let them pay for it. If they want our people to run it, let them pay for that as well. But you cannot find six Republican politicians against military procurement programs (finding Republicans who oppose veteran's benefits is a lot easier).
There are a lot of things in this country that need to be fixed and need improvement. Besides infrastructure, we cannot hope to have an educated work force if we are unwilling to invest in a good educational system (another item of spending Republicans largely oppose). Without spending on physical fitness programs for children, we will be condemned to having generations of Americans who are overweight, in poor health and who die of costly and preventable illnesses.
We as a country need to do a lot of things, both to get our economy going and to remain competitive with the rest of the world. But neither will happen if the GOP and the conservatives have their way about it.
And so far, they are having their way.
