Putting those idle resources to work building useful stuff should have been a no-brainer. But what actually happened was exactly the opposite: an unprecedented plunge in infrastructure spending. Adjusted for inflation and population growth, public expenditures on construction have fallen more than 20 percent since early 2008. In policy terms, this represents an almost surreally awful wrong turn; we’ve managed to weaken the economy in the short run even as we undermine its prospects for the long run. Well played! And it’s about to get even worse. The federal highway trust fund, which pays for a large part of American road construction and maintenance, is almost exhausted. Unless Congress agrees to top up the fund somehow, road work all across the country will have to be scaled back just a few weeks from now. If this were to happen, it would quickly cost us hundreds of thousands of jobs, which might derail the employment recovery that finally seems to be gaining steam. And it would also reduce long-run economic potential. From the Krugman piece linked to in previous post. Lets get real, this is all on the new radical Republican Party. They practice scorched earth politics and possess a poisonous anti-government agenda thats quickly wrecking our economy. Anyone who still votes Republican is either woefully mis-informed or has a misplaced loyalty to a political party thats long ago abandoned them.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 10:05:33 +0000
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