How the Republicans Tricked Obama into Slicing His Own Throat. Is the Economy Headed Toward Recession?

The US economy slowed again during the second quarter of the year, government figures showed Friday.

The nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) – the broadest measure of the economy – grew at a sluggish 1.5% between April and June, the US commerce department said. The latest figure compares to 2% growth during the prior three months, and 4.1% in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The slowdown came as consumers cut back, local governments cut spending, factories received fewer orders and exports were hit by a global slowdown and a stronger dollar. This has occurred due, in part, to a reduction of US deficit spending engineered by the Republicans to make President Obama look stupid and less electable in November.

The Republicans created a public relations campaign to sow fear of deficit spending in the minds of the American public. The public bought it; so did Obama. So the president reduced deficit spending during a time of negative demand for goods and services and in spite of warnings by some of the world’s brightest economic minds, none of whom serve in the president’s administration. That tells you all you need to know.

US growth slows as consumers cut back on spending–The Guardian of the UK

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Deficit Hawks are Wrong Again, and Again and Again and Again…

Interest rates remain at historic lows despite massive government borrowing. For years Republican deficit hawks (and a few dumb Democrats) have tried time and time again to instill panic among the mass of financially ordinary US citizens by insisting that continued government borrowing would raise interest rates, thereby bringing on a terrible recession and destroying everybody’s livelihoods. Like that hadn’t already occurred during the Bush regime when then Vice President Dick Cheney famously said, “Ronald Reagan showed up that (federal) deficits don’t matter.” Cheney understood the lesson, President Obama didn’t.

The purpose of this public relations stunt was to influence the Obama administration into cutting government spending, thereby slicing jobs and gross domestic product, and in the process letting the president cut his own throat when it came to being reelected to a second term. The result has been spectacular since President Obama was stupid enough to take the bait.

US deficit spending has been reduced, although still growing strong. The official unemployment rate remains mired between 8 and 9 percent; the real unemployment rate is closer to 15 percent if the rate was measured in the same way it was during the Great Depression.

Click the link below for more interesting points of view on deficit spending by Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman.

New York Times–Money for Nothing

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