Obama fights back

Friends,

Obama came out swinging today with a fierce attack on the GOP's 'Austerity for Everyone, Except the Rich Plan'. Obama deftly noted that there is no possible way that the Budget could be balanced with spending cuts alone. He also wisely pointed out that the GOP has abandoned the pursuit of jobs and has instead doubled-down to protect the super-rich and the oil companies at the expense of job-creation and the middle class as a whole. The President kept his focus on jobs and the need to spur investment in the public and private sectors vis a vis government job programs and government loans to private businesses (with some targeted tax cuts mixed in).

The math is simple, to cut $4 trillion from the deficit, one would have to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA budget=c. 7.14-9 billion annually), wipe out the entire Department of Defense-or cut it back substantially for many years ($553 billion), obliterate the Department of Education ($77.4 Billion), Destroy the Corporation for National and Community Service (Americorps, etc. $1.3 billion) and so much more. The total from those programs: roughly $640 billion the first year. So, even with these massive cuts, the deficit still would not be cut enough to reach that $4 trillion number.

It is clear that taxes need to be raised-first on the super rich-then on the rest of the nation. Congress needs to end superfluous subsidies for oil companies and ethanol industries. Congress should push job bills, not deficit bills, to put Americans back to work. Once Americans are working again, money will flow in through increased tax revenue and increased spending. Increased consumer spending will mean businesses will hire more people to keep up with the rush. A positive feedback cycle ensues and the economy begins to fully recover.

Austerity will not only destroy programs for the poor, elderly and middle class, it will hamper our recovery. We do not need austerity! We need jobs!

Thanks for reading.

-Cameron