The Job Creators

I haven't polled this or focus-tested it but I suspect that if voters who listened to Romney's carefully crafted little speech Thursday had to name one thing that they remember from it, it would be that he's promising to create 12 million new jobs. That's a lot of jobs. And with all the hubbub over Paul Ryan's cavalcade of lies big and small, from his plans to take away Medicare to his claims about running a marathon as though he were a Kenyan, most people are just plumb letting Romney's Big Lie about the 12 million jobs pass unexamined. Most people... but not Robert Reich, the former Labor Secretary, who knows a little something about this kind of thing. And he's been practically up on the roof screaming about how Romney's approach is completely wrong-- wrong because of assumptions it makes about how all good in the economic marketplace flows from a small handful of very, very rich people... like himself.

The concentration of the nation's wealth in the hands of fewer and fewer people is the Damocles Sword pointed straight at America's economic jugular vein. And the Romney approach-- the Republican approach-- explains the difference between the failed Austerity agenda they are pushing and a Prosperity approach they disdain. Inequality is on the rise and democracy itself is in grave danger. Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan and their backers-- not to mention the zombies who have had their minds turned to mush by Fox News and Hate Talk Radio-- are not capable of understanding the connection. Romney says he "understands" how jobs are created. He has no idea how jobs are created. He understands how financial assets are manipulated and how profits are hidden from tax collectors. That's his expertise, not creating jobs or anything remotely related to a successful economy.

Republicans claim the rich are job creators. Nothing could be further from the truth. In order to create jobs, businesses need customers. But the rich spend only a small fraction of what they earn. They park most of it wherever around the world they can get the highest return.

The real job creators are the vast middle class, whose spending drives the economy and creates jobs.

But as the middle class’s share of total income continues to drop, it cannot spend as much as before. Nor can most Americans borrow as they did before the crash of 2008-- borrowing that temporarily masked their declining purchasing power.

As a result, businesses are reluctant to hire. This is the main reason why the recovery has been so anemic.

As wealth and income rise to the top, moreover, so does political power. The rich are able to entrench themselves by lowering their taxes, gaining special tax breaks (such as the “carried interest” loophole allowing private equity and hedge fund managers to treat their incomes as capital gains), and ensuring a steady flow of corporate welfare to their businesses (special breaks for oil and gas, big agriculture, big insurance, Big Pharma, and, of course, Wall Street).

All of this squeezes public budgets, corrupts government, and undermines our democracy. The issue isn’t the size of our government; it’s who our government is for. It has become less responsive to the needs of most citizens and more to the demands of a comparative few.

The Republican response-- as we saw dramatically articulated this past week in Tampa-- is to further reduce taxes on the rich, defund programs for the poor, fight unions, allow the median wage to continue to fall, and oppose any limits on campaign contributions or spending.

It does not take a great deal of brainpower to understand this strategy will lead to an even more lopsided economy, more entrenched wealth, and more corrupt democracy. 

The question of the moment is whether next week President Obama will make a bold and powerful rejoinder. If he and the Democratic Party stand for anything, it must be to reverse this disastrous trend.

When Romney and Ryan and their surrogates talk about "the failure" of President Obama to create jobs, they steer as far away from the sysetmatic obstructionism of Republicans in Congress and their unprecedented and treacherous goal of destroying economic prosperity for narrow partisan gain. This election will be about whether or not that kind of behavior from our political elites will be rewarded or punished. Look, I know it's Sunday and you're probably using all your extra change for the donation plate at church today, but... just in case you have anything to spare, this page at he link below is dedicated to congressional candidates who are running on a Prosperity platform to combat the Austerity agenda being pushed so aggressively by Romney and Ryan. Please consider making a contribution to your favorite candidate.