Jobs Versus Budget Cuts: It's One Or The Other

So many still seem to be missing this basic point:

"Right now the central challenge is to reignite the economy — getting jobs back, improving wages, and restoring growth.  

Deficit reduction moves us in the opposite direction. That’s because most consumers (whose spending is 70 percent of economic activity) are still losing ground, and businesses won’t expand and hire without more consumers." 

- Robert Reich in "The Economic Challenge Ahead: More Jobs and Growth, Not Deficit Reduction"

At least, so many among the Republican movers and shakers and apparently in the Oval Office too. Why? One can only presume that they're still taking it on faith that reducing the deficit is the most important thing ever, despite all the mountains of reason to believe otherwise.

One data point in that mountain, as Reich puts it,

"Likewise, cuts in government spending, such as occurred in the fourth quarter of 2012, cause the economy to contract — as it did in the fourth quarter."

In order to move the country in the right direction, policy needs to get the basic problem correct. So long as they figure deficit reduction via budget cutting is the order of the day, they'll continue to hurt. Everything. Including the deficit.

"For 60 years (!) the pattern has held. When unemployment drops, the deficit as a percentage of GDP drops. When unemployment rises, the deficit rises." 

- Joe Weisenthal in "There's Only One Way To Fix The Deficit — And Actually It's Totally Painless"

Sure, we could possibly have jobs despite their budget cutting. After all, we've had some recovery so far, if a rather anemic one. But that's despite their budget cutting. The whole economy -- including the debt/deficit picture -- would be better off if deficit hawks weren't hamstringing us with their fixation on budget cutting.