Hey, Washington! It's the economy, remember?
After a week of non-stop Osama bin Laden, Washington is now returning to the battle of the budget deficit and debt ceiling.
All over Capitol Hill Republicans and Democrats are debating spending caps and automatic triggers, and whether to begin them before or after Election Day.
But if you don鈥檛 mind my asking, what about the economy? I鈥檓 not talking about the economy five or ten years from now, when projections show the federal budget wildly out of control or when foreigners might start dumping dollars.
I鈥檓 talking about the here and now economy 鈥� the one Americans are living in day to day.
The Labor Department reported today that unemployment for April was 9 percent, up from 8.8 percent in March. And that doesn鈥檛 people working part-time who鈥檇 rather have full-time jobs.
Yes, 244,000 jobs were added in March 鈥� but that鈥檚 chicken feed. We鈥檇 need 350,000 a month, every month for the next three years, simply to get back to where we were before the Great Recession.
And the percent of working-age Americans actually working 鈥� 64.2 percent 鈥� hasn鈥檛 improved. It鈥檚 almost as low as it was in the depths of the recession. 13.7 million people remain out of work.
Hello Washington?
Even for Americans with jobs, wages are going nowhere. Basically, the only employers hiring are paying peanuts. McDonalds just announced it would start hiring big time.
In fact, there鈥檚 reason to worry we鈥檙e heading back toward recession. The Labor Department also reports new claims for unemployment insurance soared to 474,000 last week.
In the first quarter of this year the U.S. economy slowed to a crawl 鈥� a measly 1.8 percent annualized growth 鈥� down from over 3 percent last fall. Higher gas and food prices are putting even more squeeze on American households.
And housing prices continue to drop.
Washington is fighting over how much to cut spending over the next ten or twelve years.
But right now we need more public spending to get people back to work, stronger safety nets to help those who have lost their jobs or can鈥檛 find new ones, lower payroll taxes on average workers, and a requirement that Wall Street banks renegotiate mortgage loans so Americans can keep their homes.
Why isn鈥檛 Washington paying attention to what most Americans need in the here-and-now economy?
Because the White House and congressional Democrats don鈥檛 dare admit how bad the economy continues to be for so many people. They鈥檙e holding their breath, hoping the recovery catches fire next year before Election Day.
Republicans don鈥檛 dare admit how bad the economy is because they don鈥檛 want to increase public spending or strengthen safety nets. And their patrons on Wall Street don鈥檛 want to modify mortgages. Republicans would rather Americans believe their big lie that taming the deficit will create jobs and restore the economy.
So Washington would rather fight over the long-term budget, spending caps, taxes, and trigger mechanisms than do something about the pain most Americans are experiencing today.
But the here-and-now economy the most important thing on Americans鈥� minds.
Ironically, Washington鈥檚 disregard for what鈥檚 happening right now is also worsening the long-term budget problem. That problem is not the debt per se; it鈥檚 the ratio of debt to the overall economy. If the economy sputters or continues to grow at a snail鈥檚 pace, that ratio becomes worse and worse.
In other words, attending to the here-and-now economy is also good for the future.
Earth to Washington: Listen to America.
--------------------------
海角大神 has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. This post originally ran on .
