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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRepublican States Cut Most Public Sector Jobs In 2011 (March)
By Travis Waldron
Americas unemployment rate has fallen a full percentage point in the last year on the back of strong private sector job growth. February marked the 24th consecutive month of private sector growth, with more than 240,000 jobs added. But the loss of jobs in the public sector continues to hold back the economy, as more than 600,000 federal, state, and local government employees have lost their jobs since President Obama took office.
And while Republicans are trying to credit their small government ideology with bolstering the current economic recovery, a new study from The Roosevelt Institutes Mike Konczal and Bryce Covert found that those public sector losses have hit hardest and most often in states where Republicans took control of state legislatures during the 2010 mid-term elections. In 2011, newly-Republican states accounted for 40 percent of the public sector layoffs while cutting government jobs at rates that far outpace the national average:
As the chart below (click to enlarge) shows, five of the seven states with the most public sector job losses in 2011 were states that came under Republican control in 2010.
Texas, which has long been controlled by Republicans, also dropped 4 percent of its public sector workforce in 2011, Konczal and Covert found. Because of its size it had 1,645,000 state and local workers at the end of 2010 this is a loss of 68,000 jobs, or around an additional 31 percent of the public sector workforce. Texas and the 11 newly-Republican states accounted for a total of 71.5 percent of the years public sector job losses, even though they account for less than one-third of the nations public sector workers.
Many government job losses were due, indeed, to the recessions impact on state budgets. But in many of the newly-Republican states, the GOP made the problems worse. In Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Maine, Republican-controlled legislators not only cut public sector jobs, they led assaults on public sector unions, targeting government workers under the guise of balancing their budgets. In those and others, Republicans exacerbated their states deficits with tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy, thus leading to even more public sector layoffs that didnt take place in states that didnt pursue similar policies.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/03/27/452745/republican-states-cut-most-public-sector-jobs-in-2011/
That's the Republican Governors' report card. The crazy thing is that Republicans have done everything to block aid, even going so far as to rejecting it.
dkf
(37,305 posts)"Well they say the states are the labs for policy. I guess we will see if their assumptions pan out."
...I've never heard that, and in the context of public sector layoffs, it's seems nonsensical.
dkf
(37,305 posts)12:30 Jennifer Bradley: State innovation is part of the genius of our federalist system. Health care reform was law in Massachusetts years before the recent passage of federal legislation. During the 1980s, governors from both parties experimented with welfare and healthcare reforms, paving the way for federal advances in the next decade. Throughout the 1950s, public university systems, established by states like California and North Carolina, set the stage for the federal technology investments of the 1960s and 1970s. And before he was president, New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt experimented with interventions that foreshadowed the New Deal.
With Washington mired in gridlock, states have no choice but to innovate. Smart governors are working with partners in metropolitan areas, which concentrate people, jobs, GDP, and innovation potential and are critical for job creation, revenue generation, and economic growth.
12:30 Comment From Tim: What are a few examples of innovation at the state level that have helped local economies get back on their feet again?
12:32 Jennifer Bradley: States like Nevada, Tennessee, and New York are organizing their economic development strategies around the needs of local and metro economies. They are focusing on aligning resources metros need, rather than sticking with the same old state agency stovepipes.
NNN0LHI
(67,190 posts)Brooklyn Dame
(169 posts)...simply because they know that public sector jobs have provided the path to the middle class for a large percentage of Americans. Beating up on unions and the public sector workers is about as short-sighted as one can get, unless privatisation of public services to line the pockets of an elite view is the goal.
http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/2012/05/may-day-remembering-the-working-class/
http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/2012/04/stealing-from-the-hungry/
http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/2012/04/the-great-divide/
http://borderlessnewsandviews.com/2012/04/state-of-the-labor-union/
malaise
(269,278 posts)This was orchestrated sabotage
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/26/democrats-gop-plot-obstruct-obama
<snip>
During a lengthy discussion, the senior GOP members worked out a plan to repeatedly block Obama over the coming four years to try to ensure he would not be re-elected.
The disclosures described as "appalling and sad" by Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod undermine Republican claims that the president alone is to blame for the partisan deadlock in Washington.
A detailed account of who was present at the dinner on that January 20 night and the plan they worked out to bring down Obama is provided by Robert Draper in 'Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the US House of Representatives', published this week.
In his book, Draper opens with the heady atmosphere in Washington on the days running up to the inauguration and the day itself, which attracted 1.8 million to the mall to witness Obama being sworn in as America's first black president.
Those numbers contributed to a growing sense of unease among Republicans as much the defeat in the White House race the previous November. The 15 Republicans were in a sombre mood as they gathered at the Caucus Room in Washington, an upscale restaurant where a New York strip steak costs $51.
Attending the dinner were House members Eric Cantor, Jeb Hensarling, Pete Hoekstra, Dan Lungren, Kevin McCarthy, Paul Ryan and Pete Sessions. From the Senate were Tom Coburn, Bob Corker, Jim DeMint, John Ensign and Jon Kyl. Others present were former House Speaker and future and failed presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and the Republican strategist Frank Luntz, who organised the dinner and sent out the invitations.
bluestate10
(10,942 posts)GoCubsGo
(32,100 posts)It boggles the mind...
NNN0LHI
(67,190 posts)Tennessee Gal
(6,160 posts)I shared this info.
malaise
(269,278 posts)Remember we now have proof of their 'sabotage Obama meeting' the night of the inauguration.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/26/democrats-gop-plot-obstruct-obama
ProSense
(116,464 posts)Yeah, "sabotage" is the word.
Tennessee Gal
(6,160 posts)"Am always amazed by small town small business people who say they are for small government and then, when their public employee customer base dries up, remain clueless as to why. Teachers and state/local employees make up the heart of many rural economies and government contracting/subcontracting/ag subsidies a big part of the remainder."
ProSense
(116,464 posts)They absolutely don't make the connection between employment and demand.