Reply #19: Partial substantiation follows... [View All]

[jtuck004]

A New White House Economic Strategy?

The plan would put deficit reduction ahead of job creation.

Over the past week, top White House officials have been floating a trial balloon for their strategy on the economy. At its core is a decision to put deficit reduction ahead of job creation.

The premise is that the bond markets and allied deficit hawks are demanding action to cut the budget, that Obama lacks the votes in the Senate for a serious jobs initiative, and that polls show voters care more about deficit reduction than about jobs.

So the plan, modeled closely on the work of the Peter G. Peterson foundation and the anticipated report of the president's own fiscal commission, is a deal that includes cuts in Social Security plus a new Value Added Tax (VAT), in order to get deep cuts in the deficit. As a sweetener to get Republicans to back the VAT, White House officials would cut the corporate income tax.
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Link at: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_new_white_house_economic_strategy
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So forget the infrastructure, forget the 27 million plus under and unemployed, forget employing people so they can pay taxes to reduce the deficit. Just figure out how many old people you can make eat cat food and how many kids you can cut from government assistance of any kind. Makes the dollar stronger, keeps us an import nation. It's not like people are going to leave their remotes behind and pick up a spot in a protest.

Which way are those hills?