Congress failed to address the complete equation for effectivenes

by YankeeJim | December 28, 2011 at 07:01 am

30 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

Ezra Klein addresses Congressional Performance

Congress focused on government spending that was surely outstripping revenues as a percentage of gross domestic products. The President and Congress failed to address policies and incentives necessary to encourage job growth and development.

In my judgment, the capitalist system may have reached a point of unsustainability as the desired outcome must change from “ever expanding growth” to “sustainable growth.” Full employment is surely achievable when the wealth of the nation is distributed to achieve it.

“Lori Montgomery has a terrific piece on how little deficit reduction actually got done this year. But perhaps that shouldn't be surprising. The pressure for deficit reduction comes from interest rates. Interest rates, as noted in yesterday's Wonkbook, haven't been this low since 1995. So though there's a lot of talk about the deficit, there's not actually a lot of economic pressure to do anything about it. But the same can't be said for another neglected category of policymaking: jobs.

There has been less done for the jobless than for the deficit. After all, the debt-ceiling deal did lead to $900 billion in cuts to domestic discretionary spending, and to the spending trigger that threatens to make a trillion more in cuts starting in 2012. But the jobless? Save for a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance benefits, they got nothing.”