Real Unemployment

            I am so upset with the Democratic Party. Not over policy matters, mind you. During the first two years of his presidency, President Obama passed a health-care reform bill, moved to re-regulate Wall Street and is seeking to cut oil industry subsidies. All very noble and just causes, but these three well capitalized segments of the US economy aren’t going to rollover and allow anything to disturb their status quo. They play by a different set of rules and have a very specific agenda. But for some reason the Democrats underestimated the voter dissatisfaction with the present situation and overestimated the longterm memory capacity of the voting population

“Government Bad. Free Market Good.”

“Cut taxes to foster growth.” “Slash government spending."

“Individual Control”

Durable Goods Employment

Going into the 2010 mid-term elections all we heard about was how the deficit was out of control under President Obama and that the increased size of the federal government was the main reason for the expanding deficit. Why weren’t the Democratic leaders reminding the electorate that the TARP bank bail-out was passed before he came into office. Why weren’t they being more vocal about the accounting games that, prior to 2010, had kept the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from being reflected in the federal budget? I realize that the Bush tax cuts were old news and had been widely discussed in 2008 presidential election but I think that the tax-cut issue should have been revisited. But, for whatever reason, the Democrats did a horrible job of presenting these facts.  

Manufacturing

The “Right” and the newly empowered Tea Party movement paraded out a romanticized version of President Ronald Reagan and the political philosophy of  Ayn Rand, the Russian born writer.

But if you take a holistic view of Reagan's performance or the ideas that Rand espoused, you will see things that don’t quite fit in with standard conservative doctrine.

Discouraged Workers

Rand’s “Objectivist Movement” embraced the ideals of laissez-faire capitalism and individual rights which fits in with the calls for smaller government and less government interference. (Deregulation) But she was also an atheist and she felt that an embryo had no “rights” until being born.

As for President Reagan; he passed Social Security reform that required higher income beneficiaries to pay income tax on part of their

benefits. His tax reform bill in 1986 reduced or eliminated many tax breaks. During his Presidency the federal deficit went from -2.6 % of GDP to - 5.1% of GDP. His administration also engaged in an unapproved clandestine arms deal with Iran, a sworn enemy. (The Iran-Contra Affair)

So how can the likes of Boehner, Ryan, Cantor & McConnell profess that Reagan was the ideal Republican. And how can the “Moral Majority” embrace a philosophy touted by pro-choice, Russian born atheist. It’s kind of like choosing which one of the Ten Commandments is applicable at a given time.

But more importantly, why isn’t the Democratic party calling them out on these fallacies and exposing the hypocrisy to the voting public.

Private Jobs

I am also including a couple of spreadsheets that show some economic statistics going back to 1948. Color coded them so you can see which party did what.

Taxes Versus Spending
Unemployment Taxes GDP 1948 thru 2010

GDP Spreadsheet 

10 Ways America Has Become A Low-Tax Country Huffington Post

Broken, Not Broke: The Economy According to Richard Wolff