Note to Center for American Progress: It’s the Economy, Stupid

ATR ^ | 2011-06-29 | Kelly William Cobb

[92nina]

The Center for American Progress (CAP) is touting a myopic economic analysis claiming that a 10 percent cut in state spending actually leads to a 1.6 percent decline in private sector jobs. They even have fun scatterplots. But what CAP conveniently ignores for political gain is that correlation is not causation. In fact, the reverse of their argument is true: diminishing economic growth, rising unemployment, and reduced consumption all cause state tax revenues to decline, and spending to drop with it. In short: it’s the economy, stupid. Unlike our federal government that spent itself into debt, every state except Vermont has a balanced budget amendment tying expenditures to revenues. Tax revenues plummeted in the last recession – well beyond prior ones – forcing states to take at least some austerity measures to maintain balanced budgets. The reason spending cuts became the major focus was because states were on a spending joyride in the run-up to the recession, pushing expenditures well beyond what their economies could handle. In 2007, when the recession first set in, annual state spending growth had hit 4.3 percent, while GDP growth was half that at 2.1 percent. In a glaring sign of fiscal irresponsibility, even when the recession became evident during 2008 and GDP growth had tumbled to 0.4 percent, states ramped up year-over-year spending by another 4.2 percent. Meanwhile, the real employment level had started declining in 2006, and by the time states started merely slowing the rate of spending growth in 2008, job losses were already a problem...

Read more: http://www.atr.org/note-center-american-progress-economy-stupid-a6293#ixzz1QgVRdj5t

[92nina]

Contrary to Center for American Progress claims, jobs are lost due to economic downturns, not state spending cuts. Unless of course you're a bureaucrat.

Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at at Digg and at Reddit and in Delicious and Stumbleupon

[cranked]

Progressive Center for American Backwardness <———that is what the Center should really change its name to. =.=

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks 92nina. And, “It’s the Obamacare, stupid!”