When Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich proposed that students should take over the job of cleaning our schools, he was rightly denounced for wanting to eliminate what he called "stupid" child labor laws.
But not a word has been said about the tens of thousands of low-wage janitors who would lose their jobs under Gingrich's plan or about what it would mean to their families and to our national and local economies.
This is sad but not surprising. Tea Party extremists and other Republican ideologues demand that government programs at all levels be eliminated or slashed, but never mention the millions of hardworking Americans who would lose their jobs as a result. It's as if these people and their families don't even exist; that they don't pay taxes and make purchases that support their local economies.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
A good example is what would have happened if the so-called "Balanced Budget Amendment" recently defeated in the House of Representatives had become law
According to a report by Macroeconomic Advisors, a nationally known economic consulting firm, the $1.5 trillion in spending cuts authorized by the Balanced Budget Amendment in 2012 alone would have resulted in the loss of 15 million MORE jobs nationally, doubling the unemployment rate from 9 percent to approximately 18 percent. This would have caused the overall economy to shrink by about 17 percent. "The effect on the economy would be catastrophic," the report concluded.
At the state level, a study by Families USA shows that California would lose an estimated 28,000 jobs and $3.7 billion in potential lost business activity if the federal/state Medicaid program was cut by just 5 percent. Deeper cuts would, of course, result in greater damage to our state's economy. And remember, that's for just one program.
What will happen to all these fired public employees if Gingrich and the Tea Party succeed? I suspect that, just as he did with the Occupy Wall Street protestors, Newt will tell them to find jobs. But surely that won't be easy when more than 14 million of their fellow citizens already are out of work.
The greater likelihood is that they will go on unemployment and may have to eventually apply for Food Stamps and other public assistance. They will lose their life savings and even their homes. They will no longer be paying taxes or spending at local businesses. Perhaps Gingrich and the Tea Baggers can explain how THAT would help our nation's economy.
The human toll on America's elderly, sick, disabled, and disadvantaged that would result from the Republican Party's campaign to destroy our social safety net has been well documented. But we must not ignore the pain that this campaign also will cause to the millions of hardworking Americans who care for our most vulnerable citizens.
Natalie Pace: Occupy Wall Street: One of the Top 10 Most Popular News Stories of 2011
Personally, I think some of these Repugs are just plain sick.....I can't find any evidence of a heart, conscience, or a lick of empathy.
I don't think they are human and they are certainly not Christian (as in behaving like Jesus).
At least a lot of the Repug sheeple will suffer as much as the rest of us.
Maybe some of them will wise up someday and realize what happens when you vote against your own best interests.
**sigh**
The US International Trade Deficit must be corrected by any means possible (Re-Industrialize) in order to generate more NATIONAL WEALTH and stop the flow of title to US located privately owned businesses, factories, casinos, hotels, farms, land, ports, refineries, forests, ports, breweries, distilleries, and other assets that are leaving the USA to pay for the things that we import from foreign manufacturers, and also pay for increasing government expenses, such as stimulus for infrastructure expenses.
The Trade Deficit is the basic structural economic foundation problem that will destroy the US economic miracle because title to US located assets are also leaving the USA to pay for the things that we import and consume in addition to increasing US government expenses.
Brazil, Russia, India, China, (BRIC) nations, plus Pakistan, South Korea, and the other industrialized countries of the world with a positive net foreign trade balance are NET CREATORS of NATIONAL WEALTH (and the associated manufacturing jobs) for their nations.
The de-industrialized USA and the European nations with a negative net trade balance are NET CONSUMERS (DESTROYERS) of the existing NATIONAL WEALTH (and the associated manufacturing jobs) in the USA, who live “high on the hog” by continuously borrowing wealth from the industrialized countries.
That is what life is like for the upper class in many banana republics.
Just a heads up.......
Without profitable US businesses, US corporations, and US businessmen, there will not be any jobs for US citizens (that create wealth for those businesses), except for tax payer funded jobs which will also disappear if businesses stop creating NATIONAL WEALTH that can be taxed or CONFISCATED to pay for government jobs and free government services.
The US government must stop creating new legislation that drives US businesses and US jobs to foreign countries.
The US government should repeal the laws that they created that caused and economically required that US businesses and US jobs to relocate to foreign nations.
There are limits to the amount of NATIONAL WEALTH that can be taken from the wealth creators in the form of taxes and paid to the government or borrowed from foreigners to pay for various government expenses, no matter how much these government expenses are deemed as being "necessary" (usually by the elite government bureaucrats).
If those limits are exceeded, then that nation’s economy will self destruct!
The federal and the local governments will have to continue deficit spending.
Some US citizens believe that there is no limit to the amount of US Dollars that the US government can take from the US taxpayers and/or continuously borrow more US Dollars back from wealth producing foreigners in the foreign industrial nations and then spend that money to create all sorts of additional government bureaucratic jobs for the unemployed, more government contracts to construct all sorts of “Pork Barrel” infrastructure projects, and increase government benefits for those US citizens whom the politicians think will vote for those same politicians that pass laws to give those citizens more and more "free" money.
The USA will become a third world nation of mostly unemployed starving beggars after the US government deficit spending destroys the purchasing power of the US dollar.
I totally agree with your article. Thanks for writing it.