This guy, Dean Baker, is kinda whiny about familiar complaint: why doesn't the media give any attention to policy makers who propose useful, realistic action policies?
Okay, so tabling the fact that he is kinda whiny, the policy in question in this particular instance is actually really interesting: the Congressional Progressive Caucus' "Back to Work Budget". (that link has a bunch of quick facts on it for those interested in a gloss)
Baker points out that the CPC budget
"...is designed to get us back to full employment. It calls for a major program to modernize and improve our infrastructure. It would also provide funding to state and local governments to reverse many of the cutbacks in education, healthcare and other areas over the last few years. In past recoveries, state and local hiring has helped to boost the recovery. In this recovery, cutbacks slowed growth."
Have a look at the short article about the budget here: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/17/paul-ryan-budget-vs-congressional-progressive-caucus
What do you all think? Worth more coverage? Is the CPC budget feasible, or should be not believe their numbers?
Okay, so tabling the fact that he is kinda whiny, the policy in question in this particular instance is actually really interesting: the Congressional Progressive Caucus' "Back to Work Budget". (that link has a bunch of quick facts on it for those interested in a gloss)
Baker points out that the CPC budget
"...is designed to get us back to full employment. It calls for a major program to modernize and improve our infrastructure. It would also provide funding to state and local governments to reverse many of the cutbacks in education, healthcare and other areas over the last few years. In past recoveries, state and local hiring has helped to boost the recovery. In this recovery, cutbacks slowed growth."
Have a look at the short article about the budget here: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/17/paul-ryan-budget-vs-congressional-progressive-caucus
What do you all think? Worth more coverage? Is the CPC budget feasible, or should be not believe their numbers?
Dean Baker is always sees himself as an underdog. But I enjoy reading him at times. The notion that the government should spend on infrastructure (and hire people to build all that infrastructure) is an old Keynesian idea that works. Mostly. But it could also be financed through creative public-private partnerships that again would require people to be hired to do the work.
ReplyDeleteI think the notion that such an idea would lead to even larger deficits in the short run turns a lot of people off right away. The public-private partnerships is an interesting idea, though I am not familiar with how they work. Would they not require significant government spending? If such an initiative could be enacted without significantly impacting the deficit, I think the chances of it being embraced by the general public would be much greater.
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