Learning . . .

In January 1835, President Andrew Jackson (who harbored a very person dislike of the concept of debt), paid off the entire national debt. To do that, he took advantage of a huge real-estate bubble that was raging in the Western U.S. The federal government owned a lot of Western land — and Jackson started selling it off. He was also ruthless on the budget blocking every spending bill he could.


Meantime, back to the present. . .

Shouldn't we LEARN from our own history?

(Thanks to  http://nextcity.org/equityfactor/entry/here-is-foreign-every-country-that-gets-more-federal-aid-than-detroit and http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/04/15/135423586/when-the-u-s-paid-off-the-entire-national-debt-and-why-it-didnt-last)

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Kids!!!. . .

. . . play nice!


(from http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/05/19304066-white-house-hails-june-jobs-report-gop-searches-for-flaws?lite)
". . . According to the latest jobs report, the US economy added 195,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate holds at 7.6 percent...The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.6 percent, though the report was highlighted by the jobs figure, which outpaced most forecasters’ estimates...the report on Friday offered a modest political boon to President Barack Obama. Despite dire warnings about the effect of the ongoing sequester – the automatic, indiscriminate cuts to federal spending that were enacted earlier this year – the economy continues to add jobs, though not at the type of robust pace that would be needed to further reduce the unemployment rate.

But Republicans seized on some indicators of persistent economic weakness in the jobs report, namely a surge in part-time workers reflected in the statistics, and an uptick in the U-6 unemployment rate from 13.8 percent in May to 14.3 percent in June. The U-6 rate is a broader measure of unemployment, which includes discouraged workers and the underemployed.

“There’s some good news in this report, but economic growth is still tepid, the unemployment rate is far too high, and the president continues to promote policies that undermine robust job creation,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, in a statement..."

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My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
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Three charts in an email. . .

. . . each one seeking happiness . . . well, I ain't no Sinatra, but. . .

From Three Charts to Email to Your Right-Wing Brother-In-Law
Monday 29 August 2011
by: Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future | Op-Ed
http://www.truth-out.org/three-charts-email-your-right-wing-brother-law/1314626142

Couldn't reproduce the charts here (you can see them by copying-and-pasting the hyperlink above to your browser), but Dave Johnson advocates something in which I believe very strongly, FACTS!

The chart shows Bush increased spending 88%; Obama increased spending 7.2% and Johnson says says, "Government spending increased dramatically under Bush. It has not increased much under Obama. Note that this chart does not reflect any spending cuts resulting from deficit-cutting deals."

"Deficits
Bush-Obama Deficit Chart
Notes, this chart includes Clinton's last budget year ($128 billion surplus) for comparison." Bush, $1.4 trillion deficit. Obama, $1.2 trillion and headed downward.

"The Stimulus and Jobs
Bush-Obama-Jobs-Chart
In this chart, the RED lines on the left side -- the ones that keep doing DOWN -- show what happened to jobs under the policies of Bush and the Republicans. We were losing lots and lots of jobs every month, and it was getting worse and worse. The BLUE lines -- the ones that just go UP -- show what happened to jobs when the stimulus was in effect. We stopped losing jobs and started gaining jobs, and it was getting better and better. The leveling off on the right side of the chart shows what happened as the stimulus started to wind down: job creation leveled off at too low a level.

It looks a lot like the stimulus reversed what was going on before the stimulus.
Conclusion: THE STIMULUS WORKED BUT WAS NOT ENOUGH!

More False Things
These are just three of the false things that everyone "knows." Some others are (click through): Obama bailed out the banks, businesses will hire if they get tax cuts, health care reform cost $1 trillion, Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme or is "going broke", government spending "takes money out of the economy."

Why This Matters
These things really matter. We all want to fix the terrible problems the country has. But it is so important to know just what the problems are before you decide how to fix them. Otherwise the things you do to try to solve those problems might just make them worse. If you get tricked into thinking that Obama has made things worse and that we should go back to what we were doing before Obama -- tax cuts for the rich, giving giant corporations and Wall Street everything they want -- when those are the things that caused the problems in the first place, then we will be in real trouble."




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