Its All about Jobs

Dear Friends,
Bob Herbert has an excellent column in the New York Times this morning entitled "The Magic Potion".  (here) He discusses the need to put Americans back to work as the only way that we can have a sustained and reasonable recovery.  Of course, this is not a "magic potion", it is basic economics.  Mr. Herbert focuses on President Franklin Roosevelt's programs which were successful in bringing us out of the Great Depression.  We would have come out better, stronger and sooner, if President Roosevelt had not backed off the jobs programs too early. 
In this recession, we did not have a big enough stimulus and too much of it was in the form of tax breaks to try to buy some Republican support.  What we need is government spending in two areas.  First, the Federal government needs to dramatically increase aid to the state and local government who are laying off people and cutting needed services and maintenance.  The lack of spending by state and local governments hurts the recovery and will be a disaster for the future.  Second, the Federal government needs to fund infrastructure both to make up for huge amounts of deferred maintenance and to be sure that America is not left behind as the green economy grows.
All the inside politicians will say that it can not be done because we can't get anything through the Congress.  Well now is the time for leadership, and we need to force President Obama and the Democrats in Congress to make sure that we have new and robust Federal government spending to get us out of this recession and keep us competitive in the global economy.  So write and call the President and your elected officials.
Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal