Last night, the battle lines in the key fight of the next two years became clear. It will determine whether America goes back into recession or the economy continues to recover. And progressives aren't yet geared up for the fight.
In his speech, the President made the case for job-creating investments in innovation, education, and infrastructure. Republicans, speaking from a fantasy world where all our problems somehow are the government's fault, essentially laughed at the President's ideas and promised deep, gouging cuts they say will magically get America moving again.
Huge budget cuts vs. investment and jobs. This will be the fight of the next two years. And our only chance is to expose what "cutting spending" really means: laying off teachers and firefighters and police officers by the millions, cutting unemployment benefits, slashing Social Security, and zeroing out everything from NPR to the EPA.
Republicans control the spending process. They've shown that they're willing to "take hostages." When that's happened, Democrats have rolled over. Worse, the President is sending mixed messages—he's calling for more investment, but also a spending freeze. So we're in trouble.
We need speak up LOUDLY for progressive solutions to the economic crisis and make the case that the GOP vision will be devastating. This'll take smart media campaigns and lots and lots of grassroots organizing. We need a campaign led by volunteers from across America but supported by organizers, researchers, ad-makers, and a whole lot of other backup.
And we need to start now—not three months from now, when the budget's been negotiated and we only have weeks to stop it.
What does slashing government do to the economy? In England, where the conservative government just implemented sweeping budget cuts despite widespread protest, it didn't "unleash" growth—it did what every reputable economist predicted: shrank the economy.1
And the GOP playbook is equally dangerous: The plan released by Rep. Paul Ryan, who gave the GOP response to the State of the Union, would privatize Social Security and slash benefits; replace Medicare with vouchers; eliminate taxes paid by wealthy corporations; give millionaires a new tax cut; end middle class tax deductions; and cut overall spending so deeply that everything from college scholarships to national parks would shrink dramatically.
Think about how well negotiations have gone with the GOP over the last two years. Now imagine: If this is the GOP's starting position, and the President's opening position includes the spending freeze he announced last night, where is this likely to end up?
We better mobilize now, if we want to stop this from happening. Click here to chip in monthly:
It's time for progressives to forcefully articulate our vision for fixing the economy so conservative ideas aren't the only ones on the table.
We need massive investments in infrastructure and innovation to create jobs. We need urgent aid to states that are laying off teachers and first responders by the thousands.
We need the banks we bailed out to write down millions of "underwater" mortgages. We need to rein in Wall Street firms that are still too big to fail and still control way too much of our economy.
We need the big corporations that are posting record profits to start creating jobs and stop outsourcing them. We need to take up President Obama's call to stop giving away billions of dollars in subsidies to the oil companies. And we need CEOs and hedge fund billionaires to pay their fair share.
And we need to contrast this vision with the Republicans' dead-end nightmare. This won't be easy, and it won't happen overnight—conservatives have spent 30 years developing their message that government is the problem. But if we're not forcefully articulating a progressive alternative, then the discussion in Washington will just be about how deep to cut, and where exactly. And our communities and our citizens will pay the price.
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