You want evidence that the cuts-only austerity programs pushed by Republicans are actually designed to cause the economy to fail?
Here you go:
All things being equal, lower spending translates into slower economic growth, since it means cuts in payments to contractors, layoffs of government employees, and smaller entitlement checks. Already in 2011, softer government spending has sapped growth.
Cuts by federal, state, and local governments lowered gross domestic product — a broad measure of the total output of the economy — by 1.2 percentage points in the first quarter of 2011, according to the Commerce Department. Goldman Sachs economists estimate that the first quarter showed the biggest negative effect of government spending on GDP growth since the mid-1980s. The Commerce Department will release its estimate of second-quarter GDP today.
With the federal government planning even bigger cuts, the drag is sure to increase. Macroeconomic Advisers estimates that the Reid plan would lower growth by 0.25 of a percentage point per year on average from fiscal year 2012 through 2015. The biggest impact would come in 2013, when the cuts would slice 0.5 of a percentage point from GDP growth.
The GOP’s “Austerity = Growth” meme is almost as silly as their other economic ploy — that tax cuts trickle down and create jobs. As anyone who has been sentient over the past decade knows, job creation has been anemic since 2001, the year the first Bush tax cuts went into effect. Just 8 million jobs were created during George Bush’s two terms, compared with 23 million created during Pres. Bill Clinton’s two terms, when taxes on the wealthy were slightly higher.
