Economy

“More Likely To Kill People Than Create Jobs”

Via ThinkProgress Economy, a brief summary of more economists agreeing with each other that Republican economic policy is a sham. A sentiment echoed in yesterday's "U.S. Economic Policy Debate is a Sham" column from Bloomberg.

In interviews conducted by The Huffington Post, five senior economists, including Gary Burtless, Mark Zandi, Carl Riccadonna, Joel Prakken, and Jesse Rothstein, have indicated that the GOP jobs package would accomplish nothing positive and would go so far as to even potentially damage the economy. According to Gary Burtless, a senior economist at Brookings, the notion that the Republican proposals might boost jobs is absurd and laughable.

The economists interviewed agreed more with environmental advocates, who argued that the GOP proposals were more likely to kill people than create jobs, than they did with Republican claims that the bills would lead to job creation. Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers, was concerned with the ramifications of environmental deregulation which would offset any new jobs — “If you increase employment but you have a lot more sick people, you have to ask yourself, ‘What’s the trade-off?’”

As far as resounding endorsements go, "your policies are more likely to kill people than create jobs" is quite a doozy.

It's hard not to laugh. I'm trying not to and failing.