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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Goldman Sachs forecast a 1.5-2.0% drop in GDP if House budget passes

Those human wrecking balls also known as the Republican Party House members voted to cut $60 billion in spending. They narrowed their aim and zeroed in hurting the most needy. Children, women, low income families and the environment fared the worst, naturally, Corporations, the wealthy, super-wealthy, and the military escaped the budget axe unscathed, They tried to cut $10 million from the Pentagon's ad budget with NASCAR and judging by the outcry you would think John Boehner had pissed on Ronald Reagan's grave so even that minuscule snip was removed.

Today, Goldman Sachs came out with a report that should the cuts pass (they won't) the cutback in spending will reduce GDP growth by 1.5-2.0% growth. The final numbers for GDP growth was 2.6% and 1.7%. The fourth quarter initial report came in at 3.2% but those numbers are more often than not, revised downwards once the final numbers come in. So should the GOP cuts pass, not only will the neediest get screwed, so will the economy at large.

I know Goldman Sachs is the evil vampire squid but nontheless, their economic forecasting is generally very good, which is part of the reason they are the evil vampire squid.

Which brings us back to a point I made earlier this week. On the Sunday news talk shows all the talk was about the deficit while there was one lonely comment about the economy and job growth, The budget doesn't need trimming so much as tax breaks for the wealthiest, especially obscenely rich Hedge Fund managers and large corporations needs to br trimmed. For the rest, budget cutting is not what's needed, targeted spending is a better solution.

A budget that cuts $2 billion from job training when unemployment is unacceptably high shows just where Republican's priorities lie.

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