It's a truism, but it's also true: The state of the economy is going to be much more important in determining who wins the election than any arguments over Bain Capital, taxes, or even Mitt Romney's Olympian gaffes.
And on that score, we got some more bad news Friday morning. The economy grew at a rate of just 1.5 percent between April and June, the government reported. The sluggish pace, down from 2.4% in the first quarter of the year, was due mostly to a falloff in consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of economic activity.
Already, the Romney campaign is jumping on the news. In an interview on CNBC, Glenn Hubbard, Romney's top economic adviser, called it "very disappointing for the future of the economy."
Late Update, 2:26pm: The chart above, created by Steve Benen of The Maddow Blog, gives you a longer term view of the economy's performance.
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Imagine for a moment what our economy would look like right now if three million more Americans had jobs? We would be at about 6% unemployment. We can than the obstructionist GOP for causing this economic meltdown. President Obama tried hard to prevent this situation from happening. He accurately foresaw what was happening in the economy. President Obama proposed strong action to deal with the problem. President Obama proposed the American Jobs Act in August, 2011. The American Jobs act would have created or saved two million jobs in our economy. The American Jobs Act would have been a big deal in putting construction workers back to work building infrastructure projects.
The GOP controlled House did not even bring the American Jobs Act up for a vote. The GOP Senators recently filibustered a small business tax credit bill that economists said would have created one million jobs. Three million jobs would make our GDP growth a whole lot higher. We can thank GOP obstructionism and the "do nothing" GOP Congress for our "no growth" economy. Its not just these two bills its a whole series of other bills for infrastructure, green energy, and other bills that would have spurred growth in our economy that have either been obstructed or filibustered in the Senate by the "do nothing" GOP Congress.
What has to be done is a broad based economic growth plan. America needs another Apollo program for green energy. America needs to fix all of its $2.2 trillion in infrastructure maintenance that the American Society of Civil Engineers says we need to fix. We should bury nearly all of our electrical grid while modernizing our power grid to a smart grid system. We need wind farms, solar thermal plants, solar panels, all across our country connected to a smart electrical grid that distributes the power to the consumer. We can pass the Picken's energy plan that will convert our 18 wheel truck fleet, and other medium axle weight trucks like buses, garbage trucks etc. over to natural gas and will build up our electrical grid to get 25% of our electricity from solar and wind power. We can also build cogeneration systems that will take waste heat from industrial firms that use lots of fossil fuels in the manufacturing process into electricity. Cogeneration systems can also send power into the electrical grid. The state of Ohio could get all of its electricity from waste heat that goes up the chimneys of its factories and other industrial firms. Think of the tremendous savings and profits this would create.
The Picken's energy plan and cogeneration systems are ways of using fossil fuels combined with renewable sources into a comprehensive energy program. We can get twice as efficient in our use of fossil fuel energy. We also can start building large numbers of commuter buses, mass transit system upgrades, bullet trains, and vastly improved Amtrak passenger rail investments. These green energy programs are actually "grey energy" systems because we just use our fossil fuels more wisely. These investments in an Apollo program should combine the Picken's energy plan, with massive cogeneration, and mass transit systems and bullet trains. When oil goes up to $150 per barrel again perhaps these ideas will get more attention. We ought to be talking about them right now.
OK Rex if you think that more government spending and more government control over the economy works then why didn't that work for the USSR or China why did they have to loosen their government control of their economy so it would work
Your Idea has been proven not to work government needs to get out of the business of making business that's is what Communism is and it doesn't work
Why is it that those on the Right continuously compare apples and oranges to communism and stimulus projects. Our system has the overwhelming bulk of projects contracted, and even subcontracted, out to private enities. Communism has all aspects of activity (from the farm, to the power plants), done entirely by the state - enormous difference.
In our system, government makes business function. If you think not, you might look at your roads, bridges, airports, internet, dollar bills, etc, etc, on and on, through all of our 300+ million lives.
I put blame where blame belongs. The do nothing Congress making us wait for jobs, won't pass a damn thing to help. It's all politics to rich folks controlling our lives by blackmailing working people by way of our jobs, education, and training.