We’ve just recently seen the GDP numbers for the 4th quarter of 2012 and in a shocker the GDP shrunk. The GDP shrank by .1 percent during the last quarter of 2012. This is not good news for a country supposedly coming out of a recession. GDP or Gross Domestic Product is the market value of all final good and services produced in a country, in this case the USA. This means the economy got smaller at the end of 2012. This is not good because the GDP is also tied to the standard of living in a country. But of course this is all the fault of the evil republicans if you would believe the white house press secretary, well that and of course Hurricane Sandy, which ravaged most of the eastern seaboard.
Jay Carney said, “”Our economy is facing a major headwinds, and that’s Republicans in Congress,” then said the threat of sequestration was partly to blame. So the threat of sequestration, the republicans in Congress, and a lack of spending kept the economy from growing? Even Keynes, of Keynesian economics didn’t believe you could indefinitely spend your way to prosperity. It just doesn’t work like that. Growing the size and power of government does not heal the economy and cause it to blossom.
I don’t know how these threats could even be considered plausible since federal spending was larger in the 4thquarter of 2012 than in the 2nd or 3rd quarters. Federal spending by quarter:
1st: 966,188
2nd: 884,957
3rd: 809,969
4th: 907,912
So we know that is clearly not the case. Clearly this is a ploy since the sequester was only delayed by two months to pressure republicans into giving the administration everything they want in exchange for…more blame when it continues not to work? I don’t know. Carney turned the whole thing into a rant about evil republicans who are apparently holding the government hostage by refusing to raise taxes on the rich, increase spending, and get rid of that pesky debt ceiling that keeps us from getting a bigger credit limit.
By they way about good old hurricane Sandy. The damage caused by Katrina was far worse than Sandy and only resulted in a slip in economic growth to 2.5% positive from almost 4% the quarter before the hurricane. A lot of that was cause by oil production disruption and the lot. To claim that Sandy, which nicked the U.S. for all intents and purposes did greater damage than Katrina economically during an election year where battleground states were raking in piles of money for 30 second propaganda spots is far-fetched wishful thinking at best.
No really, the looming threat of the coming hidden costs of our new healthcare mandate, the reaction employers to scale back on personnel and hours to compensate are negatively effecting the economy. But no one will blame the health care law, it’s all good. The gigantic and mounting deficits are scaring people who hold the dollar and investors both foreign and domestic are starting to get skittish and the euro continues to gain against the dollar. Taxes keep taking money out of the economy and the trickle down government we’ve been given instead isn’t going very far.