THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Most people are clever enough to realize that a failed idea will probably fail for you as well. The Republican/Teabaggers in Congress are not that clever. Perhaps they are blinded by their furious response to a black man in the White House or maybe they are simply, mindlessly committed to failed ideas. Whichever, they are leading the charge for austerity with Custer like zeal.

There are times when taking a new, untested approach to solve a problem after exhausting all other options is a brilliant idea and often a method of last resort. Obviously, no sane person would deliberately pursue a course of action that experts doomed to failure, and especially if there were living examples of a particular agenda’s failure. After Republican economic policies created a world-wide recession, many European nations imposed harsh austerity measures that have proven to be abject failures, leading Republicans to champion austerity as if results would be different because America is exceptional. If nothing else, one can say with confidence that when Republicans find an economic policy that fails, they are duty-bound to repeat it regardless the consequences.

The latest fourth quarter report on GDP growth revealed precisely what economic experts not working for the Heritage Foundation have predicted for four years; reduced government spending during an economic recovery retards growth. Although the news was not entirely bad, the Republican’s drive to enact harsh austerity measures predictably produced the same results England has experienced as their gross domestic product fell 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012. The data released yesterday showed that the U.S. economy shrank in the fourth quarter of 2012 also, and the 0.1 percent contraction is entirely attributable to cuts in government spending; precisely as economists have warned for nearly four years. Britain’s conservative government was criticized by the International Monetary Fund for their steadfast, and errant, belief that austerity is the key to economic success despite its failure that now threatens their credit rating. Still, they persist defending austerity in spite of a looming triple-dip recession Republicans are wont to repeat for America in their spending cut frenzy.

America’s private sector is doing just fine, and the good news is that personal expenditures, non-residential investment, and business investment were all up, but Republicans promise to decimate GDP growth by enacting sequestration cuts experts warn will reduce GDP growth by 0.7 percent in 2013 and destroy as many as one million jobs. The Republican’s budget guru, Paul Ryan, decried the sequester cuts and negative impact on jobs during his failed bid for the vice-presidency, and said, ”Now there’s one thing we’re going to have to deal with to make sure we protect jobs around America, and that is these devastating sequestration cuts.” This week, Ryan said “I think the sequester is going to happen-we can’t lose those spending cuts” because “Democrats rejected the GOP’s replacement legislation” that cut the food-stamp program, slashed Medicaid, defunded the Affordable Care Act, and disaster relief, and failed to produce their own Draconian cuts. However, Ryan is lying.

We are still two recessions behind England, but that is not for want of effort by the Republican/Teabaggers. And the only way out is to eliminate the Republican/Teabaggers.