Historically - I am not aware of any time austerity has been the underpinning of any economic recovery in the USA.
Many politicians fought the president's plan for recover during the great depression - but eventually he prevailed
and it worked and gave the US a fantastic infrastructure that hadn't existed previously. Over the years that infrastucture
has been decaying due to the way politicians run around blindly with their heads buried in the pockets of special interest
groups, and pissing away the budgetary surplus of the ....... years by throwing money at pork barrel projects owned and operated by cronies and family members.
You speak of American businesses that cannot compete in the global market - but fail to mention how much the economy has suffered due to export of jobs to China, India etc. Those lost jobs that should be here in America would be paying salaries to American workers who in turn would be spending said salaries in American stores increasing faith in the American economy and supporting small businesses here in the USA. You always talk of efficiency - by which you mean keeping down the minimum wage - another thing that cripples the economy because people can't spend what they don't earn. Same for the trend of corporations that fire workers to keep them from collecting pensions and then re-hire them as temps, another "efficiency" trend that undercuts confidence in the economy. All of this is directly related to out-of-balance nature of the Big-Money people who sit on their giant piles of cash and fail to re-invest the money in any socially meaningful way. The ever widening gap between the very rich and the poor and failure to grow the middle-class is incredibly short-sighted and if not reversed, will turn America into another third world county. The blindered Plutocratic arrogance of the 1% is incredible. That Sun King wannabees can have multiple million dollar homes all over the planet and eat off of gold flatware and have elevators for their five Caddilacs all paid for by robber baron tactics, Wall Street swindiling and selling goods at their K Marts and Walmarts manufactured in Chinese prisons and virtual slave-labor conditions and feel that the money from these endeavors is rightfully and honestly earned is bad enough; especially coupled with the tactics of keeping their earnings in off-shore shore accounts to avoid paying their fair share of taxes on the earnings - but when I hear these pin-heads use the word "entitlement' like it's a curse word I have to think that this is perhaps one of the greatest of all ironies.
First, there was no ....... surplus. The surplus was a projection that used profligate dotcom investment as its basis while ignoring the underfunding of US entitlements. It wasn't dishonest, it was just an inaccurate CBO projection, worsened by the unexpected events of 9-11, the airline bailouts, and WOT.
Second, FDR's policies did not lead to recovery. It is true that his infrastructure spending made a difference, but there must be a robust economy to utilize the infrastructure. It was war-time production that saved the US from another decade of depression, and I'd argue that FDR's infrastructure was not terribly important compared to the US interstate system, which arose from post-war economic analysis of Germany's autobahn. I give FDR a pass b/c he was the first person to introduce Keynesian theory in the US, but Obama has no excuses. We know more than enough to have stopped the recession by the end of Obama's first term.
Third, you are correct that outsourcing jobs has hurt corporate earnings and the plight of American workers, and I often wonder why businesses thought they could earn higher profits by laying off their customers. Honestly though, I'm more concerned with the government policies that made businesses believe that laying off their customers was a potentially viable strategy. Chinese government policy is also pertinent as their currency manipulation is part of US outsourcing.
The 1% have made their fortunes by building the American middle-class. The idea that they have a vested interest in destroying the American middle class is a bit preposterous, especially since most of them have the education to know that the democratic electorate will vote against them. You have to remember also that the world has about 4-5B people who want to be part of the middle class, and they work tirelessly to attract our 1% to their economies. The US, on the other hand, tends to discourage employment and capital investment with relatively high payroll and corporate tax rates (when compared to government services).
Localized austerity is what our businesses are looking for and our middle-class needs. We basically need to cleave chunks of wasteful Medicare and Social Security off of our budget. Plus, we need to reduce or eliminate about 50% of our unemployment, welfare, food stamps, etc. by putting people back to work. The payroll tax cuts and drilling initiatives were popular with businesses and economically necessary. Obamacare has been roundly rejected by the business establishment b/c they don't believe the government will reduce per capita healthcare spending if the economy recovers. They never have so why would they start now?
Obama needs to show healthcare cost decline (without baking the data) or we will not recover until we start exporting oil. 2020? 2030? Never? His other option is to take Romney's platform and use it.
