While liberals have trumpeted how badly the 16-day government shutdown has been for the economy, they’ve ignored how badly the other 349 days of operational government is for GDP growth.
As the deleterious effects of the shutdown have yet to show up in the actual economy, liberals are trotting out stats that say “Shutdown very, very bad. You too dumb to notice.”
This is important because liberals are STILL caterwauling about the effects that the government shutdown is going to have on the fourth quarter GDP growth. Desperate to get the country’s torches and pitchfork turned back on the Tea Party, Republicans, and their evil masters, the Koch Brothers, liberals are huffing and puffing about two areas they usually seem little concerned about: Jobs and GDP growth.
“The federal government shutdown that lasted for 16 days last month is expected to cost the U.S. economy between $2 billion and $6 billion in economic output,” reports the Huffington Post, “according to a report by the Office of Management and Budget.”
The HuffPuff also says that 120,000 jobs weren’t created in October because of the shutdown.
Come on now: We know how bad liberals are at math.
Because the number of jobs that were reported created for October was 204,000. They really expect us to believe that had the shutdown never occurred over 324,000 jobs would’ve been created?
In the 58 months that Obama has been president the economy has only recorded job creation over 300,000 three times.
Standard & Poors, the rating agency being sued by the federal government for $5 billion for downgrading US debt in 2011, has also made amends to the government by recently projecting the effect of the government shutdown on the economy at $24 billion with a net drag on fourth quarter GDP growth of about 0.6 percent.
"The bottom line is the government shutdown has hurt the U.S. economy," Standard & Poor's said in a statement reported by Money Morning. "In September, we expected 3% annualized growth in the fourth quarter because we thought politicians would have learned from 2011 and taken steps to avoid things like a government shutdown and the possibility of a sovereign default. Since our forecast didn't hold, we now have to lower our fourth-quarter growth estimate to closer to 2%."
S&P, it should be noted, is NOT bad at math. For the cost of a simple report, they’re hoping a $5 billion problem will go away.
No word yet from Attorney General Eric Holder’s office whether the report and the estimates from S&P are part of a broader attempts to settle the suit with the federal government.
In the meantime, the economy has not exactly been robust, but it doesn’t seem worse for the shutdown.
The deeper that the government gets mired in its own incompetence and slovenliness, the higher the stock market goes.
Even the New York Times is confused.
“[T]he addition of 204,000 nonfarm jobs in October eased fears about the impact of the shutdown and prompted some usually cautious observers to wonder whether the economy was finally finding its footing after four years of on-again, off-again growth,” writes the Times.
While some people seem confused about the resiliency of the American economy since the summertime, there’s a very easy explanation for it.
Since the beginning of September 2013 the American economy has enjoyed a billions-of-dollars boost to the economy that currently equals about $5 billion a month or $60 billion per year.
Since the beginning of September when gas prices peaked in the mid-$3.60 range prices have steadily fallen, giving American companies and consumers a $5 billion boost per month at a now-average price of $3.19 per gallon for gas.
And it’s a measure of how far gone our media and politicians are that nobody seems to be making the connection between robust economic growth and cheap energy prices.
That's because today nothing of significance happens without a plan written by some government bureaucrats, approved by other government bureaucrats, who then grant permission to another set of government bureaucrats to study the problem in conjunction with lawyers/lobbyists who then consult their friends on ways to make matters worse.
And the media's job is to studiously ignore the results or make excuses.
So, liberals are right: It’s those jobs that were missing in October.
And thank God for that.
Under Obama, the economy's never been better.
If only for 16 days.