September 28, 2013
No one expects serious budget or economic analysis on the Washington Post’s editorial page, but endorsing a tax and spending freeze until the unemployment rate falls below 6.5 percent (bizarrely called “Jobs First”) is an embarrassment even for the Post. Incredibly, neither the Post nor their “No Labels” leaders explain what a freeze even means. Is spending frozen in nominal terms, in real terms? Does it allow for increases in spending in mandatory programs like Social Security and Medicare?
You won’t find answers to these basic questions in either the Post’s editorial or on the No Labels website. (For those folks who aren’t familiar with them, No Labels was started by a bunch of Wall Street types who think that everyone should just stop fighting and agree with them.)
Anyhow, it is hard to comment much on something that is so vague, but the irony of the “Jobs First” label should be apparent to everyone. In order to get down to 6.5 percent unemployment in a reasonable period of time we are likely to need more government spending. By freezing government spending, the No Labels crew are effectively putting jobs last. But hey, this is the Washington Post editorial page, who cares about economics, logic, or jobs?
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