Bad news for the middle class. Fantastic news for corporations.
You’re not supposed to mention it but 2014 could be the best year for job growth in this century.
One of the key factors in the sudden robustness of the job market has been the longest period of stability in Washington, D.C. since the Great Recession began. After the government shutdown, Congress passed a two-year budget that calmed fears of that we would have another fabricated crisis.
Take a quick look at Gallup’s Economic Confidence survey over the last few years and you can see damage the debt limit crisis, the fiscal cliff and more recently the shutdown did to consumer optimism, which directly relates to the demand which grows the economy.
We’ve just recently recovered from the damage the GOP did last October.
If Republicans win the Senate, expect crisis after crisis as they try to stop the president for taking more steps on immigration that will force Republicans to run on a platform of mass deportations in 2016.
Republicans have a solid 12 months to behave with only GOP primaries in mind. And with Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio all competing for the Tea Party vote and potentially acting as swing votes for a slight Senate majority, expect the worst.
Because we’ve already been promised the worst.
“We will do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen: Defunding, going to court, injunction. You name it,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said this week.
This seems to contradict House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy who suggested that Republicans will need to prove they could govern to win in 2016. “Could” is pivotal word for Salon‘s Heather Digby Parton who points out that this doesn’t mean passing any legislation the president will sign. It means passing bills that the president will veto, forcing standoffs.
To the New Republic‘s Brian Beutler, Reince has made a declaration of war.
“His comments to conservatives only make sense as a promise of high-wattage confrontation—over funding the government, increasing the debt limit, impeachment—or as outright deception,” he wrote.
All these standoffs and the resulting cuts to the most vulnerable will have the same effect on the economy the GOP won’t let heal: millions out of work, wages depressed, and tragic amounts human capital wasted.
But there will be some jobs created — for corporate lobbyists.
Politico‘s Anna Palmer reports:
GOP lobbyists and consultants are strategizing about landing new business and looking forward to advising clients if Republicans take control of the Senate — setting off rapid change in the political dynamics of Capitol Hill.Several lobbyists said they expect a bump in business in the first half of 2015 when companies look to recalibrate their outside rosters to engage more heavily with Senate Republicans.
“There will be a burst of excitement and activity as a result of that change,” said former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who now heads Squire Patton Boggs’ lobbying operation.
Bad news for the middle class. Fantastic news for corporations. That’s all you need to know about a GOP Senate.
[Image by jbouie via Flickr]
