¿Por qué el sector privado está haciendo muy bien:

Romney, Boehner y otros no puede tener las dos cosas!

por
Dominique DiPrima

La mayoría de los expertos en la izquierda y la derecha están de acuerdo en que el presidente Barack Obama hizo una metedura de pata grave cuando – de paso – afirmó que “el sector privado está haciendo muy bien.” Políticos de derecha y los estrategas han tenido de hacer un día de campo todo lo posible para pintar el Presidente como fuera de contacto o incapaz de comprender el funcionamiento de una economía capitalista. Estamos en el calor de lo que será una temporada de campaña muy duro y estoy seguro de que el Presidente desea que él no lo habría dicho, como lo demuestra su aclaración, poco después de que la economía no es “haciendo bien.” Yo también deseo que él no lo habría dicho, pero sólo porque puede lastimar a su intento de reelección. No porque no es cierto! Porque, el hecho es, when you look at what the president was actually saying, not just the soundbite, the President was right.

The Commander-in-Chief was making the point he made because our public sector jobs are under attack, shrinking and under the budget axe nationwide. And because states and cities across the country are facing major fiscal crisis that threaten their very survival. He was talking about his priorities in terms of keeping the Titanic afloat. If you’ve been paying attention, you may have noticed that the President has already done quite a bit to stabilize the private sector – un $787 billion dollar stimulus plan, bank bailouts, auto industry bailout, payroll tax holidays, a healthcare bill to name a few.

The investment in maintaining the public sector has been relatively modest. We know that some teachers, cops and firefighters kept their jobs thanks to the stimulus package. And states have benefitted from infrastructure projects and educational dollars from the feds. But no undertaking of the size and scope of the stimulus package has been aimed at public employees, state and local government.

Mitt Romney (as he stated in response to the President’s unfortunate choice of words) and Congressman Paul Ryan may consider local firefighters, cops and teachers to be “big government.” But most of us look at them as people, people who have jobs, jobs that provide essential services to our communities. Even Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker broke with Romney to say he didn’t consider teachers and firefighters to be big government. But when you look at the policies Walker is imposing in his state, or that Ryan proposes in his draconian budget, those exact professions could be pushed out of the middle class, or onto the unemployment roles in droves.

These so-called business savvy politicians want to have it both ways. Out of one side of their mouths that claim to be job-creators, while slashing public sector jobs and pensions and outsourcing entire industries out of the other.

Public sector jobs are jobs. For many people of color they are the very jobs that lifted our families out of poverty into the ranks of the middle class with the help of their powerful unions. And yet as the right wing millionaire politicians would tell it this is big government and needs to be cut. From the post office to the local librarian, what we are really talking about are workers – workers who do important jobs!

Mitt Romney is the perfect example of how the private sector is doing fine. He made 25 million dollars over the past two years, paying an average of 12% tax and benefitting handsomely from the Bush tax Cuts for the wealthy, corporate loopholes, and overseas tax havens. And yet he has the nerve to put out a video mocking the Presidents gaffe and saying the President is out of touch. Romney’s video seems to feature many of the same workers his policies would force into joblessness after he finished labeling them “big government.” All the while he is busy trying to get the ultimate government job for himself!

The head of a typical publicly traded company made $9.6 million dollars in 2011. That is up 6% respecto al año anterior y se encuentra en el nivel más alto desde la Associated Press comenzó a medir en 2006. Las ganancias de la Norma & Poors 500 índice bursátil subió 16% el año pasado. Mientras tanto las escuelas están despidiendo a profesores, y la cancelación de la escuela de verano. Las ciudades están cortando las horas de biblioteca y servicios críticos de emergencia. En este contexto, de hecho, el sector privado está haciendo muy bien. Fine es relativo. Y para aquellos de nosotros en estado crítico, estable, ahora mismo está buscando “bien.”