Is U.S. entering a depression?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
Forget all the talk about an economic recovery - the U.S. just might be headed in the opposite direction.
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Paul Krugman - who has a Nobel Prize in economics - writes in the New York Times that he fears we are in the early stages of a depression.
Krugman says a failure of policy is to blame - that it's a mistake for governments around the world to raise taxes and cut spending at this time. Krugman says nations should be spending more to stimulate the economy.
And, at the end of the day - it is the unemployed and their families who will pay the high cost of this depression. Krugman writes about the "tens of millions of unemployed workers, many of whom will go jobless for years, and some of whom will never work again."
Speaking of the unemployed - almost one million Americans are losing their unemployment benefits because the Senate failed to extend the deadline.
The bill didn't get the 60 votes needed to pass because lawmakers are looking for ways to put the brakes on skyrocketing deficits.
The same bill also contained another $24 billion for Medicaid funding for various states. And since they won't be getting that money right now, they will be forced to cut hundreds of millions of dollars, on top of what they've already cut.
It's getting very ugly out there.
Despite the Obama administration crowing about the so-called recovery summer - 78% of Americans say the economy is still in a recession according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll. Some recovery.
Here’s my question to you: Is the U.S. entering a depression?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Does 'angry' best describe how you feel about midterm elections?
(PHOTO CREDIT: THINKSTOCK)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The incumbents are already running for the hills... fearing the wrath of the American voters.
Poll after poll shows how fed up the public is with Washington, with incumbents, with the direction the country is headed and on and on.
So The Washington Post decided to find out if "angry" is the best way to describe how voters feel headed into the midterm elections.
The answer is mixed.
On the one hand, pollsters say describing voters as "angry" is too narrow... because there's actually a whole range of other emotions mixed with the anger. Things like dissatisfaction, anxiety, frustration, pessimism, doubt, etc.
One Republican pollster says most voters are "anxious"... he believes the key voting bloc in November will be the 25% of voters who backed President Obama in 2008, say they will vote this fall - but don't plan to vote for a Democrat.
Other polling experts say describing voters as angry is "too broad."
Republicans are more enthusiastic about voting in the upcoming elections... probably because lots of them want to kick Democrats out of office.
We've also seen an unusual level of energy and excitement among the Tea Party branch of the GOP.
The midterm elections historically have low voter turnout, so any kind of passion is helpful... and this time around, it seems like the Republican party is getting ready to benefit from that passion.
Here’s my question to you: Is "angry" the best word to describe how you feel about the midterm elections?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
@jackcafferty on Twitter
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