"So be it"

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Yesterday, I wrote about my prediction for an "official" double-dip recession. One of the points I covered was the release by the Commerce Department of the second quarter GDP figures (along with the downward revision of the figures for the first quarter 2011 back to before the start of the Great Recession/Lesser Depression.)

Today, I have seen a couple of articles pointing out that the (lack of) government spending at all levels has been a large factor in the "disappointing" GDP figures. First up is this blog post from yesterday's Washington Post with the title "GDP Shocker: ‘Much of the drag was government’:

So what was the problem?

Government, according to Faucher. “The major drag came from government, on both the federal and state and local sides. Government subtracted 1.2 percentage points from growth in the first quarter, with the federal government accounting for about two-thirds of that,” he said.

Hoocoudanode, right?

Bloomberg reported it this way:

Spending and investment by state and local governments shrank at a 3.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter, matching the decline in the first three months of 2011, the U.S. Commerce Department said today. The fourth consecutive drop is the longest such slump since the government began compiling quarterly data in 1947.

The U.S. economy expanded at a less-than-forecast 1.3 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said. State and local governments accounted for a 0.41 percentage point drag, the same as the first quarter, as governors and mayors adjusted to lower revenue by cutting employees and services.

Peterr over at Firedoglake has this post today pointing out the problems of folks at all levels when they have too much month left at the end of the money compounded by worry that Social Security checks may not be forthcoming in August. But this little nugget really says it all for me:

When even the Chamber of Commerce is telling Congress to worry about the economy, you know that the GOP has gone way off the deep end. OSK-Deutsche Bank economists concur, as do the folks at Macroeconomic Advisors

Now I do have to ask how many folks remember the response of Speaker of the House Boehner way back in February when it was pointed out to him that cutting jobs could hurt the economy:

So be it.

You really should be careful of what you ask for Mr Speaker.

And because I can:

Is Cutting Jobs Programs to Create Jobs Like Cutting Taxes to Increase Revenues?

So today (February 16) the current governor of the state in which I reside (there is no ef'fing way I'm going to lay any claim of ownership to this person and call him my governor) decided that he would follow in the footsteps of his fellow first term Republican governors of Ohio, Wisconsin, and New Jersey and reject federal rail funds for Florida (via CNN):

Washington (CNN) - Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott rejected $432 million in highly-touted funding from the Obama administration for an Orlando to Tampa high-speed rail Wednesday. Slamming government for becoming "addicted to spending," Scott listed three reasons why accepting the federal funds would amount to a "recipe for disaster."

In a statement, Scott said "I was elected to get Floridians back to work and to change the way government does business in our state."

He "was elected to get Floridians back to work..." yet cuts a program that would have created a few thousand jobs for Central Florida and a high speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando and eventually Miami. Outgoing Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio called it:

...the worst decision she's seen a governor make in her 26 years of public service.

"This is such a bad decision on so many different levels. I cannot believe that the governor made this decision," Iorio said. "This is an example when you have someone who governs from ideology instead of practicality and really looking at what's best for Floridians in the long run. This is what you get and I don't know when I've been more disappointed and concerned about a decision a governor has made for our state."