Federal jobs and not DC employment must be what you are referring to.
Federal job losses are outstripping state and local public sector losses:
http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/BL-REB-16675
Private sector job growth has been positive; the public sector has been terrible.
These are basic fucking facts that are not difficult to come by.
It’s odd how you phrased that. Most wealthy parts of the country are liberal, not conservative.
I’d agree with this. That’s why I singled out Washington, not generally federal workers everywhere.
If you are selling that DC hasn’t been booming recently you aren’t going to find many private sector workers buying it.
From Terr’s link.
I am confused. My statement that I live in a non-wealthy area and have conservative friends/family would seem to jibe with your statement that non-wealthy areas tend to run conservative. (And in fact, the town I grew up in borders on Appalachia, has been economically depressed for decades, and is as red as red could be, politically. The urban area I live in now is more liberal-leaning, but I still have a lot of friends from home.)
D’oh! Reading comprehension fail on my part. Sorry about that.
Since July 2011, the number of Federal workers in DC has gone down by about 10%, while private sector employment has risen by about 5%. Cite. Job growth is highest in the hospitality industry.
Since we’re talking about the time period of the recession which started in 2008 I don’t know why you are posting a cite that just counts since July of 2011.
Since it’s easy to show that you’re wrong, I don’t waste too much time digging up precise cites that suit every aspect of your assertions. I’m providing cites more for the benefit of other posters here so that they will recognize your mistakes, rather than as an attempt to get you to change your mind.
aruvqan didn’t put it like I would have but I think we have all known people with Masters and PhDs who are, while smart, only knowledgeable about an incredibly narrow slice of the universe.
So far as the question of what degree of mistake Art Laffer made at any given point, I don’t care. I’m just pointing out that it’s not nuts to believe he made any serious error just because he’s accomplished at something else.
I’m trying to remember, drawing a blank. When did the party of “Law and Order” become the party of “Only The Laws That We Like”?
Are they breaking some law?
They are trying to literally break the ACA. As in damage.
Are they doing something illegal?
It couldn’t possibly be that you’re cherry picking only cites that back up your beliefs.
Good to know.
:dubious:
Agreed.
But it’s not something else. He’s an accomplished in both economics and government. That would lead me to think he knows something so basic as Medicare being a government program.
Are they doing something immoral?
That’s a subjective value judgment, not an objective evaluation. IMO, no.
So you’re okay with this precedent? It won’t bother you if the Democrats refuse to pass an appropriations bill that includes funding for all the duly passed legislation they dislike?
On point: I have a relative who is a highly ranked chemist for the government. He knows, because of his training, that evolution is real. But because he’s so utterly in the RW Media, he wants creationism taught in high school. He has trouble and blusters if you try to pin him down on why.
So because of his ideological push, he’s supporting something he knows isn’t true. Because everyone he idolizes says the words. It’s possible to, in the moment, just parrot the party line when you know better, because it is very important to you.
I suspect that Laffer is similar. Yeah, in a paper he’d never suggest that Medicare is private, but when his visceral brain is in charge, he just regurgitates arguments he hears around the campfire.
I would say that throwing a tantrum to overturn an existing law, and hurting hundreds of thousands of people to do it is immoral.
People will lose their houses because of the shutdown, if it’s long enough. People will have marriages fall apart because of the financial stress.
And it could be avoided, if they just did their job. Sickening, imho.
And no, I suspect it isn’t illegal.