WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans’ self-reported daily spending averaged $77 in August, up from $73 in July, and the best August spending level recorded since 2008. It is also the highest average monthly spending since December 2008.
The results are based on Gallup Daily tracking from Aug. 1-31. Each night, Gallup asks Americans to report how much they spent the prior day apart from normal household bills or the purchase of a car or home.
Lower- and Middle-Income Consumer Spending Ticks Up
Spending among American households with annual incomes of $90,000 or less averaged $63 in August, up from $59 in July — the highest level since December 2011. Upper-income spending, which has been on a generally upward trajectory so far in 2012, was unchanged in August, averaging $135 as it did in July.
“Instead, he [Pres. Obama] wants to add more to government. He wants another stimulus. He wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policeman, more teachers.”
“That’s a very strange accusation. Of course, teachers and firemen and policemen are hired at the local level and also by states.The federal government doesn’t pay for teachers, firefighters or policemen. So obviously that’s completely absurd. He’s got a new idea, though, and that is to have another stimulus and to have the federal government send money to try and bail out cities and states. It didn’t work the first time. It certainly wouldn’t work the second time.”
Replacing the lost public sector jobs would reduce unemployment by a full percentage point and make the economic recovery stronger.
What’s “absurd” is Willard’s latest Etch A Sketch Moment. But wait! Not only did he flip flop again, he’s dead wrong about the federal government’s role in funding teachers, firefighters, and police officers.
They are hired at the local level, but the federal government provides much of the funding, recruiting, and training.
Community Policing Development: funds to advance the practice of community policing in law enforcement agencies through training and technical assistance
So he’s a hypocritical flip-flopper as well as completely uninformed. No wonder he’s the candidate of choice for Republicans.
But the GOP insists on blocking the very things that would improve the situation we’re in, because Obama is the president and they don’t want him to succeed.
One way President Obama supports stimulating the economy is through government spending, the very thing previous Republican presidents did, as Ezra Klein clearly points out in the video. Hiring teachers, firefighters, and police officers has been rejected by Willard Romney, as has government spending, even though he knows better:
Halperin: Why not in the first year, if you’re elected — why not in 2013, go all the way and propose the kind of budget with spending restraints, that you’d like to see after four years in office? Why not do it more quickly?
Romney: Well because, if you take a trillion dollars for instance, out of the first year of the federal budget, that would shrink GDP over 5%. That is by definition throwing us into recession or depression. So I’m not going to do that, of course. [...]
Cutting government spending will throw us into a recession or depression? No Christmas cards from the Ryan household this year, Willard.
Austerity isn’t working in Europe, and it won’t work here. Short-term spending would.
So Willard Romney and his surrogates believe that America thinks we don’t need more cops, firefighters or teachers:
Where the heck are there “fewer kids in the classroom”? Not in the schools where I worked. Know why? Because there are fewer teachers, meaning there are fewer classes with more kids in each classroom. There were as many as fifty in two of mine.
…Obama proposed the American Jobs Act, pollsters took the judicious step of polling its individual provisions. The relevant findings:
* A CNN poll in October of 2011 found that 75 percent of Americans supported “providing federal money to state governments to allow them to hire teachers and first responders,” including 72 percent of independents.
* A New York Times/CBS poll in September of 2011 found that 52 percent, and 51 percent of independents, think it’s a “good idea” to “provide money to state governments to avoid layoffs.”
* A National Journal poll at around the same time found that 70 percent thought “providing funds to state and local governments to prevent layoffs of teachers, police officers, and other first responders” would be “very effective” or “somewhat effective” in creating more jobs.
1) So much for “where’s the president’s jobs plan” GOP talking point.
2) So much for arguments by the right about public sector job creation being a bad thing. Or maybe Republicans don’t rely on teachers, cops, and firefighters the way the rest of us do.
3) Do these geniuses not realize that Congress members hold public sector jobs, and that their candidate is running for one?
Yesterday Mitt Romney said of President Obama, “…he wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more fireman, more policeman, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.”
The Obama campaign is all over Willard Romney’s weak spot. Oh wait. He has a whole lot of weak spots.
What does Willard have? Well, he supports the Bush Paul Ryan plan, one that would be disastrous for this country, going right back to the policies that got us into this mess in the first place. I can’t help but quote Chris Matthews again:
“This is the same dunce cap leadership as W! The same dunce cap leadership and policy as W! Deregulation, tax cuts… doing the same thing that got us there [a bad economy]! Romney thinks W was smart! Jesus!!“
But Willard saw an opening and pounced. Too bad he alienated fire fighters, policemen, and teachers in the process… As Greg Sargent notes:
It’s hard to argue that the message from Wisconsin was that Americans don’t think we should hire more firefighters and cops. They were exempted from Scott Walker’s crackdown on public employee bargaining rights, which enabled him to “divide and conquer” labor.
But beyond that, this could resonate in the presidential race: It will allow the White House to reframe the debate over public sector workers and job creation on more favorable terms…. This is a debate the White House will be happy to have.
It’s hard to believe that Americans will see President Obama as less sensitive to their needs than Wealthier Than Thou Romney, the most awkward, lying, cold fish candidate in recent memory, whose hobby is firing people, including firefighters, policemen, and teachers.
Funny, good news is sprouting up everywhere, but all I’m hearing is doom and gloom on the intertubes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new homes rose solidly last month, adding to evidence of gradual improvement in the housing market.
The Commerce Department says sales increased 3.3 percent in April from March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 343,000. That followed a 7.3 percent decline in March.
A pickup in hiring and cheaper mortgages, combined with lower home prices in most markets, has made home buying more attractive. Builder confidence has increased steadily since the fall, a sign that some expect the market to improve later this year.
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