In 2009, when Americans were more hopeful, the IMF anticipated 2.5 percent growth. The unemployment rate was higher then, however, at 9.7 percent compared to the current 9.1 percent.
Unemployment is the No. 1 concern among voters, according to a Gallup poll released Sept. 15 . Another poll, released on Tuesday , shows that the majority of Americans favor President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act, with many Republican voters even crossing partisan lines to stand behind it.
Mark Zandi , analyst and economic adviser to 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, has written that Obama’s plan could increase real GDP growth by 2 percent in 2012, create 1.9 million jobs, and reduce the unemployment rate by a percentage point.
“I’m not sure that it would be sufficient to put the economy firmly on the road to recovery, but it would be a big help,” says James Parrott of the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI), a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.
In 2009, Obama had a pot of $787 billion in stimulus funds to boost the economy and morale. The president is now offering $450 billion, 57 percent of which is made up of tax breaks, to address the unemployment problem.
Parrott says direct spending is commonly held to provide more “bang for the buck” than tax cuts, but he speculates Obama did it this way to garner Republican support, which has been conspicuously lacking.
Gallup tested six of Obama’s proposals and found more than half of the Republicans polled favored four of them. They especially favor tax cuts for small businesses, tax breaks for companies hiring people unemployed for six months or more, and providing states with funds to hire teachers, police officers, and firefighters.
Republican leaders are calling additional taxes imposed on the wealthy and eliminating tax breaks for corporations “class warfare.” Gallup found, however, that 41 percent of Republicans polled favor taxing the wealthy to pay for the Jobs Act and more than half favor eliminating some corporate tax breaks.
Republicans are considerably less optimistic about the economy than Democrats. While 59 percent of Democrats think the economy will improve in 2012, only 27 percent of Republicans and 28 percent of Independents think so.
“Consumer confidence is a big factor in the economy,” noted Parrott. “I think one of the reasons the economy is weak right now is that people aren’t very hopeful about the job market, the prospects of their wages or income.”
In 2009, 84 percent of voters thought the nation was in a recession. Now, the number has only dropped to 80 percent. Of the voters polled, 42 percent said the economy is worse than it was last year.
The Epoch Times called the National Business Association to see what its members had to say.
The lady who answered the phone said the NBA couldn’t comment, but “isn’t it common knowledge that the economy is worse this year?”
