The Terrible Economy and the Anti-Election of 2012

 

Sunday, July 29, 2012

The worst economy since the Great Depression and you might think at least one of the candidates would come up with a few big ideas for how to get us out of it.

But you’d be wrong. Neither candidate wants to take any chances by offering any large, serious proposals. Both are banking instead on negative campaigns that convince voters the other guy would be worse.

President Obama has apparently decided against advancing any bold ideas for what he’d do in the second term, even if he has a Congress that would cooperate with him.

He’s sticking to a worn script that says George W. Bush caused the lousy economy, congressional Republicans have opposed everything he’s wanted to do to boost it, it’s slowly on the mend anyway, the Bush tax cuts shouldn’t be extended for the rich, and we shouldn’t take a chance electing Romney.

Yet the public wants bigger ideas from the President, and wants to know what he’ll do in his second term to get us out of this mess. A New York Times-CBS News poll released last week showed that a majority of voters believe the president “can do a lot about” the economy. That’s a double-digit jump from the fall of 2011.

The President could propose a new WPA, modeled after the Depression-era jobs program that hired hundreds of thousands of jobless Americans to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, or a new Civilian Conservation Corps.

He could suggest permanently exempting the first $25,000 of income from payroll taxes, and making up the lost revenues by eliminating the ceiling on income subject to it. He could propose resurrecting the Glass-Steagall Act and breaking up the big banks, so Wall Street doesn’t cause another financial collapse.

But you won’t hear any of this, or anything else of this magnitude, because the White House doesn’t want to take any risks. Polls give Obama a slight edge in the critical eight or so battleground states, so, the thinking goes in the Obama camp, why say anything that might give Romney and the GOP a target?

Besides, polls also show Romney isn’t well-liked by the electorate.

So Obama has decided to campaign as the anti-Romney.

Mitt Romney is playing it even more cautiously. His economic plan is really a non-plan: more tax cuts for the rich, undefined spending cuts, and no details about how he’d bring down the budget deficit. No presidential candidate since Herbert Hoover in 1928 has been more vague about what he’d do on the critical issues facing the nation.

Romney’s advisors assume Obama can’t possibly be reelected with the economy this bad. Just 44 percent of registered voters in a Washington Post-ABC News poll earlier this month approve of the job the president is doing on the economy, while 54 percent disapprove. Even more encouraging for Romney is that 41 percent of those polled “strongly” disapproved of Obama’s economic performance, while just 21 percent “strongly” approved — an enthusiasm gap of major proportion.

So Romney’s advisors have concluded that all Romney has to do between now and Election Day is avoid a mistake that might give Obama and the Democrats something to shoot at.

Romney has decided to campaign as the anti-Obama.

The two anti-the-other-guy strategies fit with a ton of negative advertising that’s just begun but will reach mammoth proportions after Labor Day. Much of it will be financed by super-PACs and by political fronts already taking in hundreds of millions of dollars in secret donations. Romney’s camp hopes to out-negative Obama by almost two to one.

So whatever happens on Election Day, the next president will have to contend with two handicaps. The public won’t have endorsed any new ideas or bold plans, which means he won’t have a clear mandate to do anything on the economy.

The only thing the public will have decided is it fears and distrusts the other guy more. Which means the winner will also be burdened by almost half the electorate thinking he’s a scoundrel or worse.

The worst economy since the Great Depression, but we’re in an anti-election that will make it harder for the next occupant of the oval office to do a thing about it.

The above is taken from:  http://robertreich.org/post/28289563809

Emerald Ash Borer in Huntley

The article below is taken from:  http://www.firstelectricnewspaper.com/2012/08/huntley-marking-trees-for-eab-removal.html

Illinois getting tougher on human trafficking - Springfield, IL -

Among other changes, the new law expands the definition of "serious harm" to include non-physical forms of coercion, like psychological intimidation or withholding a passport to keep someone in servitude.

It also lengthens the statute of limitations for prosecuting those who exploit minors.

The National Human Trafficking Resource Center says Illinois generates the fifth highest number of calls to its hotline.

Read the entire piece by clicking on the following:  Illinois getting tougher on human trafficking - Springfield, IL - The State Journal-Register

NIU spokesman: police investigating secret fund

Might there be any connection with this story and an earlier Daily Chronicle story and the public comments on that story?  SEE:  http://district100watchdog.blogspot.com/2012/08/two-niu-administrators-leave-recently.html

NIU spokesman Paul Palian Northern Illinois University officials are investigating reports of an alleged secret bank account channeling thousands of dollars to several university workers. NIU spokesman Paul Palian confirms to WNIJ the university's police department is looking into the matter: "There is currently an investigation underway. It was launched Friday afternoon. It is an NIU police investigation." - Paul Palian, NIU spokesman NIU employees working at a campus physical plant allegedly sold scrap metal to a local company, which would write checks to an account known as the ``coffee fund.'' Electronic records show checks from the DeKalb Iron and Metal Company to the fund have totaled more than $13,000 since 2005. School officials say they have no record of such a fund.J & WNIU

Click on the following for the source of the above story:  NIU spokesman: police investigating secret fund | WNIJ & WNIU

Today’s Daily Chronicle has much more detail.  GO TO:  http://www.daily-chronicle.com/2012/08/03/niu-probes-existence-of-coffee-fund/awdfbmu/

Kunkel said several employees, mainly from NIU’s Physical Plant, have sold scrap metal from the university to DIMCO on and off for at least the past 25 years. The company’s electronic records date back to February 2005, and checks from DIMCO since that time have totaled more than $13,000.

“It’s not going back to Northern,” said Kunkel.

Kathryn Buettner, vice president of university relations, said NIU Police plan to open an investigation immediately. She said Friday was the first time she or other administrators had heard about the coffee fund and said NIU takes the allegations very seriously…..

Kunkel said employees often used university-owned vehicles to drop off the scrap, usually coming in on Saturdays; sometimes they sent family members. Kunkel said when he asked what the coffee fund was for, he was told the money was split between several workers at the Physical Plant, who sometimes used the money for cookouts, or purchased coffee and food for the office.

Kunkel said the company keeps separate accounts for different NIU funds, including the Physical Plant and telecommunications department. He said he grew suspicious years ago, when NIU employees began asking him to pay a small percentage to the university and a larger percentage to the employee who dropped off the scrap, which prompted him to contact the university.

It appears that Associated Press has picked up the story.  See the Northwest Herald’s short AP Piece:  http://www.nwherald.com/2012/08/06/niu-probes-existence-of-a-secret-coffee-fund/av9uru6/