The Carolina Disconnect

by | Jul 3, 2014 | 2014 Elections, Economy, Editor's Blog, NC Politics, NCGOP, Obamacare, US Senate | 2 comments

Karl Rove has a lot of faith in his Obamacare narrative. Yesterday, his latest Crossroads GPS ad accuses the Affordable Care Act of harming the economy and blaming Kay Hagan for supporting the program. And just like Kay Hagan accused Elizabeth Dole of voting with George W. Bush 99% of the time, Rove and company accuse Hagan of voting with the president 96% of the time.

A couple of obvious problems with the ad are the citations. Rove’s claims are either dated or made by political allies like Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist’s group.  One citation takes a quote from the N&O from June 2013, nine months before the program took effect. And Rove citing Norquist is like Masters citing Johnson.

But the ad begs the question, why is North Carolina’s economy so sluggish? While McCrory and Company are bragging about a “Carolina Comeback,” North Carolina’s recovery is slower than more than 60% of the states. We still have almost 75,000 fewer jobs today than we did when the recession began. And our population is one of the fastest growing in the nation. 

Every other state has Obamacare, too, but the vast majority have recovered faster than North Carolina. The most obvious difference is Republican economic policy. While other states expanded Medicaid and invested in infrastructure and people, North Carolina relied on austerity. Of the 18 states that have had slower recoveries than North Carolina, 12 have Republican governors. 

But it’s not just that our jobs are slower to come back. It’s that the one’s we’re creating pay less and have fewer benefits. We’ve traded high paying manufacturing jobs for lower paying service sector ones. So the theory that those tax cuts were going to somehow boost tax revenue is just more free-market magical thinking. More people making less money at the same time the rich and corporations are paying historically low taxes is certainly not going to translate into more money for schools, health care, roads, and infrastructure. 

But Republicans are standing on their heads screaming about numbers and statistics. “Our unemployment rate is dropping!” “We’ve cut tax rates!” “We spent more on schools!” 

Their problem, though, is that politics is about people, not numbers. If you’re making less than you made before the Great Recession and your prospects for ever getting back to your old economic status look grim, then you don’t care about unemployment rates or jobs created or even lower taxes. You just know that your new job sucks, your spending power is diminished, your kid’s school is suffering but the governor and Thom Tillis are singing “Happy Days are Here Again.” What a disconnect.

2 Comments

  1. Troy

    Rove is grasping at the last vestiges of glory and power that he can in order to try and secure his place as a mover and shaker in the party. I believe that ship has sailed for him however and he missed it.

    Frankly, North Carolina has never been an industrial monolith. What one would consider skilled trades have never been sought nor encouraged. It wasn’t until the later part of the last century that North Carolina finally lost it’s status as a rural state and moved into the urban category. Ironic that status change came on the eve of the mass migration of jobs offshore. Agri-business flourished in the lesser populated areas. Charlotte built the banking industry unto itself, and the Piedmont was known for furniture and textiles, and the military has always a good representation in the state. That was not always a decent paying vocation however. Couple that with mostly family owned corporations and you have the least organized State in the Union for labor. Some would tout that as a good thing. I don’t because it doesn’t stop the ills of the nation from impacting the people here. So people worked for sub-standard wages as those in other parts of the nation, unionized or not, and faced the same economic challenges with less personal wealth and capital to do it with. And somehow, managed to eek out a decent living for themselves and their families, often by working two or more jobs as a means to it. Not any more. Now it’s hard enough to find one full-time job let alone secondary employment.

    But the real truth lies in the following figures from a chart at Agora Financial.

    Prices from Jan of 2000 through March of 2014. Fourteen years of increases. It can’t be blamed on labor costs, or benefit costs, or other associated with manufacturing; we don’t do that any more. Now wages have decreased and the number of people working have decreased, so the prices are going up…why? Whose pockets is that money going in to?

    It’s not a far stretch to see that as the effect of Republican policy. And we have to remember, Republican policy didn’t start with McCrory as Governor. It didn’t stop with Clinton or Obama as President. Republicans took over Congress in the off year elections. Republicans have taken over the State Legislature here.

    And it’s there that these problems manifest themselves, grow, and continue to fester. The poor and the working people aren’t hurting enough, they need to be squeezed just a little bit more. For those that receive food stamps. The prices go up and if their level of assistance doesn’t increase, they’re going to starve. With wages down to the point they’re at, how are you going to go to work, assuming you can find a job, and support yourself or your family when hamburger has went up 96% and gas is up 176%? Along with rent, electricity, heating oil, and natural gas. That’s right, you can’t make it.

    That is my answer as to why the “Carolina Comeback” is a one pump chump. It may not be pure in economical analysis and theory, but it doesn’t need to be; anyone with eyes can see what’s going on rather than listening to the wistful deceipt that flows to the people in order to keep the wealthy and the affluent in power.

    • Troy

      Guess what? I can’t paste .jpg charts into the comment box! Sorry! Here is the link to the website: http://www.agorafinancial.com

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