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The Greater Recession of 2020 May be Technically Over, BUT...

Writer's picture: Tom CochranTom Cochran

Updated: Jan 28, 2021

...nobody in Congress should get away with using that technicality as an excuse to slow-walk or stymie action on the $1.9 Trillion Relief package proposed by President Biden. Just because the accepted definition of a recessionary period is the period between the economy’s last peak and trough and by this technical definition we may no longer be in a recession, DOESN'T MEAN THAT MILLIONS OF HUNGRY PEOPLE ARE SUDDENLY FULLY PROVISIONED WITH FOOD OR THAT NEW WEEKLY UNEMPLYMENT INSURANCE CLAIMS AREN'T APPROACHING 1,000,000 OR THAT THE STATES HAVE ALL THE FISCAL AND MATERIAL RESOURCES THEY NEED TO GET VACCINATIONS INTO THE ARMS OF THE PUBLIC..


The Washington Post's excellent graphics published today tell the current Current GDP story very well and help underline visually how much more economic trouble we're still in with the Greater Recession than we were with all other recessions since the Great Depression of the 30's.



Failure by Congress to move swiftly and with sufficient fiscal scale will condemn the nation to the same kind of sluggish recovery from the Great Recession to which we were treated by an overly timid Congress in the 2008-2016 period. And it will make virtually impossible to achieve the kinds of major economic and fiscal policy reforms this President ran AND WON ON BY MORE THAN 7 MILLION POPULAR VOTES. and 74 votes in the Electoral College.


So state and local government fans:


Will the nation's Mayors, Country Execs and Governors - all of whom are acutely aware of how these GDP numbers impacting their individual citizens and the state and local budgets for the basic services they are trying to deliver in the midst of this federally mismanaged pandemic - speak up forcefully enough collectively to their Congressional delegations to help the President get something like what he has proposed over the goal lines in both houses?


I'm frankly doubtful about that given the recent history of disunity and hyper-partisanship within the respective public interest groups representing them in Washington, but I try to live in hope...










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