U.S. Growth in 'prosperity economics'

By: Jacob Hacker and Nathaniel Loewentheil
August 2, 2012 04:34 AM EDT

The political fight over America’s ailing economy is dominated by one word: debt. For most Americans, however, the real problems are jobs and growth — we don’t have enough of either. Yet our political system seems incapable of tackling the true crisis.

Republicans, to be sure, have called for big changes — witness Rep. Paul Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity.” But his proposals would take us back to the tax-cutting, deregulatory spree of the past decade, when gains mostly went to the richest (as is true again today) while the economy went down in flames.

President Barack Obama, in response, talks about “winning the future” and has proposed critical steps in the right direction. Yet he is having a hard time getting even Democrats to put aside the debt obsession to focus on jobs and growth. And he has yet to lay out the kind of bold proposals needed to tackle today’s massive jobs shortage and rebuild a strong middle class.