Tonight the President explained in simple terms why we need his plan instead of the Republican plan.

He made it clear that the Republicans who really understand business know that no business executive is going to deploy the corporation’s huge amounts of spare cash when there are not enough customers to buy the goods they are already capable of producing.

So why do business oriented Republicans promote these strange policies? Having cut their operations  in this country to match the size of the market in this country, large businesses are making fine profits and building huge cash reserves.  Government policy of lower taxes and less regulation can certainly raise corporate profits with this low level of consumer demand.   Business people don’t see much chance that something will come along to increase demand in this country, so they think they need policies that will make them more profitable in the current environment.  They are also hoping demand in emerging markets, where they are making large investments, will suffice to grow their businesses. If this is how they measure the success of the economy, then it is marginally possible that their policy makes sense to them.

However, I am not President of the Corporations as People of The United States.  I am President of the United States of Human Beings.  I measure the success of the economy in how many people are gainfully employed compared to how many people would like to be gainfully employed.  The economic policies that will make corporations richer given the anemic level of employment are not the policies that will raise the level of employment.

You don’t want a President who thinks like a corporate executive.  You want a President who knows that this is a country of people who need to have jobs.  Therefore, the main function of government policy in times of insufficient demand is get keep people employed.  For 30 years or more this country has been under investing in maintaining our infrastructure.  Infrastructure not only includes roads, bridges, power grids, water and sewer plants, and flood control.  Our infrastructure also includes our educational system, the regulations to make sure the economy is being run honestly, and a tax structure that adds to the incentives for useful work instead of money manipulation schemes.  The unnaturally profitable money manipulation schemes siphon off some of our best talent from solving the problems and inventing the products that our people really need.

Since this work that is the responsibility of government must eventually be done anyway, why not put a lot of emphasis on it when there is a high level of unemployment and large amounts of idle resources in plants and equipment?

Putting people to work to do this needed building and repair by contracting out the work to private industry  will enlarge the size of the consumer market in this country. Eventually the corporations will join in to invest in increasing their productive capacity to meet this demand.  This will create a self-sustaining job recovery.  When this happens, the government can de-emphasize its own efforts at re-energizing the economy. With the reduced government spending and increasing levels of tax collection on increasing incomes and business profits, the government will be able to pay for the money it advanced to the economy to get it started again.  Of course, we will also be enjoying the benefits of the investments that we made.

To cut spending on these important items of our responsibility when the cost of carrying them out is lowest makes absolutely no sense at all. Smart business people and investors, as the Republicans claim to be, know that you don’t get rich by buying high and selling low.

Surely, if the Republicans could see past their own short term interests in making the most money out of the existing situation as it is, then they would see the need to change the situation with the policies that I am recommending.

As voting members of this society, do not be fooled into accepting the dismal employment situation as it is given to you by past, so called business friendly politicians.  Insist that the situation be changed for the better for all the people.

Something has to change the attitude of the “just say no”  Republicans.  It is clear that I cannot change their minds by myself.  I need the voters to rally around the cause of fixing the economy.  Make sure your elected officials know that you are watching them, and you will not be satisfied with inaction on their part.  If they won’t act, start shouting your demands until they are forced to listen.  I have finally come to realize that nothing less than citizen action will be able to change the minds in Washington.

Oops! I forgot that the speech isn’t until tomorrow night.  I should have warned you in the beginning that previous part of this blog post was about the speech the President should give tomorrow night, but most assuredly will not give.

The President seems to have forgotten that the first priority of his job is to educate the electorate to know why they need the policies he is recommending.  He cannot succeed if he must fight the voters as well as the opposition party.

If the President spends most of his time of his speech on the laundry list of what he plans to do instead of explaining why we need these policies, then his speech will be a total failure.  The smaller the list of specifics and the longer the educational part of the speech, the more likely it will be to have an effect.

If, after the speech, he runs around the country only repeating the laundry list, we will know he is doomed to failure and so is our economy.

Even worse, if the President does not even understand these reasons for the policy, then he will never be able to explain them, let alone fight for the policy.