‘House Democrats Don’t Want Gore Humiliated’

Climate Depot has a response from the UK’s Lord Christopher Monckton to the Democrats who have refused to allow him to testify against former Vice-President Al Gore at a hearing examining the House’s “global warming” bill.

Report: Democrats Refuse to Allow Skeptic to Testify Alongside Gore At Congressional Hearing

Thursday, April 23, 2009 By Marc Morano

‘House Democrats don’t want Gore humiliated’

Climate Depot Exclusive

Washington DC — UK’s Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science advisor to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, claimed House Democrats have refused to allow him to appear alongside former Vice President Al Gore at a high profile global warming hearing on Friday April 24, 2009 at 10am in Washington. Monckton told Climate Depot that the Democrats rescinded his scheduled joint appearance at the House Energy and Commerce hearing on Friday. Monckton said he was informed that he would not be allowed to testify alongside Gore when his plane landed from England Thursday afternoon.

“The House Democrats don’t want Gore humiliated, so they slammed the door of the Capitol in my face,” Monckton told Climate Depot in an exclusive interview. “They are cowards.”

According to Monckton, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), Ranking Member on the Energy & Commerce Committee, had invited him to go head to head with Gore and testify at the hearing on Capitol Hill Friday. But Monckton now says that when his airplane from London landed in the U.S. on Thursday, he was informed that the former Vice-President had “chickened out” and there would be no joint appearance. Gore is scheduled to testify on Friday to the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment’s fourth day of hearings on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The hearing will be held in 2123 Rayburn House Office Building.

According to Monckton, House Democrats told the Republican committee staff earlier this week that they would be putting forward an unnamed ‘celebrity’ as their star witness Friday at a multi-panel climate hearing examining the House global warming bill. The ‘celebrity’ witness turned out to be Gore. Monckton said the GOP replied they would respond to the Democrats ‘celebrity’ with an unnamed ‘celebrity’ of their own. But Monckton claims that when the Democrats were told who the GOP witness would be, they refused to allow him to testify alongside Gore.

“The Democrats have a lot to learn about the right of free speech under the US Constitution. Congress Henry Waxman’s (D-CA) refusal to expose Al Gore’s sci-fi comedy-horror testimony to proper, independent scrutiny by the House minority reeks of naked fear,” Monckton said from the airport Thursday evening.

“Waxman knows there has been no ‘global warming’ for at least a decade. Waxman knows there has been seven and a half years’ global cooling. Waxman knows that, in the words of the UK High Court judge who condemned Gore’s mawkish movie as materially, seriously, serially inaccurate, ‘the Armageddon scenario that he depicts is not based on any scientific view,’” Monckton explained. Monckton has previously testified before the House Committee in March. (See: Monckton: Have the courage to do nothing…US Congress told climate change is not real ) Monckton has also publicly challenged Gore to a debate. (See: Al Gore Challenged to International TV Debate on Global Warming By Lord Monckton – March 19, 2007 )

A call to the Democratic office of the House Energy and Commerce Committee seeking comment was not immediately returned Thursday night.

Related Links:

Monkton’s Report: 35 Inconvenient Truths: The errors in Al Gore’s movie

Monckton: Have the courage to do nothing…US Congress told climate change is not real

Monckton’s Letter to Represenatives Ed Markey & Joe Barton – March 30, 2009

Al Gore Challenged to International TV Debate on Global Warming By Lord Monckton – March 19, 2007

Contact: Morano@ClimateDepot.com

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‘What Did The Speaker Know, & When Did She Know It?’

John Wohlstetter has a posted on the recent grandstanding of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Obama Administration’s recent twist in the “torture scandal”.

April 24, 2009

LFTC – “Torture” & Nancy: What Did the Speaker Know, & When Did She Know It?

Nancy Pelosi now says she never knew of the harsh interrogation techniques in any detail.  Her comment brings to mind the question famously asked in 1973 by then Senator Howard Baker, at the Watergate Hearings, in his capacity as Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Watergate Committee: “What did the President know, and when did he know it?”  When the White House tapes were disclosed, and revealed that President Nixon knew more about his administration’s cover-up of the Watergate campaign scandal, his fate was sealed; Nixon resigned within days, as his support in Congress collapsed.

Peggy Noonan writes of torture hearings and the damage they surely would cause, in a riveting column:

Why have reservations, then, about release of the memos and the investigations that will no doubt follow?

For these reasons. Prisoner abuse has been banned. Mr. Obama himself, as he notes in the quote above, banned it. It’s over. The press, with great difficulty, and if arguably belatedly, did and is doing its job: It uncovered and revealed the abuse. The historians are descending, as they should. Hearings, commissions or prosecutors would suck all the oxygen out of the room and come to obsess the capital, taking focus off two actual, immediate and pressing emergencies, the economy and the age of terror. Hearings, especially, would likely tear up the country as we descended into opposing camps. They would damage or burden America’s intelligence services, and likely result in the abuse of those who acted from high motives, having been advised their actions were legal. As for the memo writers, some of whose constitutional theories were apparently tilted to the extreme in favor of the executive, it is hard to see how it would help future administrations, or this one, to have such advice, however incorrectly formulated, criminalized.

Finally, hearings would not take place only in America. They would take place in the world, in this world, the one with extremists and terrible weapons. It is hard to believe hearings, with grandstanding senators playing to the crowd, would not descend into an auto-da-fé, a public burning of sinners, with charges, countercharges, leaks and graphic testimony. This would be a self-immolating exercise that would both excite and inform America’s foes. And possibly inspire them.

Meanwhile, a resurgent Taliban is moving toward Islamabad and, possibly, the Pakistani nuclear arsenal; Israel and Iran are at loggerheads; and Iraq and Afghanistan continue as live and difficult wars. And that’s just one small part of the world.

What a time to open a new front, and have a new fight, and not about what is but what was.

Nancy has been quoted by several GOP Members in the room when she was briefed, asking if the detainees were being pushed hard enough for information.  This was shortly after 9/11, when Nancy feared she and the Golden Gate Bridge would be blown into the Pacific by al-Qaeda.  Nancy now feels safe, and has for years, and wants to extract (well, torture–slowly and with maximum pain) the maximum possible political damage for the GOP out of this mess.  If there is a Truth Commission on Torture, or what ever it will be called if created, I join those who call for Nancy to be sworn in as first witness.  And I dream that a tape will be discovered, with Nancy’s voice on it, calling for tougher pressure on detainees.

Wesley Pruden writes of Nancy:

Perhaps the president imagines that nobody cares much about what happens to lawyers, but he has set in motion something neither he nor anyone else can control. Some of the Democrats in Congress, eager now to join the mob, will regret what they cry for. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, for one, was a member of the House intelligence committee and sat in on super-secret briefings after Sept. 11. She concedes that she heard about waterboarding but she doesn’t remember exactly what she heard. Just like Barack Obama sleeping through 20 years of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s rabid sermons, Ms. Pelosi dozed through the briefings. Her colleagues on the intelligence panel say they remember her demanding that the CIA do more to get the “intelligence” to prevent another attack.

Republicans in the Senate, including John McCain and Lindsey Graham, are finally finding their voices. So is Joe Lieberman, a courageous Democrat. If we’re going to have hangings, Ms. Pelosi may be at risk of becoming our most famous female hangee since Mary Surratt paid her debt at the end of a rope for hanging out with John Wilkes Booth.

This probably will not happen.  But back in 1973 no one dreamed that the President of the United States would (a) tape his private meetings and (b) not burn the tapes.  The rest was, as they say, history.  Here the history is still to come.

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Pro-Abortion Governor Sebelius Vetos Abortion Reporting Law

Operation Rescue reports that the Kansas governor and Obama’s HHS Secretary nominee, Kathleen Sebelius, has vetoed a law that would have required Kansas’ abortionists to give a diagnosis justifying late-term abortions.  The move assists Sebelius’ greatest supporter, Abortionist George Tiller.

Sebelius Flaunts Her Radical Support for Late-term Abortion In Veto Of Reporting Law

Meanwhile, RNC Chairman calls for Obama to withdraw Sebelius’ nomination to HHS

UPDATE! The confirmation vote on Sebelius’ nomination as HHS Secretary is scheduled in the full Senate for Tuesday, April 28. Now is the time to increase the pressure! Please contact your senator and voice your opposition to Sebelius.

CLICK HERE TO BLAST FAX EVERY SENATOR NOW!

Topeka, KS – Gov. Kathleen Sebelius vetoed a bill late today that would have required abortionists to report the specific reasons for post-viability abortions, reinforcing her reputation as a pro-abortion extremist.

In her veto message, Sebelius falsely attempts take credit for the falling abortion rate in Kansas.

“Abortions have decreased in spite of her, not because of her. Abortions actually started to decline the year Operation Rescue moved our headquarters to Kansas – one full year before Sebelius was elected as governor,” said Operation Rescue Senior Policy Advisor Cheryl Sullenger. “Her false claims are a slap in the face to the hundreds of pro-life advocates who have worked tirelessly to expose her friend, late-term abortionist George Tiller, and provide help and practical alternatives to abortion-minded women outside Kansas abortion clinics.”

Sebelius’ veto will benefit only one abortionist in the state, and that is her political benefactor George Tiller. The bill would have required him to give the specific diagnosis used to justify a post-viability abortion. Kansas law requires that such abortions can only be done if the continuation of the pregnancy will result in “substantial and irreversible impairment to a major bodily function” of the pregnant woman.

“As it stands, no one can even check to see if Tiller is actually complying with the law,” said Sullenger. “Now Sebelius is helping Tiller continue to conceal the true nature of what is going on at that late-term abortion clinic. She apparently wanted to do Tiller one last favor before heading off to Washington.”

But Sebelius has endangered her recent nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services by underreporting the full amount of campaign contributions she received from Tiller.

Opposition to her nomination continues to grow. Today Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has asked President Obama to withdraw Sebelius’ nomination unless she answers more questions about abortion.

“Michael Steel is hardly an ardent pro-life supporter. The fact that he is now opposing Sebelius really shows how truly radical she is on abortion,” said Sullenger. “It’s a huge embarrassment for the state of Kansas when you look at her and realize that she is too extreme and too short on integrity even for the jaded political environment of Washington, DC.”

Text of Veto Message

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Abortionist Tiller Acquitted
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Tiller Trial: Abortionist Ann Kristin Neuhaus Declared ‘Hostile Witness’
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CIA: Waterboarding Led To Disruption Of 9/11-Style Attack On LA

CNSNews is reporting that, in conversations with the CIA, they have confirmed that waterboarding techniques used on Khalid Sheik Mohammad, the 9/11 mastermind, led to intelligence that was critical in stopping a ‘Second Wave’ 9/11-style attack on Los Angeles.

CIA Confirms: Waterboarding 9/11 Mastermind Led to Info that Aborted 9/11-Style Attack on Los Angeles

Tuesday, April 21, 2009
By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief

(CNSNews.com) – The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews.com today that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” of interrogation on al Qaeda leader Khalid Sheik Mohammad (KSM) — including the use of waterboarding — caused KSM to reveal information that allowed the U.S. government to thwart a planned attack on Los Angeles.

Before he was waterboarded, when KSM was asked about planned attacks on the United States, he ominously told his CIA interrogators, “Soon, you will know.”

According to the previously classified May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that was released by President Barack Obama last week, the thwarted attack — which KSM called the “Second Wave”– planned “ ‘to use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner into’ a building in Los Angeles.”

KSM was the mastermind of the first “hijacked-airliner” attacks on the United States, which struck the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Northern Virginia on Sept. 11, 2001.

After KSM was captured by the United States, he was not initially cooperative with CIA interrogators.  Nor was another top al Qaeda leader named Zubaydah.  KSM, Zubaydah, and a third terrorist named Nashiri were the only three persons ever subjected to waterboarding by the CIA. (Additional terrorist detainees were subjected to other “enhanced techniques” that included slapping, sleep deprivation, dietary limitations, and temporary confinement to small spaces — but not to water-boarding.)

This was because the CIA imposed very tight restrictions on the use of waterboarding. “The ‘waterboard,’ which is the most intense of the CIA interrogation techniques, is subject to additional limits,” explained the May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo. “It may be used on a High Value Detainee only if the CIA has ‘credible intelligence that a terrorist attack is imminent’; ‘substantial and credible indicators that the subject has actionable intelligence that can prevent, disrupt or deny this attack’; and ‘[o]ther interrogation methods have failed to elicit this information within the perceived time limit for preventing the attack.’”

The quotations in this part of the Justice memo were taken from an Aug. 2, 2004 letter that CIA Acting General Counsel John A. Rizzo sent to the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

Before they were subjected to “enhanced techniques” of interrogation that included waterboarding, KSM and Zubaydah were not only uncooperative but also appeared contemptuous of the will of the American people to defend themselves.

“In particular, the CIA believes that it would have been unable to obtain critical information from numerous detainees, including KSM and Abu Zubaydah, without these enhanced techniques,” says the Justice Department memo. “Both KSM and Zubaydah had ‘expressed their belief that the general US population was ‘weak,’ lacked resilience, and would be unable to ‘do what was necessary’ to prevent the terrorists from succeeding in their goals.’  Indeed, before the CIA used enhanced techniques in its interrogation of KSM, KSM resisted giving any answers to questions about future attacks, simply noting, ‘Soon you will know.’”

After he was subjected to the “waterboard” technique, KSM became cooperative, providing intelligence that led to the capture of key al Qaeda allies and, eventually, the closing down of an East Asian terrorist cell that had been tasked with carrying out the 9/11-style attack on Los Angeles.

The May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that details what happened in this regard was written by then-Principal Deputy Attorney General Steven G. Bradbury to John A. Rizzo, the senior deputy general counsel for the CIA.

“You have informed us that the interrogation of KSM—once enhanced techniques were employed—led to the discovery of a KSM plot, the ‘Second Wave,’ ‘to use East Asian operatives to crash a hijacked airliner into’ a building in Los Angeles,” says the memo.

“You have informed us that information obtained from KSM also led to the capture of Riduan bin Isomuddin, better known as Hambali, and the discover of the Guraba Cell, a 17-member Jemaah Islamiyah cell tasked with executing the ‘Second Wave.,’” reads the memo. “More specifically, we understand that KSM admitted that he had [redaction] large sum of money to an al Qaeda associate [redaction] … Khan subsequently identified the associate (Zubair), who was then captured. Zubair, in turn, provided information that led to the arrest of Hambali. The information acquired from these captures allowed CIA interrogators to pose more specific questions to KSM, which led the CIA to Hambali’s brother, al Hadi. Using information obtained from multiple sources, al-Hadi was captured, and he subsequently identified the Garuba cell. With the aid of this additional information, interrogations of Hambali confirmed much of what was learned from KSM.”

CIA Spokesman George Little confirmed to CNSNews.com today that the CIA stands by the factual assertions made here.

In the memo itself, the Justice Department’s Bradbury told the CIA’s Rossi: “Your office has informed us that the CIA believes that ‘the intelligence acquired from these interrogations has been a key reason why al Qa’ida has failed to launch a spectacular attack in the West since 11 September 2001.”

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EPA Rules ‘Greenhouse Gases’ A Health Hazard

CNSNews is reporting that the EPA has ruled that “greenhouse gases” are a health hazard and can be regulated by legislation.  They also ruled that tailpipe emissions contribute to “climate change”.

This is just the next step in bigger Government regulation, higher taxes, and increases in goods and services.  So far, Obama and the Democrats’ wishes are coming true.

EPA Finds Greenhouse Gases Pose a Danger to Health

Friday, April 17, 2009
By H. Josef Hebert, Associated Press
Washington (AP) – The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases are a danger to public health and welfare. It is the first step to regulating pollution linked to climate change.

Congressional sources told The Associated Press that EPA will announce its proposed finding Friday and begin a comment period before issuing a final ruling. The EPA also will say tailpipe emissions from motor vehicles contribute to climate change. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the finding hasn’t been announced.

The action was prompted by a Supreme Court ruling two years that said greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act and must be regulated if found to be a human health danger.

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No Suprise: Mainstream Media Devolves Into Childish Humor Over TEA Parties

FOX News is reporting on the other media outlets’ coverage of the Tax Day TEA Parties.  Showing their true colors and maturity level, MSNBC, CNN, and the rest of the leftist media hosts show how they are in the pocket for Obama by their immature sexual references to “teabagging”, and the like, in reference to Government protests on taxation and spending as opposed to their glowing coverage of the anti-prop 8 crowd.

Cable Anchors, Guests Use Tea Parties as Platform for Frat House Humor

Cable anchors and guests covered the anti-tax tea party protests by cracking a litany of barely concealed sexual references.

FOXNews.com

Thursday, April 16, 2009

For thousands of Americans, Tax Day was a moment to protest what they see as bloated budgets and a pile of debt being passed on to their children.

For CNN, MSNBC and other media outlets, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use the word “teabagging” in a sentence.

Teabagging, for those who don’t live in a frat house, refers to a sexual act involving part of the male genitalia and a second person’s face or mouth.

So when the anti-tax “tea party” protests were held Wednesday across the country, cable anchors and guests — who for weeks had all but ignored the story — covered the protests by cracking a litany of barely concealed sexual references.

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper interspersed “teabagging” references with analyst David Gergen’s more staid commentary on how Republicans are still “searching for their voice.”

“It’s hard to talk when you’re teabagging,” Cooper explained. Gergen laughed, but Cooper kept a straight face.

MSNBC’s David Shuster weaved a tapestry of “Animal House” humor Monday as he filled in for Countdown host Keith Olbermann.

The protests, he explained, amount to “Teabagging day for the right wing and they are going nuts for it.”

He described the parties as simultaneously “full-throated” and “toothless,” and continued: “They want to give President Obama a strong tongue-lashing and lick government spending.” Shuster also noted how the protesters “whipped out” the demonstrations this past weekend.

Tea Party participants were not amused. The events were held in dozens of cities across the country, and while some demonstrators were criticized for wielding off-topic and sometimes insensitive protest signs, most took to the streets to speak out against government spending.

Brent Bozell, president of the conservative Media Research Center, said the media coverage was “insulting,” reacting specifically to CNN reporter Susan Roesgen’s combative interviews with Illinois demonstrators in which she declared that the protests were “anti-CNN” and supported by FOX News. She left the teabagging jokes to her colleagues, though.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Bozell said. “The oral sex jokes on (CNN) and particularly MSNBC on teabagging … they had them by the dozens. That’s how insulting they were toward people who believe they’re being taxed too highly.”

Max Pappas, public policy vice president at FreedomWorks — a small-government group which promoted the tea parties — said it’s a “shame” media outlets cracked jokes at a genuine “grassroots uprising.”

“I think what that reveals is how worried they are that this might actually be something serious. You make fun of things you’re afraid of, I’d say,” Pappas said.

If anyone thinks the orally charged remarks on mainstream cable were just a coincidence, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow’s segments over the past week with guest, Air America’s Ana Marie Cox, would dissolve all doubt. Their on-air gymnastics, dancing around the double entendre of the week, looked like live-action Beavis and Butthead.

By one count, the two of them used the word “teabag” more than 50 times on one show. And on Monday, Cox even let the viewers in on their joke — referencing Urbandictionary.com, a site which offers a number of colorful definitions for the term “teabagging.”

“Well, there is a lot of love in teabagging,” Cox said. “It is curious, though, as you point out, they do not use the verb ‘teabag.’ It might be because they’re less enthusiastic about teabagging than some of the more corporate conservatives who seem to have taken to it quite easily.”

Jenny Beth Martin, a Republican activist who helped organize one protest in Atlanta, said she’s not too worried about the protests being dismissed by some media outlets. She estimated 750,000 people attended more than 800 protests in all 50 states, and that at the very least the local media and community newspapers documented it.

“Our message definitely got out where it needed to get,” she said.

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Is Unemployment Actually At 15.6%?

MSN has an article that explains how the 8.5% figure we hear from the Government should actually be about 15.6%.

The real unemployment rate? Try 15.6%

The official US jobless rate, now 8.5%, excludes millions of people — among them those who have given up on finding work and those forced into working fewer hours than they’d like.

By Catherine Holahan

MSN Money

An 8.5% unemployment rate is unmistakably bad. It’s the highest rate since 1983 — a year that saw double-digit unemployment, nearly 30 commercial bank failures and more than 15% of Americans living below the poverty line.

But the real national unemployment rate is far worse than the U.S. Department of Labor’s March figure, announced today, shows. That’s because the official rate doesn’t include the 3.7 million-plus people who are reluctantly working only part time because of the poor labor market. And it doesn’t include the workers who have given up scouring want ads for seemingly nonexistent jobs.

When those folks are added to the numbers, the unemployment rate rises to 15.6%. In March 2008, that number was 9.3%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking this alternative measure (.pdf file) in 1995.

“The situation out there is very grim,” says Heather Boushey, a senior economist at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. “We have seen the mounting of job losses faster than any point since World War II. I have never seen anything escalate this bad.”

Even the Department of Labor’s expanded unemployment measure doesn’t fully capture how difficult the job market is for American workers. It doesn’t include self-employed workers whose incomes have shriveled. It doesn’t look at former full-time staff employees who have accepted short-term contracts, without benefits, and at a fraction of their former salaries. And it doesn’t count the many would-be workers who are going back to school, taking on more debt, in hopes that an advanced degree will improve their chances of landing a job.

Here’s another way to look at the unemployment figures: More than 5 million people have lost their jobs since the start of the recession in December 2007. And more than 13 million people are unemployed. That’s the highest number the U.S. has seen since it began tracking unemployment after World War II. For every job out there, more than four people are competing for it, says Boushey.

Mitch Feldman has seen the results of such intense competition firsthand. As president of New York executive placement firm A.E. Feldman Associates, he has watched lawyers accept paralegal jobs after failing to find any companies that are hiring. He has seen Ivy League-educated financial professionals accept lower-paid contract work after searching in vain for banking jobs.

“When some of the big investment banking firms had layoffs a year ago, those people were looking for permanent jobs,” but now they’re taking six-month and yearlong contracts, says Feldman. “And they’re competing with other contractors who were on contract before. More supply, less demand, and the prices go down.”

Some unemployed workers have become so frustrated by the difficulty of landing a job that they’re exiting the labor market altogether. Prior recessions saw a spike in the number of women choosing to be stay-at-home moms rather than continue to compete for work. This recession has seen a large spike in the number of laid-off men opting to become stay-at-home dads — or at least stay at home.

Once people stop looking for work, they’re no longer entitled to unemployment benefits.

Unemployment to worsen?

The employment situation on the horizon looks even worse. Typically, unemployment peaks six months to a year after the economy starts to recover, says Rebecca Blank, an economist with the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., public policy think tank. Boushey believes the unemployment rate could reach double digits by the end of the year.So, even if the recent stock market rally is a harbinger of economic recovery, that doesn’t mean that unemployment rates will fall soon. Nor is an economic recovery a guarantee that unemployment will drop below 4%, as it did during the boom in 2000.

The way some economists see it, the U.S. has entered a downward spiral that could result in higher unemployment for the foreseeable future.

Right now, unemployment has helped fuel consumer cutbacks that have, in turn, pinched businesses’ revenues. That has forced them to cut jobs in an effort to stem profit losses, continuing the cycle. Eventually, the hope is that government spending will employ more people and give businesses more revenue, leading to more spending and more hiring — reversing the cycle.

But it might not happen that way. Spooked consumers, still reeling from an attack on all their assets, may simply not spend like they once did — regardless of how much money the government pushes into the economy. Instead, they might save money in preparation for the tax increases they assume are inevitable or put it in safe assets like long-term Treasury bonds.

Businesses might also curb their spending. Instead of responding to sales increases with hiring, they could invest in relatively cheaper technology to replace eliminated positions.

Economists don’t have to go back very far to find an example of a recovery that didn’t push unemployment back to its prior lows. The lowest unemployment fell after the 2001 recession was 4.4% in December 2006 (it hit that number again in March 2007). That was significantly lower than the 6.5% high in 2003. But it wasn’t close to the sub-4% rates seen in 2000.

That sort of recovery was what economists call a jobless recovery. “We weren’t really growing wages and income for people in the bottom half of the economic distribution,” says Alan Berube, an economist with the Brookings Institution.

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