South By North Strategies, Ltd.

Mark Thoma asks if a falling deficit really is good news.

But taking a different view, one that focuses on people rather than votes, there is a reason to help households struggling to find employment. Even if there is little political gain to doing so, every job that is created changes the circumstances some household faces for the better, and that alone ought to be enough motivation to do as much as possible to help. But Stan Collender is correct, as I explain here, to conclude that the administration has no plans to even propose doing more to help. No matter what effect that decision has on votes, with households still struggling to find decent jobs, or any job, I think that’s the wrong choice to make.