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Sandy Politics

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Was Hurricane Sandy a Democrat?  Two weeks ago, Mitt Romney’s tormentor was a debate moderator named Candy.  This week, Romney’s nemesis is a storm named Sandy.  The latest blow to the Republican’s Presidential campaign came from an actual wind.  Precious news program time, normally devoted to the battle for the White House – which amounts to free infomercial time from the networks – is now being diverted to coverage of the storm’s havoc.  Worse yet, the Benghazi story has become “old news”, bumped back to oblivion.  As Romney’s surrogates complain that Obama cannot be trusted to work with Republicans, news coverage shows the President with Republican Chris Christie at his side so frequently that rest-home-bound geriatrics are remarking about the excessive weight gained by Joe Biden.  Despite the claim that government is the problem rather than the solution, many of Sandy’s victims are finding the opposite to be the case.  FEMA can no longer be described as a government extravagance.  If all that weren’t bad enough – global warming is back in the news  .  .  .  big time  .  .  .

What could likely be a lasting legacy from Sandy will have a bipartisan impact – a painful blow to Democrats and Republicans who remain dogmatically opposed to government-initiated fiscal stimulus programs.  Sandy is about to prove them wrong.  The massive infrastructure restoration efforts, which will be necessary to address Sandy’s damage, could end up providing the financial stimulus which Congress would never have approved if Sandy had not headed westbound.

Duncan Bowen Black has a PhD in Economics from Brown University.  His Eschaton blog presents the liberal perspective on more issues than those related to the economy.  Love him or hate him, his April 30 USA Today article is downright prescient.  Sandy will prove, once and for all, that Keynes was right.  Resistance is futile.  Consider his points:

To suggest that the response to the storm impact might improve the economy is not to suggest that the storm is somehow a good thing, but a quick mobilization of resources to complete necessary repairs could temporarily boost employment and improve business for companies producing and selling construction materials.  There would also be additional multiplier effects of this spending on the economy, as workers and business owners spend their increased wages and profits.

But this could be true even absent widespread storm damage.  Speeding up other infrastructure repair projects would also put people back to work.  For example, many cities have aging water systems that experience regular costly water main breaks.  These projects don’t need costly studies or lengthy environmental impact reports and could be implemented almost immediately. Buy materials, dig up the streets, replace the pipes, repair the streets and pay your workers.  They are truly shovel ready projects in need of funding.

No degree of Austerian opposition will be able to prevent the post-Sandy infrastructure restoration programs from being implemented.  Sandy is about to teach America an important lesson, which could motivate many politicians to repeat what Richard Nixon said in 1971:  “I am now a Keynesian in economics”.