It is our understanding that the Board Members of the Federal Reserve will meet later this week to consider additional monetary stimulus proposals. We write to express our reservations about any such measures. Respectfully, we submit that the board should resist further extraordinary intervention in the U.S. economy, particularly without a clear articulation of the goals of such a policy, direction for success, ample data proving a case for economic action and quantifiable benefits to the American people…. We have serious concerns that further intervention by the Federal Reserve could exacerbate current problems or further harm the U.S. economy. Such steps may erode the already weakened U.S. dollar or promote more borrowing by overleveraged consumers. To date, we have seen no evidence that further monetary stimulus will create jobs or provide a sustainable path towards economic recovery.
It was as unprecedented as it was audacious and offensive. Four leaders of the Congressional GOP Caucus House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) sent a “cease and desist” letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Hidden in the careful crafted language is a thinly-veiled implied threat: try to fix the economy and you will face our wrath when the GOP takes over Washington in the 2012 election.
A casual observer might not understand the fuss, but the letter asks Bernanke and the Fed to hold off and addressing the two things that are the Fed’s primary bailiwick: inflation and unemployment. Decipher the artful, heavily coded language, and what you have is proof that Republicans want for unemployment to remain high so they can blame President Obama and claim that he’s done nothing to bring unemployment down.
While the Fed plans to address how best to address the intractable unemployment problem, Republicans are quite happy with the status quo. If the economy doesn’t improve, and unemployment remains high, they have a club with which to beat the President. That their craven self-interest runs contrary to what’s best for this country and the people they were elected to represent seems to be beside the point. The fact is that the ONLY thing Republicans care about is political power- obtaining, maintaining, and increasing it. If Americans have to suffer in the interim so they can win in 2012 (and Republicans are clearly willing to cheat if that’s what it takes), so be it.
As if we needed any more proof of the GOP’s whatever-it-takes devotion to the pursuit of power and their hatred of America….
