1984-04 April IBEW Journal.pdf - International Brotherhood of ...

EDITORIAL
COMMENT
The Failing
Economic Recovery
Dictates A Change
In The White House
"A full economic
recovery will never
take place until there
is full employment,
with substantiallyreduced
federal deficits
and low interest
rates,"
• At the recent Mid-Winter Meetings of the AFL-CIO Executive
Council, the Council was furni shed with valid statistical evidence
proving that the unrealistic budget and economic policies
of the Reagan Administration are still threatening the soundness
of our economy for years to come.
So, in spite of the Reagan Administration's highly publicized
claims that the nation is fast on the road to a real economic
recovery, that road the Administration is so proudly following
and ballyhooing is running out of correct directional signposts
and is still the wrong road to follow.
A full economic recovery will never take place until there is
full employment, with substantially reduced federal deficits and
low interest rates. These economic factors are needed now in
order to bring about a real recovery.
However, the ever-rising high federal deficits are pushing up
the already too high interest rates and threa ten to soon start us
on an even worse "Reaganomic" recession.
The so-called economic experts cannot deny that huge budget
deficits raise interest rates causing curtailment of public and
private job-creating investments. High interest rates also contribute
to the over-valuation of the dollar, which prices U.S.
goods out of overseas markets and encourages more flooding of
imports, which ca uses more American workers to lose their
jobs. When workers lose their jobs billions of dollars are lost in
production, which in turn means billions and billions of dollars
are lost in badly needed revenues.
Exorbitant interest rates, coupled with high unemployment,
is .lIsa not the way to fight inflation, which robs workers am
of realizing full value of their wages earned. This lowers their
buying power on the consumer markets. Today the buying
power of the worker's paycheck is lower than in 1979.
When President Reagan goes 0 11 TV and smilingly sa ys,
" Everything is going to be rosy, just have patience, stay the
course," those and other innuendoes are simply used to cover
up his supply-side, trickle-down experiment that has failed, and
will continue to fail, unless the direction of the nation's economic
policy is reversed and the fundamental problems are
addressed.
It is very evident that the Reagan Administration has no
intentions of changing its policies. Therefore, it is time for a
change in the White House. Jobs, fairness, and opportunities for
the future are the key issues in the forthcoming November
elections for workers and for all the peoples of our nation. Only
the election of a new president will restore a proper administration
of workers' basic rights that are being undermined by the
Reagan Administration.
..
Charles H. Pillard
International President