WASHINGTON POST COLUMN: Last week’s announcement that the U.S.economy grew at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the third quarter was stunning. It came with caveats, of course, because everything seems to come with caveats these days. Some doomsayers warned, for various arcane reasons, that it was the wrong kind of growth. But even the gloomiest of analysts had to acknowledge that the figure — almost a full percentage point higher than predicted — showed that the economic recovery is more robust than previously believed…
That news was followed by the October employment numbers, which were also promising: a total of 204,000 new jobs. This would have been enough to keep unemployment on its well-established downward trend — if not for the government shutdown, which furloughed enough federal workers to send the jobless rate up a notch to 7.3 percent. Let’s have another round of applause for Congress…
Sharply lower deficits plus faster economic growth add up to a significantly brighter long-term fiscal outlook. The nation’s $17 trillion debt remains a problem to be sensibly addressed and solved. But it can no longer be represented as a crisis requiring an immediate decision to deny Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits to Americans who need them… (more)
