Debt ceiling impact: 1.8 million fewer jobs, 1.5% reduction in GDP

Need more proof that the forced austerity being trumpeted by the folks in Washington is a bad idea?  The Economic Policy Institute released its analysis of the debt ceiling deal, and it’s a pretty ugly sight.  The spending reductions, combined with the other provisions (no more extension of unemployment benefits, ending the payroll tax holiday), are going to reduce employment by 1.8 million jobs and reduce GDP by 1.5%, which would at recent growth rates, mean that a return to recession is a very real possibility.

These sort of results would be disastrous — undercutting the recovery while capping spending is how you lock in decades of high unemployment and low growth.  The last ten years were awful for working families in this country, and our political class in Washington (in both parties) seem dead-set on trying to make this decade even worse.