Katrina vanden Heuvel: To Create Jobs, We Need Spending

Katrina vanden Heuvel: To Create Jobs, We Need Spending

Katrina vanden Heuvel: To Create Jobs, We Need Spending

When there are 25 million people out of work, underemployed, seeking work, Katrina vanden Heuvel says, nobody should be talking about cutting vital services to the most vulnerable Americans.

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It may surprise you, but The Nation‘s Katrina vanden Heuvel and Nick Gillespie, editor-in-chief of Reason.com, agree on a few things. One big point of consensus: both believe cutting the amount of money going to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be a good starting point for rebuilding our economy. But on just about every other point, vanden Heuvel says, this country is having the wrong debate at the wrong time.

When there are "25 million people out of work, underemployed, seeking work," vanden Heuvel says, nobody should be talking about cutting vital services to the most vulnerable Americans. Instead, we need "additional spending to rebuild and to recover." We should view all of the issues and problems facing this country, vanden Heuvel says, through a "pro-growth, pro-jobs, lens over everything." 

—Kevin Gosztola

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With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.

We can play this critical role because of support from readers like you. This June, we’re raising $20,000 to power The Nation’s independent journalism in the run-up to November’s immensely consequential elections.

It’s in our power to build a more just society, and your support at this critical moment brings us closer to that bold vision. I hope you’ll donate today.

Onward,

Katrina vanden Huevel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

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