Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., says America is in danger of a double-dip recession and the debt deal “was barely a scratch on the surface of what we need to do.” Kerry also said today on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” the initial spending cuts in the compromise don’t begin to solve the nation’s fiscal crisis.
“What has triggered what has happening in our exchange — and globally — is really Europe,” Kerry said. “I mean, we are contributing to it — the perception that the American economy is weak, the perception that we have used up the available remedies that we have, the perception that we don’t have a lot of ability to absorb shocks, and the perception that Europe can drive us even further towards that recession — all of those things are contributing to people getting out of the market.
“Europe has Spain and Italy — $12 trillion of debt between them — and what happened is recently when the European Community came together they put a Band-aid on a wound that really requires major surgery — everybody knows that,” Kerry said. “The result is people are bailing — and that bailing is triggered right into our market and that’s generating additional fears of this double-dip recession.”
Kerry said the bottom line is “America faces a long-term structural debt” and the immediate cuts in the debt deal are negligible when compared to the bigger picture.
“What people are looking at is the absence of a willingness to try to really deal with America’s two-fold-long problem,” Kerry said. “One, the structural deficit on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and two, the lack of job creation, a flat economy — an economy that frankly needs stimulus and needs a growth plan.”
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