In his January 25 State of the Union address, US President Barack Obama called for a freeze on government spending and for lowering the corporate tax rate.
In response, Reuters reported on January 26, the US stock index figures rose.
Meanwhile, the situation for US workers and poor remains dire. A January 14 Socialist Project article explained that, “as of November the slump in U.S. housing prices had surpassed that of the 1930s. For 53 consecutive months American home prices have fallen.
“What’s more, their 26 per cent drop on average since 2006 exceeds the home price meltdown of the first five years of the Great Depression.”
The article said: “The December job creation figures for the U.S. were dismal: 103,000 jobs generated … Simply to restore the jobs lost during the recession (nearly nine million) and those required by population growth during the same period (nearly three million) would require a boom that produced jobs at twice the December rate for 142 months, or nearly 12 years.”
Instead, US authorities are moving in the opposite direction: slashing state spending and public sector jobs. All while preparing to shift more wealth to the rich by cutting the corporate tax rate.