Economic Lesson Plans

Payne: Budget shutdown deja voodoo?

Obamanomics is Granholmnomics. Washington 2011 is Lansing 2007. Is DC's debt showdown Michigan's budget shutdown déjà voodoo?

The lesson of the 2007 Michigan government shutdown is not to remake state economic policy while rushing towards a fiscal deadline - or else you might spawn a Frankenstein's monster like the Michigan Business Tax that haunted this state until a new GOP governor restored sanity.

Fast forward to Washington's shutdown - er, debt ceiling fight. A silver-tongued, executive demagogue with a Harvard Law degree. A split legislature. A bipartisan tax proposal that promises to simplify the tax code while raising revenue.

Sound familiar?

The "Gang of Six" proposal sounds good to Republicans desperate to appear that they can work with Granholm - er, Obama. But the fact that Obama likes it - the same guy who has been, Granholm-like, beating GOPers up with vicious partisan rhetoric - should be a warning sign.

Still, the deal involves a key provision: pro-growth tax simplification. Underestimated by conservatives rightly concerned about ballooning spending is the need for positive policy - both economically and politically. After all, an electorate will shy to a party that is all about pain.

Detroit News editorial page editor Nolan Finley, blessed with excellent political gut instincts, grasps this.

"There are many things to like. Foremost is that the plan looks beyond tax hikes and spending cuts to focus some attention on the third route to deficit elimination — economic growth," reads the News lead editorial Wednesday on the Gang 's proposal. "Under this plan, the purpose of the tax code would not be to punish success, but to enhance revenue by making the U.S. economy more competitive."

A Wall Street Journal editorial agrees . Ultimately, the U.S. needs growth for revenue.

Still, both pages warn the devil is in the details. And the Gang's proposal, says Hoover Institute economist and veteran D.C. policy guru Steve Hennessey, is a devil. In particular he notes that the tax simplification (three rates topping at 29 percent and eliminating the Alternate Minimum Tax) are non-binding and would be negotiated by a liberal Senate Finance Committee.

At his influential blog, Hennessey writes on "Why I oppose the Gang of Six plan." He might get support from Michigan Republicans like Brian Calley who could tell the DC delegation of the horrors of rushing policy.

Library of Congress lesson plan: Childhood Poverty

Oregon Grade 9 – Social Studies 3.6.1  

Analyze and evaluate the impact of economic, cultural or environmental factors that result in changes to population of cities, countries, or regions.

Oregon Grade 9 – Language Arts 2.5

Listen to and Read Informational and Narrative Text: Skill To Support the Standard: (For the purpose of noting key skills that support classroom instruction of the standards) Understand and draw upon a variety of comprehension strategies as needed–re-reading, self-correcting, summarizing, class and group discussions, generating and responding to essential questions, making predictions, and comparing information from several sources.

Oregon Grade 9 – Technology 3.A

Students select and apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, validate, and use information. collection of prints from the Library of Congress.  Locate images that show children in poverty.  http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/young/young-home.html

Use the Analyzing photographs worksheet to make observations, reflections and questions about the images.

Question Prompts:

Observe:

Describe what you see.

What do you notice first about the children?

What is the physical setting?  What, if any, words do you see?

What other details can you see?

Reflect:

Why do you think this image was made?

What’s happening in the image?

How does this represent poverty?  How do you know?

When do you think it was made? Who do you think was the audience for this image?

What can you learn from examining this image?

What’s missing from this image?  If someone made this today, what would be different? What would be the same?

Question:

What do you wonder about… who? what? when? where?  why? how?

Compare the primary source images to the images you created in your mind to the novel you read for Summer Reading:  The Glass Castle