The effect of austerity in Europe has been decidedly detrimental, stifling growth and needlessly prolonging economic pain for the continent’s residents. And in America, many states are doing the exact same thing, slashing spending and laying off workers in an attempt to cope with collapsed revenue.

As Center for American Progress economist Adam Hersh found, such austerity has been counterproductive for states as well. In fact, the states that have cut spending during the recession have higher rates of unemployment, lower rates of growth, and ultimately fewer private sector jobs. In the median “spending cut” state:

– The unemployment rate is 4.1 percentage points higher;

– There are 6 percent fewer private-sector jobs;

– The state economy is growing 2.7 percentage points slower than before the recession.

Despite this evidence, Republicans in Congress and in state legislatures continue to push austerity-like programs.

With as many as 2.9 million new and existing jobs on the line, House Republicans are refusing to pass a transportation reauthorization bill, even after the Senate’s version of the bill overwhelmingly passed through the upper chamber in a 74-22 bipartisan vote.

The deadline for new transportation funding is June 30, and if the calendar flips to July without a compromise, as many as 1.9 million workers could lose their jobs, at least temporarily. The Senate version of the bill, if adapted, would create an additional one million new jobs as well, according to Department of Transportation projections.

So why are House Republicans holding nearly three million jobs hostage? Because they want approval of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline to be included in the bill. This infographic gives a sense of the GOP’s priorities:

The State Department estimates that roughly 6,000 jobs would be created if the Keystone XL is approved, but as few as 20 of them will be permanent.

Despite the fact that England has just entered a double-dip recession, the Queen will be getting a twenty percent raise this year, bringing her annual income up to ₤36 million — or $56 million.

The ostentatiousness of the Crown already serves a sharp contrast to the average Briton, whose earnings have dropped 3.1 percent, back to 2005 levels, because of austerity measures. It doesn’t help that the Queen is paid with taxpayer funds.

But a newly-calculated system makes it so that, “the monarch’s pay is calculated as 15 percent of the estate’s profits from two years prior.” The rest of their profits go to the finance ministry. This supposedly ties the earnings and income of the Queen more closely to the country’s economic performance.

And that’s bad news for the Queen too. The very same austerity measures that hurt British salaries are damaging the country’s gross domestic product overall. In fact, the U.K. is performing even worse than the rest of the Euro zone:

The six million pound raise is also the Queen’s first since 2010. Of course, it’s still a much, much greater raise than most English could ever hope for.

The wealth gap between the rich and poor in the United States grew significantly during and after the Great Recession, so much so that America may have a greater disparity in wealth than even Ancient Rome once had.

New data from the Census Bureau, though, shows that the recession didn’t just grow the wealth gap between rich and poor; it also had a tremendous affect on the gap between different races. The wealth gap between whites and blacks nearly doubled during the recession, and whites now have 22 times as much household wealth as blacks. The gap also widened to 15-to-1 between whites and Latinos, CNN Money reports:

The median household net worth for whites was $110,729 in 2010, versus $4,995 for blacks, according to recently released Census Bureau figures.

The difference is similarly notable when it comes to Hispanics, who had a median household net worth of $7,424. The ratio between white and Hispanic wealth expanded to 15 to 1.

The Great Recession took its toll on millions of Americans, but its effects hit minorities hardest. The housing crisis was especially brutal for minorities, many of whom were pushed into bad mortgages by the nation’s biggest banks. The loss of 600,000 public sector jobs also hit hard, since black and Latino workers are more likely to hold government jobs than their white counterparts. Those layoffs have continued since the end of the recession as state and local budgets remain crunched.

And though the nation’s unemployment rate — currently at 8.2 percent — is abnormally high, that rate would represent generational lows for black and Latino workers. Even the 9.6 percent unemployment America experienced at the peak of the crisis would be an improvement for blacks, whose unemployment rate has rarely dipped below 10 percent in the last 50 years.

Republican governors in states across the country have been touting their states’ economic growth, pointing to falling unemployment rates and continued signs of economic recovery. Gov. Terry Branstad (R-IA) has expressed frustration that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is using his state as an example of the nation’s economic woes.

However, since positive economic messages directly contradict Romney’s central campaign push — convincing voters that Obama has made the economy worse — the Romney campaign would prefer to downplay any signs of recovery.

In fact, the Romney campaign has directly asked Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) to “tone down” his positive statements about Florida’s improving economy because they inconveniently clash with Romney’s national narrative. Two campaign officials confirmed that Scott has been asked to instead say that his state’s economy would improve under a Republican presidency, Bloomberg News reports:

What’s unfolding in Florida highlights a dilemma for the Romney campaign: how to allow Republican governors to take credit for economic improvements in their states while faulting Obama’s stewardship of the national economy. Republican governors in Ohio, Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin also have highlighted improving economies. [...]

A Romney adviser made the request this week to Scott’s staff after press releases from the governor’s re-election campaign and Internet messages from the Florida Chamber of Commerce trumpeted the state’s drop to 8.6 percent unemployment rate in May from 8.7 percent in April, the people said. The national unemployment rate is 8.2 percent.

Although Romney continues to lament the economic failures of the country under President Obama, even his campaign now acknowledges that things are improving. As Americans continue to climb their way out of the Great Recession, the GOP’s contradictory messages aren’t telling them the whole truth about a slowly recovering economy.