The economic mess we are in didn’t just happen like a hurricane or flood or drought happens. It was very man made. And it was made by Republicans.
I was very impressed with Paul Krugman’s words last night on ABC Evening News . He blasted the Republican opposition to the Stimulus Bill. And I think Obama would be wise to point out the same facts: “We’ve just had eight years of Republicans pretty much getting everything they want in Washington, and it happens to be the worst eight years since the great depression. I find it hard to understand how so many Republicans can be so confident about their economic judgment when having their own way for eight years led to this disaster.”
Krugman thinks that Obama has been much too easy with the Republicans. Obama has been working hard to attract individual Republicans to his leadership. And it appears that Obama has been working on an assumption that at least some Republicans would respond to his call for a new era of bi partisan problem solving. He appointed three Republicans to his cabinet, he added huge tax cuts to his stimulus package. But nothing. Zip. Nothing in return.
Krugman says, “The modern Republican party is a hard line, conservative, very cohesive group of people. They’re just not going to go along with anything that deviates from their philosophy. Obama did a tremendous amount of attempted outreach (to the Republicans), and he got absolutely zero, absolutely nothing. I hope he has learned his lesson from that.”
“The economic mess we are in didn’t just happen like a hurricane or flood or drought happens. It was very man made. And it was made by Republicans.”
HAHHHHAAAAHAHAHHHAHHAHHHHAHHHHAHHHAHHHAHHHAHAH!!!!!!! When did DaytonOS become a satire site? Good job. Keep the laughs coming.
Let me get this right Mike. The guy who said he was going to “CHANGE” the way business is conducted in Washington has brought in as many Clintonistas as Bill. This does not demonstrate change. Oh, and he has fanatically endorsed TAX EVADERS to be part of his administration. This does not demonstrate change either. Oh, and wasn’t he the sanctimonious one who said, and I will paraphrase, no more revolving door for those who think they can move fluidly between government and lobbying. Yet he is endorsing a couple of lobbyists for key positions in his administration and has the audacity to claim they are “the only one’s qualified for these critical positions”, my paraphrase again.
What a joke Krugman is. He is the MOST partisan liberal economist writer in the country. Let me change the quote you use just a little and tell me what you think.
Krugman says, “The modern Democratic party is a hard line, liberal, fanatical, and very cohesive group of people. They are just not going to go along with anything that deviates from their philosophy.
I will make an easy prediction and I will be right, unlike the egghead Klugman, who has not held a REAL job in over 25 years. The spendulus plan will not create or save, one tenth of the jobs O claims on a permanent basis. Fixing the water pipes as the Philadelphia zoo will not create one single new job, as the Mayor of Philadelphia claims. Those pipes are going to will be fixed by already trained plumbers who already work for a company capable of doing that kind of work. Mark this post and pull it out next year, you will call me the Oracle from that point forward.
Tom, I too have been disappointed in some of Obama’s actions. I wrote
It’s A Big Mistake For Obama To Excuse Timothy Geithner’s IRS Failure As “Innocent” and I wrote, Three Actions Bring President Barack Obama’s Credibility And Integrity Into Question
I have a terrible feeling that Obama really doesn’t know what he is doing. That he is too likely to follow what he sees as expert advice. I was very disappointed that he had virtually nothing to say about Gaza that would have been in any way different from what George Bush would have said. His actions, I fear, diminish what should be his one big strength — a public belief in his absolute integrity. His saving grace, in my judgment, is that he is thoughtful and genuinely concerned about advancing the common good.
Obama’s quest for bipartisanship seems misguided. I linked to a post on Worldwide Sawdust today and wrote, Those Who Fought And Worked For Democratic Victory Now Deserve Uncompromised Democratic Leadership. Bob Higgins writes, “Tens, hundreds of thousands of people worked and fought, spoke and scraped up funds for Democratic victory through all the horrible years of the Bush debacle and they deserve Democratic leadership.”
If Bush were still president — if all of this had come crashing down, say, one year ago — his actions to solve the financial crisis would probably not have been very much different from those actions Obama has pursued. I don’t think you can find a credible economists who would not be advising that the government pump money into the system. Obama’s stimulus package is 40% tax cuts. I doubt that Bush would have insisted on anything more.
Obama was elected to be an authentic agent of change. Yet, he seems too much more of the same. Obama needs to do something bold and transformative — while he still has a big mandate to do so. The cost of this crises is dear and society should get some positive improvements as repayment for all this unnecessary turmoil and suffering inflicted on our country. And yes, I blame the Republicans — the ones in absolute charge for six key years. I do believe the Republicans deserve blame and shame. As I wrote, “The economic mess we are in didn’t just happen like a hurricane or flood or drought happens. It was very man made.” And it was made by Republicans. I was glad to see that Obama, in his press conference, did put this economic disaster within context of the Republican profligacy that added $5 trillion to the national debt.
We need to build more justice for average Americans into the entire system. We need a system that will actually encourage and reward behavior that benefits the public good. Obama, I’m thinking, should probably simply nationalize the banks and build a better system from the ground up. But, I need to have better understanding of the pros and cons of such a bold move, before I decide for certain.