Re: Op-Ed Columnist – The Phantom Menace – NYTimes.com , By PAUL KRUGMAN, Published: November 22, 2009
Paul Krugman
In December 2008 Lawrence Summers, soon to become the administration’s highest-ranking economist, called for decisive action. “Many experts,” he warned, “believe that unemployment could reach 10 percent by the end of next year.” In the face of that prospect, he continued, “doing too little poses a greater threat than doing too much.”
Ten months later unemployment reached 10.2 percent, suggesting that despite his warning the administration hadn’t done enough to create jobs. You might have expected, then, a determination to do more…
…Most economists I talk to believe that the big risk to recovery comes from the inadequacy of government efforts: the stimulus was too small, and it will fade out next year, while high unemployment is undermining both consumer and business confidence.
Krugman kills me. He will stop at nothing to ignore history and stretch as hard as he can to point a finger at Obama, and his reasoning behind this weeks slam on Obama is a long stretch. With good lefties like Krugman, who needs the Republicans.
The truth here is that there was tremendous opposition to even a small stimulus. Republican governors in southern states like Texas and South Carolina even fanned the flames of succession over the stimulus bill. Republican leaders in Congress bashed Obama relentlessly, filibustered, and used the right-wing echo machine to do anything they could do to stop the stimulus from passing. The Republicans did everything they could do to undermine a stimulus package that was as big as Obama could politically make it with over a third of the total package in tax cuts to appease them.
He says that the impediment to recovery is a lack of government effort. I say he is full of s**t. I say that the main impediment to recovery is what it has always been – right-wing obstructionism. The party of “no”. How can there be more government effort when the right uses procedural gimmicks, the media, and Republican governors to stop any good government action?
And besides that, Krugman never mentions how all this got started in the first place with the right-wing deregulation, never looking beyond his nose to point a finger where it should go – straight at George W. Bush. He doesn’t even mention what the Republican stimulus plan revolved around. No spending, just more tax cuts for the rich!
Now Krugman says that Obama didn’t do enough. Here’s what I say to Krugman, F.U.!
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Did you copy that from John McCain’s website? McCain’s solution to the health care crisis was to go out and buy better insurance. It did nothing to help those who cannot afford to buy any insurance at all.
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Astroturfers Plan More Tea Bag Protests (TRMS Video)
Re: CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive – Tea Party Express, Part Three « – Blogs from CNN.com
More Dems than Righties targeted? Who didn’t see that coming?
The Our Country Deserves Better PAC was on the campaign trail for John McCain in 2008. From CNN, August 2009:
After McCain got spanked in November, 2008, the Our Country Deserves Better PAC became rebels without a cause – until the health care reform issue became prominent in the news and money from AHIP and others started circulating to various organizations. The tea-bag protests became a well organized and well funded effort to help defeat the public option by interrupting the normal August recess town hall meetings. The Rachel Maddow Show addressed the issue of how a well organized effort was planned and financed to high-jack town hall meetings:
Here’s my shocking truth: I think that news of even more Tea-bag protests coming next year is wonderful! It gives the American citizens, the normal ones, the ones that will actually make a difference in November 2010, another chance to see just how loony the right-wing has become. It is important, though, to point out that the main stream news media has given just a little more credibility to these fake grassroots organizations and their crazy-talk slogans than they deserve. It would be important for us to speak to that issue, but leave the sign toting nut jobs alone.
As a matter of fact, I think it would be beneficial for progressives to attend as many of these tea bag protests as possible. Progressives should bring signs that have populist slogans. Here is a few of my ideas for signs (I have no imagination, so come up with your own):
“More Public Sector Jobs!”
“We Need The WPA NOW!”
“Balance the Budget – No More Wars On Credit!”
“Tax Cuts For The Middle Class!”
“Stop Taxing The Poor! Tax The Rich!”
“Repair Our Roads And Bridges!”
“Stop Sending Our Jobs Overseas!”
“Buy American Products!”
“Fair Trade, Not Free Trade!”
“Protect American Jobs – Tax Imports!”
“More Investments In The Power Grid!”
“Invest In Our Nation’s Education! – Increase Pell Grants!”
More?
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