An Accurate Assessment Of The GOP By Former President Clinton

In Former President Bill Clinton's interview with CNN, he cut right to the chase in explaining the current situation:

I find it amazing that the Republicans who doubled the debt of the country in eight years and produced no new jobs doing it, gave us an economic record that was totally bereft of any productive result are now criticizing him [President Obama] for spending money.

The only people who actually prospered the past eight years were the fat cats. At the same time, the working American actually lost wealth due to wage stagnation combined with inflation. But as Clinton points out, President Bush and the Repbulicans in Congress spent money like crazy.

Now - with an economic disaster second only (for now, at least) to the Great Depression - Republicans are wanting to be budget hawks.

But again Clinton nails it:

For example, there's 100 economic studies which show that you get a better return in terms of economic growth on extending unemployment benefits or investing money in energy conservation jobs to improve buildings than you do giving people in my income group a tax cut. But it doesn't stop them. Those guys are on automatic. You punch a button and they give the answer they give you.

Yes, pre-programmed brains in a rut: GOP leadership.

GOP Fighting Hard To Lose 20.000 Jobs

One vote. Just one more vote in California's state Senate needed to approve a $42 billion budget-balancing plan. Without it layoffs of workers in "corrections, health and human services and other agencies that receive money from the general fund" will begin. In all some 20,000 workers are on the chopping block.

The holdout is over political philosophy:

The plan continues to fall short of votes because rank & file Republicans have refused to agree to $14.4 billion in higher taxes.

That is a lot of people to be putting out of work in these hard times. California is in real bad shape these days, and - as with the country in general - the lion's share of the blame goes to the Republicans and their failed policies.

Spare Us Your Outrage

My God! We listened for the better part of eight long years to how Democrats were anti-American and anti-patriotic, givers of aid and comfort to terrorists. Immediately upon Barack Obama's announcement of his intention to run for president we were treated to endless innuendo about his alleged connections to radical Islam and his general disdain for America.

Now the shoe is on the other foot and just listen to the squealing. Check out this from NewsBusters:

On his February 10 show, left-wing radio host Mike Malloy ranted about Republicans who voted against the Obama stimulus package, going so far as to label them as "domestic terrorists" who "want the country to fail." Malloy also attacked Rush Limbaugh in his comments and charged that Limbaugh "is a bigger threat to this country than Osama bin Laden," practically calling for his arrest.

So what's the problem? Limbaugh is on record that he wants Obama to fail. How patriotic is that? And as I commented in yesterday's post, how disgusting is it that many of our elected officials would love to undo the last presidential election?

So tells us, conservative friends: what exactly is the problem here?

That Is What Conservatives Do

This Way To The Past

I had to laugh at this item:

Several Tennessee lawmakers have signed on to a legal action intended to force President Barack Obama to turn over his birth certificate and other documents to prove his citizenship, an effort rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in an earlier case.

Just can't leave the past behind and move forward, eh, guys? This is kicking a dead horse. But that is what conservatives do. Example: the recent GOP brouhaha over economic stimulus legislation; they, of course, were in favor of using the tried and discredited policies of the past.

Is it not rich when four southern Republicans (Tennessee Reps. Eric Swafford, Stacey Campfield, Glen Casada and Frank Niceley) get on board an effort by a Russian immigrant from California to undo our last presidential election?

The story I linked above fairly pointed out the ridiculousness of this:

The news of the lawsuit later provoked ribbing around the Capitol, with one legislative staffer approaching a lawmaker and demanding to see his birth certificate.

Yes, exactly. Now can we please move on?

Conservatives Have Trouble Telling The Truth About FDR And New Deal

Ohio congressman Steve Austria embarrassed himself by going overboard in parroting the usual conservative claim that FDR actually made things worse rather than better with his New Deal. While opposing the stimulus legislation he took an idiotic extra step of claiming

The last time this was done, was under Franklin Roosevelt, and when Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a great depression, to be honest with you.

Mark that word "honest" for future reference.

This story which I link to above goes on to state

Rep. Austria was given a chance to make clear whether he was really blaming FDR. He repeated his point, saying, "That's just history."

The story goes on to succinctly explain that

Actually, it's just nonsense. President Roosevelt inherited an unemployment rate of 25 percent in 1933. By 1937, it had dropped to 14.3 percent, an extraordinarily fast drop in percentage terms. Then there was what some economists call a "mini-depression," and the rate went back as high as 19 percent. But overall, from 1933 to 1940, it dropped from 25.2 percent to 14.6 percent.

Now that is history. And I might add that the "mini-depression" was caused by Roosevelt caving in to pressure to attempt to balance the budget. Further proof that things are exactly opposite to what our conservative friends attempt to portray.

However, moving on, we find that Austria finally was later forced to recant, writing

I did not mean to imply in any way that President Roosevelt was responsible for putting us into the Depression, but rather was trying to make the point that Roosevelt’s attempt to use significant spending to get us out of the Depression did not have the desired effect. Roosevelt did not put us into the Depression, but rather his policies could not pull the nation out of the recession.

As for honesty, it is hard for me to understand how he could have spoken so boldly earlier, even saying "that's just history," and then later claim he didn't mean to imply what he so clearly said.

The truth is just the truth, no matter how hard one may want to spin it otherwise: The New Deal did start turning things around.

Does government create jobs?

Yeah, among the new conservative mantras is this one, trumpeted of late by RNC Chaiman Michael Steele:

Let's get this notion out of our heads that the government creates jobs. Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job.

Wow! Simply incredible.

The state of California, which is facing a very harsh budget crunch, is now looking at this situation:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will send layoff warnings to 20,000 state workers at the end of the week if the Legislature has not approved a deal to close California's $42 billion budget deficit, the governor's spokesman said Tuesday.

State governors, even Republican state governors, realize all too well the falsity of the "government doesn't create jobs" rhetoric.

It would probably be comforting to think of lost government jobs as mainly from a pencil-pushing, paper-shuffling, bloated bureaucracy; but the truth is that many cuts will be made from education, law enforcement, and other much needed health and public safety government employees.

(As an aside, I wonder if Steele doesn't think of the members of our military as government employees?)

The truth is, state governors (for the most part) facing the real world are unable to indulge themselves in the political game playing now going on in Congress. A further truth is that those in Congress who are playing politics with this crisis are a disgrace to their office.

Who Will Sign This Petition?

The Wall Street Journal's Real Time Economics has this headline: ‘No Stimulus’ Petition Illustrates Public Anger Over Plan.

The accompanying story suggests:

The economic stimulus package working its way through the Senate has sparked strong reactions, and if Web traffic is any indication the backlash against the plan is sizeable.

Americans for Prosperity, a right-wing political advocacy group, has started a petition against the stimulus bill. Both the Web site of the group and its petition site nostimulus.com have been overwhelmed by traffic and are currently unavailable.

Really now?

I have to wonder who these people are who are supposedly rushing to sign this petition. Do you suppose there is even one person among them who has been laid off, who has lost health insurance because of inability to afford to eat AND pay for COBRA insurance, who has lost a family home to foreclosure?

The rightwing scare-mongerers have done their usual good job of portraying the stimulus idea as "porkulus" that will lead us into a financial Armageddon. (Pssst...we are already there!) But has this argument took hold with any of the millions of Americans who have already lost their jobs?

There is that old saw: A recession is when your neighbor loses his job; a depression is when you lose yours. The sad truth is that none of us working folk is safe. This Great Recession is touching all sectors. The noose will only tighten if nothing is done. As more and more of us hold tight our purse strings, fearing that our jobs will be next to go, money is taken out of the economy and demand continues to fall while job losses continue to mount.

Imperfections in the stimulus packages up for consideration in Congress notwithstanding, the cost of doing nothing or delaying action is too damned high.

A New Pejorative Phrase: Savior-based Economy

This whole business of using the government to kick-start the economy is now being called a "savior-based economy," at least by South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.

Oh, brother! Just when I was getting used to being called a socialist.

Sanford opined Sunday:

A problem that was created by building up of too much debt will not be solved with yet more debt.

In typical conservative fashion the victims are made into the villains:

That is quite different than a market-based economy where some rise and some fall but there’s a consequence to making a stupid decision...A lot of people who’ve made some very stupid decisions are being bailed out by the population at large.

Right. The Free Market mantra again. Yet who is to hold those corrupt money-changers to account?

It doesn't matter. What is needed now is inaction. Swift and decisive inaction. At least so says Sanford:

We’re going to go through a process of deleveraging. And it will be painful. The question is: Do we apply a bunch of different band aids that lengthen and prolong this pain or do we take the band aid off? I believe very strongly: let’s get this thing over with, let’s not drag it on.

Thanks for the leadership, Governor!

Right-wing Lunatic of the Week Award...

has to go to Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, who offered this observation concerning pending stimulus legislation:

There's evidence that this is kind of a sugar high. We put a lot of spending out right now. But once the high is gone and you crash, you're going to be in a recession.

Oh, okay Jon. So what exactly are we in now?

The Bush administration and congressional Republicans lied and denied that we were in a recession for months before it finally became to too painfully obvious not to admit. Now we are warned that this stimulus bill will result in a "sugar blues" recession. Earth calling Senator Kyl....

Delay is preferable to error?

So said our third president, Thomas Jefferson. And he was so quoted by Republican Senator Roger Wicker in an attempt to justify the GOP's time-wasting political ping pong match with the Democrats over a much needed stimulus bill:

As Thomas Jefferson reminded Americans in his day — and I quote — “Delay is preferable to error.” Let’s not rush into doing this the wrong way.

Ah, where was that GOP sentiment when the Bush administration was lobbying for consensus to rush into Iraq? As you ponder that, check out this Washington Post article from March of last year that estimates (a conservative estimate, it states) that this ill-advised invasion will wind up costing us some $3 trillion - more than three times the amount of money contained in Obama's stimulus plan.

Isn't it nice to know that the GOP is always looking out for America's best interest?

About power in Washington

RNC Chairman Michael Steele caused me to spurt my Diet Mountain Dew out of my nose in a choking fit of laughter when he offered:

Democrats have controlled both branches of government for less than a month. And you have to wonder if all that power has gone to their heads. For the last two weeks, they've been trying to force a massive spending bill through Congress under the guise of economic relief.

Hey, the GOP have been booted out of the seat of power by American voters who were burned out by their mishandling of affairs. So now they, the Republicans, are pouting and whining and trying to pretend they and their disproved theories are still relevant.

This is about accountability to the American people ... something that was lost on the Bush administration and their GOP enablers in Congress the past eight years.

The New Patriotism and the New New Deal

I was forced to take a break from blogging due to the economy. After having suffered several more rapid fire layoffs, the company where I (very thankfully) am still employed (for now at least) has been struggling to stay afloat with a mere skeleton crew. The manager of my department has been out the past two months recovering from surgery and I, as his assistant, have just been too busy and stressed there to do much here.

While I was away our new president took office - the change agent, the bringer of a new, New Deal, the messenger of hope - and was promptly welcomed by those patriots, the modern Republican party, the Party of the People, so long as we are speaking of wealthy people.

The flurry of crisis legislation that occurred during FDR's "First Hundred Days" will certainly not be a foreshadow of President Obama's first hundred. As the nation burns the GOP fiddlers are leisurely rosining their bows.

I read this morning that finally a "bipartisan" agreement had been reached on a stimulus package. Bipartisan in that a few maverick moderate Republicans were willing enough to put country first and sit down with the Democrats to work out some kind of agreement that would at least do something to ease the ever increasing pain of the American people. Of course the posturing and self-righteous theatrics aren't over yet, as it will be next week before this new compromise package is voted on.

Ex-president George W. Bush (hasn't that a nice ring?) was noted for his "you are either with us or against us" approach to terrorism. His boot-licking cronies in congress evidently no longer feel that way. If you think al-Qaeda ever posed the threat to our nation that the modern financial crisis does, you simply haven't been paying attention. Yet now the GOP is attempting to tie the hands of our new president as our nation is facing its greatest crisis in decades. True patriotism, that.

You know, Rush Limbaugh is a snarling, hateful fear mongerer, among other things. But I admire his honesty for plainly stating what I truly believe is the sentiment of most Republicans: the hope that Obama fails. I wish that the same mass of humanity that showed up in Washington for Barack Obama's inauguration would show up again, this time on Capital Hill, to protest the GOP obstructionism; they should flood their representative's offices with phone calls and telegrams demanding positive action in support of Obama's economic stimulus efforts.

If the plight of the poor and the commoner has ever been much of a concern for the Republican party (and it clearly hasn't been, as their policies throughout their history show), it certainly isn't now. More important to them is that they regain power, hold on to it at almost any cost, and shape America into their quasi-fascist utopia.

The time is now for action. The people should not forget what is happening now in this crucial hour. We should not forget who is blathering nonsense and delaying desperately needed efforts to, as FDR put it so well, "convert retreat into advance."