Earlier this month, Paul Krugman wrote a piece, explaining why the current economic state, which he justifiably calls a depression, is a Republican economy. In a rare treat, he was a guest on the Rachel Maddow Show last night to discuss it. Here is an excerpt from the article and the interview.
What should be done about the economy? Republicans claim to have the answer: slash spending and cut taxes. What they hope voters won’t notice is that that’s precisely the policy we’ve been following the past couple of years. Never mind the Democrat in the White House; for all practical purposes, this is already the economic policy of Republican dreams.
So the Republican electoral strategy is, in effect, a gigantic con game: it depends on convincing voters that the bad economy is the result of big-spending policies that President Obama hasn’t followed (in large part because the G.O.P. wouldn’t let him), and that our woes can be cured by pursuing more of the same policies that have already failed.
For some reason, however, neither the press nor Mr. Obama’s political team has done a very good job of exposing the con….
…Over all, the picture for America in 2012 bears a stunning resemblance to the great mistake of 1937, when F.D.R. prematurely slashed spending, sending the U.S. economy — which had actually been recovering fairly fast until that point — into the second leg of the Great Depression. In F.D.R.’s case, however, this was an unforced error, since he had a solidly Democratic Congress. In President Obama’s case, much though not all of the responsibility for the policy wrong turn lies with a completely obstructionist Republican majority in the House… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <NY Times>
Here he is with Rachel.
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Didn’t they do an excellent job shredding the absurd claims of Rmoney and the Republican Party?
6 Responses to “Republican Economy Prevails”
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They are not done. And in the end they will blame Obama. Power and greed will make you do anything. Can Obama get the votes he needs to beat them because that is the only thing that can.
It was excellent job. May that is why Ron Paul was always attacking Paul Krugman and Rachel Maddow neads to watch her back. After all she always gets the truth out there.
…and she is one of very few who do.
In Europe, the austerity programme has not worked. France has replaced Sarkozy who was cuddling up with Germany's Merkle, with François Hollande, a social democrat. Merkle's party has suffered some humiliating defeats in elections of late which is thought to be closely related to the economy. And then there is Greece. Clearly, austerity is not working and countries want to try different directions. But the US, with a Republican/Teabagger domination, wants to continue down this very rutted road, as does Canada's Harper and his Conservative harlots. What part of "It doesn't work!" don't they get?
I think the following excerpt sums it up well.
"As an aside, I think it’s worth pointing out that although the economy’s performance has been disappointing, to say the least, none of the disasters Republicans predicted have come to pass. Remember all those assertions that budget deficits would lead to soaring interest rates? Well, U.S. borrowing costs have just hit a record low. And remember those dire warnings about inflation and the “debasement” of the dollar? Well, inflation remains low, and the dollar has been stronger than it was in the Bush years."
Additionally, I refer back to the Republicans' own actions during previous recessions under Republican presidents (Nixon, Reagan, Bush, Bush junior) — increase public sector hiring and prudent spending to pull out of a recession. And it worked. But of course, because of the obstructionist Republican/Teabagger dominated Congress, despite the lowest spending levels in decades, the lack of public sector hiring has severely hampered any recovery. Straight austerity has not worked, just like it has not worked in Europe.
For Republicans, it is working as long as wealth continues to gush up from the poor and middle classes to millionaires, billionaires ands corporate criminals.
Congress is a Circus , a real Clown act —
Even more so, after yesterday!