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In the words of Paul Krugman, recently, (quote) "What should have been a deadly serious debate over this stimulus plan and how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into some really stupid, hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting all the old clichés about wasteful government spending and the wonders of tax cuts.
It’s as if the dismal economic failure of the last eight years never happened — yet Democrats have, incredibly, been on the defensive. Even if a major stimulus bill does pass the Senate, there’s a real risk that important parts of the original plan, especially aid to state and local governments, will have been emasculated.
Somehow, Washington has lost any sense of what’s at stake — of the reality that we may well be falling into an economic abyss, and that if we do, it will be very hard to get out again.
It’s hard to exaggerate how much economic trouble we’re in. Would the Obama economic plan, if enacted, ensure that America recovers?Not necessarily but it certainly would improve our odds. And that’s why the effort of Republicans to make the plan smaller and less effective — to turn it into little more than another round of Bush-style tax cuts — is so destructive.
Obama has made a big mistake in his push for bipartisanship. All he ended up doing has been to empower hard right wing politicians who take their marching orders from Rush Limbaugh.
It’s time for Mr. Obama to go on the offensive. Above all, he must not shy away from pointing out that those who stand in the way of his plan, in the name of a discredited economic philosophy, are putting the nation’s future at risk. The American economy is on the edge of catastrophe, and much of the Republican Party is trying to push it over that edge."
