Friday, September 9, 2011

The Sane Establishment vs. the Tea Party

I, of course, think that Congress should immediately pass President Obama's jobs plan. This aligns me with an arc of American opinion that stretches, as I see in this morning's Times, from Paul Krugman on the left to David Brooks on the center-right. This would be, if you ask me, the sane axis of American politics, although I suppose you could also call it "the establishment." To fret about a few hundred billion in deficit spending when unemployment is at 9 percent and the government can borrow money for free -- the real interest rate on 10-year Treasuries is 0 percent -- is nuts. We can do this and we should.

And you know what? It doesn't matter at all what any of us think. The House of Representatives is under the thumb of people who do not share my notion of sanity, and who think that the sufferings of the poor are a good thing because they inspire people to work harder to become un-poor. They think progressive taxation is so unfair and so harmful to economic growth that keeping taxes on the rich low should take priority over everything else, including bridges that fall down and people who can't find jobs. They will block the President's proposal. Americans who think the government should be doing more to help the unemployed and generally get the country moving again can only do one thing, and that is work to vote the Republicans out of power.

1 comment:

leif said...

correct as usual. clearly they feel no alarm that a high unemployment rate is one of the key characteristics of third-world and failed states. clearly as well they channel reagan only when particular policies or quotes come to their aid, and choose to forget that he raised taxes about ten times, if memory serves.