Everybody is weighing in on the so-called negotiations for deficit reduction, including now Newt Gingrich, who pretty much pulls the typical GOP party line. The Republican House and Senate should stand firm and tough on any idea of further tax increases as well as any further spending increases.
He's right of course. They are all right. To raise taxes (which is what allowing any past tax breaks to expire is tantamount to) at any time is going to serve to put the breaks on job creation and economic growth, even during good times. But in an economy such as we have now, it could be devastating.
As for any further spending increases in the form of any kind of so-called stimulus, we've already been there. No amount is ever enough to do anything other than to dig ourselves a deeper hole.
But god damn it enough is enough. Go ahead and give Obama what he wants and let the country find out for themselves what by now should be blatantly obvious.
There's no reason to imagine things will improve if we go the Democrat way, but I will promise you one thing-if the GOP gets their way, or mostly their way, and things improve, the Democrats will damn sure take the credit for it.
Let me clue you in to the cold hard facts of life. The American people by and large have the attention span of a mosquito. Because of that, we have a world where the economic boom of the 1990's is called "The Clinton Economy". Ask yourself, how many people have you heard refer to the nineties as the Newt Gingrich-Republican Congress Economy? Shit Newt Gingrich is running for President now and I guarantee you if you mentioned his name in a casual conversation without offering specifics most Americans would say something like "Newt Gingrich, isn't that a Doctor Seuss character?"
That is just the level of ignorance that we're dealing with here. The fact that the nineties economy was due mainly to the Republicans restraint of Clinton's spendthrift, liberal inclinations does not compute. And look what happened. People weren't even paying attention then. Times were relatively good, that's all people noticed, and since Clinton was the President, that's all they needed to know.
And you actually think they're going to think any differently if things go the same way? Make no mistake, if things go good for whatever reason Obama will find a way to take credit for it, and the people will fall for it hook, line, and sinker.
I repeat, give Obama what he wants. He wants to end the Bush era tax cuts, do it. He want to raise more taxes on top of that, hell, why the fuck not? He wants to raise the debt ceiling another two trillion dollars, and promptly proceed to spend it on some package of boondoggles that he calls a "stimulus".
Well, why the hell not? "Go for it, Obama" should be the watchword of the day.
Then when things go to hell in a handbasket, its not going to be so easy for him to blame it on Bush. Oh, but he'll try.
