Are We Japan?

The whole article seems to boil down to “The situation is exactly the same except that it’s completely different”?

It is amazing how expert the Republicans have become on economics, now that a Democrat is trying to dig out of the worst recession, since the depression, that the Republicans were in power for the creation of. If they are such experts, why didn’t they speak up until now? Perhaps they could have tried using their new found wisdom to have prevented the disaster, in the first place.

@sacred: yes, i find that a lot when i read stories about the economy. but i still thought he had some good points. i didn’t remember all that much about japan (or, for that matter, the 1990s) except that everything the japanese tried to do just made things worse.
.
ben bernanke is an expert on economic crises. it was his academic specialty before this fed gig. i know he’s spent a lot of time thinking about this.

Krugman dealt with this quite effectively with this but I can’t remember anything more about the column. It was a couple of weeks ago though.
P.S. Say JNS on C-Span today. She’s got the uno’s as well.

Well, like Japan we work way too many hours until we drop dead of heart attacks at our desks. We both enjoy exploiting China.We also like golf, and Godzilla movies.
.
We are twins. We go together like tempura and chicken wings.

Derek: They didn’t speak up until now because it wasn’t in their best interests to speak up while a republican still occupied the White House. They didn’t know what to do while they had power and only now shower us with their advice because they are trying to save the country from certain disaster if the democrats are allowed to run amuck. By running amuck, what I mean is that the democrats want to get a stimulus package passed that turns the economy around and puts people back to work. The certain disaster refers only to the republicans chances in 2010 and 2012 if the democrats are successful.

Actually if the GOP starts to critique the plan using actual economic data, they could potentially redeem themselves. You’ll note I’m not holding my breath.
-
From the article:
-
“Virtually the totality of the Japanese programs was what we call roads and bridges,” [...] The U.S. stimulus package, by contrast, has a considerably more varied makeup; about half is tax cuts and spending on programs such as unemployment insurance, worker retraining and Medicaid benefits to the states, which most analysts on both sides agree largely get injected into the economy quickly.
-
Didn’t I read that the Senate GOP wants more roads and bridges and less “welfare”?

KT: I know what you’re referring to when you say you don’t remember that much about the 90′s. I’m that way too. I remember Sgt. Pepper coming out in 1967 and then the next thing I knew it was 1983. I’d been married and divorced, bought property and had been working the same job for 10 years. I’m glad somebody had it together enough to take pictures.

Gerald Seib’s beard frightens me.

For anyone who ever wanted to feel good about the US gov’t:
~
http://www.amazon.com/Dogs-Demons-Tales-Dark-Japan/dp/0809039435/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233618454&sr=8-1
~
Kerr’s screed is over the top at times, but his analysis of the 土建国家 (construction state) is spot-on. It’s the WPA/CCC on acid, to the irreparable destruction of the environment (imagine if there were no EPA or a 100-yr. history of convervation in the US). And it shines a damning light on the dirty f’ing nexus of big business, mandarins and the one party that’s ruled essentially uninterrupted since 1955 (though that could change by Sept. when As(s)o calls lower-house elections.
~
So, while things look bad in the US, you have no idea the type of hole these people (and by these, I mean me, my wife, our family etc.) will have to dig out of–the demographic pressures here (shrinking & aging pop) are worse than anywhere in the world.

Of course we’re not Japan.

How ridiculous.

We’re Southern Canada.

With more crime.

And better medical care.

We’re the UNITED STATES OF AMNESIA, and as I recall proud of IS.

We’re like Switzerland, in that we’re heavily armed.
We’re unlike France, in that we actually use them.

jcapan: shrinking & aging pop
-
I’ve read in the Economist that this problem is exacerbated by Japan’s reluctance to allow (very many) foreign workers? Whereas the United States, despite the efforts of Tancredo and his ilk, mostly lets in the workers that it needs – legally or otherwise.

It is amazing how expert the Republicans have become on economics, now that another Democrat party nominee of the president select IS trying to explain his cheating on federal taxes by calling it an “error”.

An “error” IS what happened when Chuck Knoblock tried to make a throw from second to first without beaning the runner in the Kennedystem.

What ex-Senate majority then minority then early retiree Dashole describes would in fact constitute a CRIME, were he say Spiro Agnew instead of a member of this month’s recycled re-runs of the 8 years of Clixon trial balloons.

But I digest.

If a Republican lies in the forest, will every journalist in America still hear it?

“I’ve read in the Economist that this problem is exacerbated by Japan’s reluctance to allow (very many) foreign workers?”

???

They’re LAYING OFF workers in Japan too.

Next!

Actually, Dr. Krugman published a whole book about the Japanese experience (“The Return of Depression Economics”) and he has been raising he!! about the current stimulus being too small by a large margin – like, one-third of what he recommends. He may be shrill and bashes Obama way too much, but he is much more of an authority on this than Gerald Seib could ever pretend to be.

Rezko, Blago, Dashole, Geithner, Billary, Richie Richardson, Holder, on & on & on…

Some change, that one.

Move On indeed.

Seriously Hulagate/QH/Obamish, you’re not getting a cookie and may have to go to bed early (with meds and a grammar book.)

FDR did not solve the Depression, but by spastic gestures actually EXTENDED the length of the pain and suffering, which by all accounts of merit would have corrected itself long before Pearl had the business-bashing bozo simply done NOTHING.

Obama’s about as close to Abe Lincoln’s mental sobriety as Hillary is to a sustained spousal propriety.

What did we get, on January 20th?

Not the old Clixonian narcissism, but the new & improved messiah complex, Jew bashing included.

Obama’s secret chats with Iran and Syria may wow the Mall mob just as he seeks to distance himself from reality in Iraq, but what should we expect from somebody that worked as an ice cream parlor clerk as his sole private sector life experience?

4 more years of Obama, and we may as well be Belgium.

Gerald Seib’s beard tells me to do things. Bad things.

Like the Japanese, we enjoy McDonalds, Nascar, and Hello Kitty.

The Belgians have great/very potent beer and chocolate. Sign me up.

Oh my effing god.
.
The choices are Sweden (nationalize all the banks, and privatize them after they are stable) or Japan (feed money to the existing, corrupt institutions, in the hopes that if enough public money goes in, things will be all right.) Those are the choices. Treat it as insolvency (Sweden) or treat it as illiquidity (Japan).
.
What are these Republicans proposing? Shutting down TARP? Letting these insolvent institutions fail, pay off the insured depositors and zero out the shareholders. I’m fine with that. Is that what they are proposing?
.
One of the things that has been demonstrated in the last eight years is that the Republicans have no actual policy plans. KT, can you ask one of them to say what they want to do, and explain how it will make the economy grow? And, no, saying cutting taxes while not cutting spending is not an answer. We tried that. If their answer is “eliminate social security” well they need to say it out loud.
.
It is absolutely appalling that these guys are still allowed to say stuff that is complete nonsense, and never be called on it.

Why no comparisons to Sweden? Oh, that wouldn’t be a right wing talking point. Gotcha.
.
I take it Vonda/HulaGate has discovered the joys of methamphetamine.
.
Karen, if the GOP told you to jump off a cliff, would you? This is not a rhetorical question, I really want to know.

Cincy:

As it happens, the GOP has at times told me to jump off a cliff.

“The Belgians have great/very potent beer and chocolate. Sign me up.”

They also have labor union riots outside the legalized whore houses.

Kind of like DC, actually.

Cincy:
.
One of the most recent episodes is spelled out in the final paragraph of what wikipedia has to say about me.

So you drew a line. Good for you. Now why does every story have to be framed around what the GOP says the facts are, as opposed to WHAT the facts are? Why are we talking about Japan and not Sweden? I know the answer, what’s your opinion?

The h after sacred stands for Hussein. My conservative friends were driven to distraction that a President of the United States of America would have such an “un”-American name. They are convinced that anyone who would vote for Obama MUST think he was the Messiah or better yet…the AntiChrist. I sign all of my emails to them “From the servant of the Sacred Hussein”. Sometimes the littlest things give you the most pleasure. I hear Belgium is beautiful.

How would the GOP even tell somebody something? Through Gerald Seib’s beard, I bet.

Cincy:
.
(Sigh!) I’m thinking that perhaps our readers have heard some of these arguments, and are wondering to themselves: Is there anything to this? So I thought it might be of some service if I posted a well-reasoned explanation of where the similarities and differences are. Then again, I could always go back to posting about Jessica Simpson.

The GOP have excellent ideas. If we are running a surplus, we need tax breaks to give rich people their money back. If we are running a debt, we need to give the rich tax breaks, and we can lower the capital gains tax too. We are at war, same thing. We are at peace, same thing.
.
This is ridiculous btw. The GOP used to be the prudent people party. This is not the Eisenhower GOP.

Hulagate,
.
enough great/potent beer and chocolate and the labor unions in Belgium can sign me up too.

The GOP’s real concern about being like Japan is their understanding that the Obama program will hit their party in 2010 like Little Boy and Fat Man.

.
Belgium is indeed beautiful. I’m going back for lots more chocolate – via Amsterdam, of course.

.
…and hey, lay offa Gerry’s beard. It has roots here in the heartland.

flownover:
.
he is indeed a man of the heartland.

“What are these Republicans proposing? Shutting down TARP? Letting these insolvent institutions fail, pay off the insured depositors and zero out the shareholders. I’m fine with that. Is that what they are proposing?”

RISK is part of any valid equation, and without it there’s not room for the healthy incentive to invest, and grow, and prosper.

Yes, let the bad banks fail, after insuring the depositors.

I’ve taken my lumps in the market, like everyone else, but so what? The money will flow back into equities as soon as the hysterics finally re-discover that they’ve got 2 (two) reasonable choices for their fortune: Invest in yourself, or invest in the markets. There’s really no other place for the money to go, never has been, never will be.

The threat here, and soon, is that Obama and his stooges will continue to bail out the Boob Rubin brigades even as that money is better spent elsewhere, should it be spent at all.

The economy was way the hell overheated, people were condo flipping as a lifestyle, charging stuff they could never afford short of a nationalized Ponzi scheme (hello Barney Frankly, Freddie Fannie, Hillary), and the Easy Money Mortgage Mess was bad math made worse by a sleeping Congress and active terrorist environment.

When in doubt?

Move a pawn.

[I'd prefer THE pawn in the White House, moved back to Hawaii and scooping ice cream and doing no more harm, but that's just me and the 59 million Americans that voted last year.]

Lacking that, the GOP has every right and reason to BLOCK dumb spending on short-sighted make work for union slacker projects that will make the Chicago government housing of the 60′s look like relative economic and social genius.

Let the chips fall where they may.

Hulagate, every so often you lapse into a tiny bit of lucidity and bring up interesting points. I never agree with you but sometimes I mourn the loss of a thoughtful (not histrionic) conservative voice.
.
The rest of the time Gerry’s beard tells me to poke you with a stick.

You people don’t understand. Gerald Seib’s beard has roots EVERYWHERE. Fools. When you finally come around, it will be too late.

You’re not getting my point, perhaps conveniently. Yes, readers HAVE heard about these comparisons w/ Japan. That’s because the Republicans have decided to dishonestly use it as a talking point and the media dutifully followed…THAT’S my point. Why is it acceptable for the media to talk about Japan’s situation and not Sweden’s? I think the corporations who own the media are white w/ fear at the mention of the word ‘nationalism’….or am I being a conspiracy theorist? Or maybe you guys just like being the RNC’s b!tch.

Where’s the piece detailing Sweden’s situation and how it was dealt with?

KT: Seriously, I think your threads are the most interesting on Swampland. I enjoy the mix. I personally don’t mind links that contain contradictory information. It gives us something to argue about. The less serious threads provide an opportunity to polish the snarking skills.

Okay, Cincy, you’re not getting a cookie either for calling KT a bad name.
.
Kwak is my favorite Belgian beer – as a bartender in Paris (probably a union flunky) once said “Kwak kills.” Maybe not but the hangover makes me want to do things even Gerry’s beard wouldn’t suggest.

OT:
New poll from Rasmussen says that Republicans want their party to become even more conservative. Also:
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Evangelical Christians say the party should become more like Palin.
.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/republicans_like_gop_s_conservative_direction_democrats_don_t

This whole thread has a stream of consciousness feel to it. If I dim the lights, stretch out on a couch and pay somebody $100…will I understand the lyrics to Louie,Louie in the morning?

mmchampion

Contrary to 53ish belief, I and most other Republicans wish Obama well, BUT he’s moving in the wrong direction with the notion that massive spending will be a sure-fire cure — and that’s because the economy is bound to IMPROVE no matter what Uncle Sam does in the next 18 months.

Obama’s got this going for him: Things can’t get much worse, and like the severe down cycle of the early 80′s we’ll have a long, slow recovery — but we will have a recovery, though when we rise at the other side some people will be much worse off, others about the same, and a few improved. This is not unheard of, just the amount of government and Wall Street CRIME this Time around.

I would suggest these few things, for Team Obama, as I’ve said before…

1. BUILD NUKE PLANTS UP THE WAZOO. If the Southern Belgies can power their hemp huts with 85% nuke power, why not the United States of Amnesia. We’re good enough, we’re smart enough, and dog gone it, Poles still like us.

2. Offer steep financial incentives for families and individuals to eco-power their homes and cars — and get the hell off the monopolized power grid. Wind, solar, geothermal should be hooked up to EVERY new home offered a federally backed loan, without exception.

Institutional improvements to schools and roads should be funded and decided at the LOCAL and STATE level, not from the screwy confines and comforts of DC. Why would we lay more cement, when we’re trying to get people into mass transit that is already under-utilized?

We do need upgrades to the grid and fuel distribution systems, but again these should be primarily PRIVATELY funded, not on the taxpayers dime.

We are not facing anything not of out own making, and we have more than enough mental and organizational resources to beat these problems — AND win the wars against the jihaddie nut jobs (if the press will allow).

I don’t doubt Obama’s intentions (much), aside from family planning.

I do doubt his nominees — that are tied to the entrenched forces that he bashed Bush about, as a Senate career of 2 whole years — and their willingness to put their selfish interests aside, at any juncture.

Tom Dashole?

Example 1-A. The guy REEKS of lobbying and largesse.

And he’s only the supposed health czar.

There are some 33% of the DNC dregs that will see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil about the National Zoo that’s about to steer us from the median into the ditch, given the chance.

I would prefer an enlightened opposition and a serious, trusting discussion, to the paid political hacksterisms of getting the Teamsters and UAW to cold call constituents on behalf of the Obama legacy not yet chosen.

To be continued…

Perhaps ‘Louie Louie’ but never ‘MacArthur Park’.
.
KT, I’m sorry, we seem to have diverged from your topic.
.
Hulagate started it…

“Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter.”

Senator Tom Daschle. Gotta love it.

We aren’t Japan. I’m guessing that in Japan, someone who made that statement and had, ahem, such tax problems, would not have the temerity to stand in public. But here our politicians have no shame.

Funny in all the “news” coverage, Daschle’s little quote isn’t mentioned.

Dang it Hulagate. You make some good points, and I do agree with the green energy portion (I’m a liberal and that’s the law) and I also agree that with time our economy will rebound. But, I believe it will happen more quickly and that less people will devastated by losing their jobs/homes/retirement if the government takes some steps now. I also believe that fewer people will fall through a bridge in MN if we do something to repair our infrastructure, and as a nice benny we’ll put a few people to work.
.
I’ll take this national zoo over the past 8 years. I was a whole lot better off at the end of the 90′s than I am after the Bush administration.

KT: Perhaps what some of us, humorless or otherwise, take issue with is it seems that most of the voices you guys link to are center or right. Some of the posts are pure stenography, some, like Joe’s of late, actively contend with these often warped purveyors of nonsense. But maybe it’d be great, for a change, to hear some voices outside of the centrist/estab. bubble? Voices from academia, the vast majority of intellectuals who aren’t employed by R-wing thinktanks etc. You know, for the millions of educated Americans who don’t think The NY Times is “liberal”! Post me some of those voices, say once a week, and I’ll give you a pass on J. Simpson et al.
~
Art: Yes, indeedy the Econ. piece is correct. The ruling coaltion, card-carrying xenophobes, even admits they need to welcome 10 million foreign workers to right the ship–the UN says it’s closer to 17 mil. But I’m starting to see signs that the gov’t recognizes the econ. catastrophe they’ve ignored for far too long–Aso is taking measures to keep many immigrants from leaving. Of course, their idea of sound immigration policy is keeping immigrants in a subaltern position, separate housing, contracts in lieu of perm. jobs with benefits, little in the way of streamlined avenues to assimilation or citizenship. Most of these troglodytes running the nation into the ground would far prefer women to start having 6-kid families (to maintain illusions of homogeneity)–but women long ago smarted up. I forget where the study orig., but it ranked Japanese and Italian men as bar none the biggest chauvinists–the corresponding birthrates are thus no surprise.

“Why is it acceptable for the media to talk about Japan’s situation and not Sweden’s?”

… … …

The U.S. and Japan are the #1 and #2 largest economies on the globe.

Sweden?

Do they even make it into the Top 25, Sven?

Unlike Nippon and Volvo, we have a diverse society and are not dependent upon outside sourcing of resources (except by choice) — we have then huge advantages, in almost every category measured.

What will ail us long term is a decidedly poor product coming out of public schools (teachers unions and lousy families are equal partners in this national shame), a military that is split at times between the international interests of the full-time regulars versus the more domestic perspective of the Guard and Reserves (which the 08 DNC danced on like some sort of end zone display after a Dallas Cowchips touchdown), an aging population and the inherent costs (health, transportation), and a misfit major media that spends far too much Time talking about itself instead of helping to fairly use the communications system that they’ve really never earned.

The rumor is that Republicans hate government. It is not a rumor, It is fact. We hate the waste, the inefficiency, the lack of accountability that no decent business would long suffer without going down the tubes. We are lousy committee members, impatient chairmen, and upset taxpayers. Few of us seek public office, particularly at the state and local level — which is sadly part of the problem, at the state and local level.

That being said, we do expect the temporary appointees in the White House to trust some of what the 59 million Americans that did not vote for Obama in 2008 (and will likely not vote for him again in 2012) mean to the national math — since our small and medium sized businesses employ most of the people that generate most of the taxes that pay for most of your DC dwellings public and private.

Personally, I’d let the feds handle national defense and national forests — and then power down everything else to the state and local level. I trust the local sheriff with proper dissemination of social welfare funds a hell of alot more than I do some Combined Federal Campaign piglet in Washington yearning for his or her next unionized hourly coffee break as Job 1 (you know who you are, and you know you SUCK).

History will heal some of the wounds of political war if not war itself, but we should not wait for a miracle from the messiah before we decide to act responsibly with SOMEBODY ELSE’S MONEY.

Let the chips fall where they may.

Where do China and India rate in world rankings? No snark – we’ve borrowed ungawdly amounts of money from China and India seems intent to make huge inroads in technology – even particle physics.
.

Eric WHAT PARDONS Holder confirmed?

That should make Tom WHAT TAXES Dashole a shoe-in.

Some change, eh?

I’m not even sure Japan is Japan.
.
And Gerald Seib’s beard comes in peace.Resistance is futile.

Geithner, Holder, and Dashole.

The Triple Crown of Leftist Stupidity.

Darn, Hulagate’s med’s wore off and lucidity with it.
.
Gerald Seib’s beard is telling me to step away from the computer. ‘Night all.

“Where do China and India rate in world rankings? No snark – we’ve borrowed ungawdly amounts of money from China and India seems intent to make huge inroads in technology – even particle physics.”
… … …
They are bigger and bigger players, but far from the U.S., Japan, and Germany which are the traditional economic heavies. Brazil too is a growing force. In another 50 years, if Putin does not re-take Eastern Europe, we will see the likes of Poland and Hungary vying for space once occupied by Spain and Italy, economically.

China has major problems with pollution and social unrest that largely goes under-reported here. South Korea has some strange governance and labor problems, but they keeping gaining on Japan, somehow. The sleepers are Indonesia and Malaysia in the Pacific rim, and could give India a real run if/when they get politically organized.

With more and more countries becoming more and more affluent, with rising expectations of Western-style goods and services, comes the stress on all resources and the potential for unchecked pollution and pristine area losses. The greens nag about the U.S., but we have legal restrictions on ourselves that simply won’t be duplicated in China or other 3rd worlders any time soon, and that folks is scary.

I don’t subscribe to the idea that global warming is man made or even a reality — but anything we do to keep our natural resources clean and abundant is in everyone’s economic and health interests, which do not necessarily have to be in constant conflict.

The tragedy of the Seib piece is that it is a generic rant, essentially devoid of facts, about a hypothetical Japan as opposed to a hypothetical USA. The reason that Japan’s infrastructure spending did not work was that, after decades of pouring concrete over any and all parts of Japan to maintain employment at a high level and so ensure votes, there simply wasn’t much extra capacity in the construction industry, thus, little chance of stimulating this sector of the economy. Naturally, the stimulus failed. Not that Seib would actually have the faintest idea what this meant. If you want to link to discussions of Japan and its economy, it might be an idea to find someone who actually knows something about Japan.

“The reason that Japan’s infrastructure spending did not work was that, after decades of pouring concrete over any and all parts of Japan to maintain employment at a high level and so ensure votes, there simply wasn’t much extra capacity in the construction industry, thus, little chance of stimulating this sector of the economy.”

We’re about to make the same make-work mistake, times a million.

FYI: Don’t know if you folks saw this a few months ago, but there was an interesting article about Sweden’s response to their similar economic crisis:

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1843659,00.html

It’s called “Sweden’s Model Approach to Financial Disaster.” Suzie’s Husband in MD is a Swede, so I was interested, especially given Sweden’s robust growth after its crisis.

Crap, couldn’t sleep.
.
Thanks Hulagate. I don’t agree that global-warming isn’t man-made (or at least exacerbated by our actions) but I think we can at least agree that our dependence our foreign oil and other products is a problem on many levels.
.
Much appreciate your information – I try to keep up but there are many gaps and I keep trying to learn more.
.
We had a good discussion many months ago about our differing perspectives and what we had in common. There’s much you bring to the table that is good because it offers a different perspective (and from that we all benefit), but I find it so easy to skip over your angry posts because they offer no information, just ‘Limbaugh’ style rants. Please please consider this when you post – there are people here as far to the left as you are to the right, but we can all learn from each other and that’s the best benefit of these blogs.

Hulagate, I realize you are a troll, and a particularly stupid one, but even you should be able to tell the difference between fixing crumbling infrastructure, which is urgently needed by the USA, and which will create new jobs, and simply applying concrete to anything natural within a hundred miles of a town, and then wondering why there are no construction jobs or projects to make such a stimulus feasible. Of course, you don’t know or care to know anything about reality, but there is something deeply unpatriotic in spewing out nonsense (as you do, shamelessly and consistently) at a time of national crisis.

Oh gawd, I will surely burn in liberal hell for this but Hulagate is very capable of adding intelligent information to a discussion.
.
“Institutional improvements to schools and roads should be funded and decided at the LOCAL and STATE level, not from the screwy confines and comforts of DC. Why would we lay more cement, when we’re trying to get people into mass transit that is already under-utilized?”
.
I don’t agree with Hulagate that these infrastructure problems can or will be solved at a local level – states and local government can best be used to identify these areas but often lack the funding/foresight/ability to marshall the resources needed to tackle these problems. As an example, NOLA needs better levees (we’ll keep wetlands and popluation encroachment out of this for now) but could they organize anything to do about it? Not right now – they’re dealing with a huge host of problems that affect their constituencies ability to find decent housing, schools, and crime-related issues. Their hands are pretty d@mn full right now. That’s where the fed government comes in (I know he’ll disagree with this.) And yes, I know the Army Corp of Engr’s is a mess (my uncle worked for them in…NOLA) but it’s an organization that could be cleaned up and used to repair our infrastructure and their reputation. They weren’t always so screwed up.
.
I think he is a patriot, he just doesn’t agree with most of us on how to go about it.

Shorter KT:
I don’t have the first clue what actually happened with Japan in the 90s, nevertheless I’m going to highlight what the GOP says about it regardless of the actual facts.

Again, this isn’t journalism, its stenography of the worst kind.

KT — I know it might be unfair to look to you make right what most of your colleagues get wrong. However, just as these circumstances has provided Obama an opportunity for greatness, if you are willing to buck the status who and establish a body of work that can withstand our critiques and challenge your fellow journos, perhaps greatness will be a part of your destiny.

Per my the 1st half of my earlier comment (8:40pm) and P-luk just upstream, I offer this:
~
REP. BARNEY FRANK: The largest spending bill in history is going to turn out to be the war in Iraq. And one of the things, if we’re going to talk about spending, I don’t—I have a problem when we leave out that extraordinarily expensive, damaging war in Iraq, which has caused much more harm than good, in my judgment. And I don’t understand why, from some of my conservative friends, building a road, building a school, helping somebody get healthcare, that’s wasteful spending, but that war in Iraq, which is going to cost us over a trillion dollars before we’re through—yeah, I wish we hadn’t have done that. We’d have been in a lot better shape fiscally.
~
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: That is a whole ’nother show, so I’m going to—
~
REP. BARNEY FRANK: That’s the problem. The problem is that we look at spending and say, “Oh, don’t spend on highways. Don’t spend on healthcare. But let’s build Cold War weapons to defeat the Soviet Union when we don’t need them. Let’s have hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars going to the military without a check.” Unless everything’s on the table, then you’re going to have a disproportionate hit in some places.
~
With the MSM, when it comes to speaking of reality, IT’S ALWAYS A WHOLE ‘NOTHER SHOW!!! Karen’s own role, media critic or not, straight reporter or not, genuinely likeable or not–she too must be held accountable.

Well I can’t argue with Barney’s logic. The media has fallen down on the job and all they can focus on is that Obama is refusing to cow tow to the media’s desire to decide who has a job and who doesn’t. Less than two weeks and the honeymoon is over. Richard Cohen should be ashamed for comparing Obama to Bush who was the worst most incompetent and morally bankrupt president in history.

Reading through the posts last night I can only come to the conclusion that hulagate’s medications are not nearly strong enough. There are moments of lucidity and then derangement all within a few minutes of each other. Confusing.

The Obama administration has made an incorrect assumption, that the Republican Paryty really cares about America. They don’t, they care about ideology and making the rich and themselves richer. I am glad to see Obama is planning a huge publica relations campaign about the stimulus bill, but we need to get rougher. The Democratic Party needs to mirror Frank’s comments about how the Republican Party thought nothing about wasting billions of dollars in Iraq, but now refuses to spend any money on Americans. It needs to be framed as an un-American stand, that the Republican Party’s priorities are spending money on foreign governments, on wars and to help funnel money to the rich. They need to frame the Republican Party as touting policies which will just continue this economic mess and a party that is out of touch with the middle class

The sooner the Democratic Party wakes up and understands there is no bipartisan nature to the Republican Party the better.

KT:

Please listen to jcapan. I too am sick and tired of the MSN generally linking to right wing talkers and very seldom linking to the liberal or progressive thinkers.
.
Speaking of liberal thinkers maybe the fact that Paul Krugman just won the Nobel prize would make him a little more knowledgeable than say Gerald Seib