Paul Krugman: Can America be saved?

[Wetzelbill]

You know what bothers me. That Republicans will go out and say something that is virtually insane, and it gets treated like a viable idea. WTF? Honestly, how can we make serious progress on anything when the most foolish extreme ideas are given a serious platform? Paul Krugman gives a good example of it on his blog. -WB


Can America be saved?

So I read this:

Boehner said Americans want government to practice the same financial restraint they have been forced to exercise: “It’s time for government to tighten their belts and show the American people that we ‘get’ it.”

and I wonder if this country can handle the crisis we’re in. Remember, John Boehner is, in effect, the second-most influential member of the GDP (after Rush Limbaugh). And while Democrats hold a majority, it’s not enough of a majority to make the minority party irrelevant.

So the fact that Boehner’s idea of economics is completely insane matters.

What’s insane about Boehner’s remark? He’s talking about the current economic crisis as if it were a harvest failure — as if we faced a shortage of goods, so that the more you consume the less is left for me. In reality — even most conservatives understand this, when they think about it — we’re in a world desperately short of demand. If you consume more, that’s GOOD for me, because it helps create jobs and raise incomes. It’s in my personal disinterest to have you tighten your belt — and that’s just as true if you’re “the government” as if you’re my neighbor.

Plus, who is “the government”? It’s basically us, you know — the government spends money providing services to the public. Demanding that the government tighten its belt means demanding that we, the taxpayers, get less of those services. Why is this a good thing, even aside from the state of the economy?

Again, this is what the leaders of a powerful, if minority, party think. Can this country be saved?

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/can-america-be-saved/

[Double T]

1. NO. wall street and congress have America in self destruct mode.

Give away all the factories, facilities, intellectual property and jobs to foreign nations and what have YOU got? nothing.

[NC_Nurse]

2. When will the Bonehead be up for re-election? He is so pathetically stupid.

[BlueJac]

3. No...

They will lower workers wages, reduce their pensions, steal their 401k plans, increase hours worked, reduce time off, keep health care in the hands of insurance companies, not worry about prescriptions drugs, will not prosecute the Bush crime family, let big oil have their way, bailout failed banks without having a say on how they are run, not regulate banks or wall street, and finally let all the criminals go FREE!

[GeorgeGist]

4. America's profits of greed are insane ...

and some even have nobel prizes in their names.