High Wingnuttery!

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Doug Ross has a theory:

Consider that, in the teeth of a devastating recession, Obama has:

• Raised taxes on small businesses, the engines of entrepreneurship and job growth

• Raised the capital gains tax

• Lied about "tax cuts for 95% of Americans", offering instead $13 a week, achieved not through tax cuts, but by changing the federal withholding tables!

• Destroyed charitable giving by axing the tax breaks for 26% of all giving (or $81 billion in 2006)

• Proposed a carbon cap-and-trading scheme designed to punish oil companies and further tax consumers

Why would Obama inflict these destructive policies while the economy is collapsing? Simple. Each step strengthens the role of government in people's lives.

Now we can ignore that most of his "facts" are wrong even John Hinderaker of wingnut central isn't buying it.

More likely the explanation is that Obama is an economic illiterate, and subscribes to the idea--which I think is rather common among Democrats--that what the government does has little impact on the economy. Obama likely believes that the economy will recover on its own, and in the meantime--in Rahm Emanuel's immortal words--he shouldn't let the crisis go to waste. So he enacts every left-wing measure that he wanted to do anyway, expecting that when the economy eventually recovers he can take credit for it, even though his policies, if anything, retarded and weakened the recovery.

That's a cynical strategy, although not quite as cynical as destroying the economy on purpose; the difference is that it may well work.

So Obama is the "economic illiterate" in spite of the fact that the current economic crisis is the result of 30 years of Reaganomics - radical far right economics. Obama is the "economic illiterate" in spite of the fact that just a few short months ago it was the Republican Bush administration and talking heads like Jim Cramer on CNBC were telling us that there was no housing bubble, we weren't in a recession and the banks were sound. 

Update

I missed this gem from another CNBC winger, Larry Kudlow.

Recovery Indicators Are Being Ignored

That's right - the same guy who was telling us nothing was wrong a few months ago is now telling us that it's getting better.  Sorry Larry, you have zero credibility.

Comments

[Doug Ross]

Thanks for the link.

Interesting that you pin the blame for the current crisis on "Reaganomics" without a byte of explanation.

In fact, I've illustrated in handy comic-book form, exactly what happened, when and by whom.

MELTDOWN