TomFitz
Mayor
The maneuvering over the fiscal cliff is a painful reminder of the fall of 2008.
And the GOP (particularly the House) is doing exactly what it did then once more.
In 2008, the consequences of thirty years of rampant deregulation, look the other way enforcement, fical policies designed to abet speculation over investment, and borrow and spend politics came home to roost, delivering the US and the world into the worst financial panic since 1929.
It was evident at that moment that the only way to avert a full blown Depression was a massive government infustion to prop up the banks, so that the center of the battered economy would hold.
What did the architects of the disaster do? They froze like deer in the headlights.
Thier candidate, John McCain, "suspended" his campaign to rush to Washington to deal with the crisis, only to sit and watch as the Democratic candidate, his team and the Democratic leadership took Bush's TARP program and fashioned it into a barely acceptable piece of legislation.
This was followed by the Republican House digging in its heels and refusing to pass the program that thier own President had proposed. After years of borrow and spend, they suddenly (and belatedly) discovered "fiscal responsibility". And their program, such as it was, sounded a lot like Herbert Hoover's did in 1930.
What followed over the next two years was a repeated pattern of brinksmanship and hostage taking. The GOP held any effort at relief in the economy hostage for months while they insisted it be cut and watered down (and then condemmed its lack of instant results mainly because it was too small and watered down with unproductive tax cuts). The GOP then held the nation's unemployed hostage in order to preserve their precious tax cut for the top 1% in the fall of 2010. Emboldened by that maneuver, they decided to hold the full faith and credit of the United State hostage in order to push their radical and unpopular agenda (one that they never even thought of proposing when they were actually in power). This resulted in a debt downgrade and affected the pocketbooks of every American who had any retirement savings left. The punt from that manufactured crisis, set up this one.
Now that the GOP is confronted with yet another crisis of its own making, it's reacting the same way.
It bagan with intransigent demands, in an atmosphere where it had little leverage to negotiate. and descended from there. Sure, the President raised the ante on them. They had just had their agenda soundly repudiated in the last election. The public is not on the GOP's side.
And now the GOP is right back where it was in the FAll of 2008. They are the deer in the headlights.
John Boehner walked off the stage in one of the most stunning failures of leadership in the history of Congress.
And the Republicans APPLAUDED!!!! (politically, one could say that it was better than watching him shed phoney tears on the floor as his GOP colleagues voted against him, as they did in 2008).
So, once again, the White House and the Democratic leadership are moving the country out of a crisis manufactured by the Republicans. They have to do it because the GOP isn't willing to take responsiblity for what it has wrought. The GOP wrought the fiscal policy that pushed the economy off the cliff in 2008, and then walked away and left the Democrats with the mess. That way they could run home and tell their voters that the solution wasn't their fault.
Its deja vu, all over again.
And the GOP (particularly the House) is doing exactly what it did then once more.
In 2008, the consequences of thirty years of rampant deregulation, look the other way enforcement, fical policies designed to abet speculation over investment, and borrow and spend politics came home to roost, delivering the US and the world into the worst financial panic since 1929.
It was evident at that moment that the only way to avert a full blown Depression was a massive government infustion to prop up the banks, so that the center of the battered economy would hold.
What did the architects of the disaster do? They froze like deer in the headlights.
Thier candidate, John McCain, "suspended" his campaign to rush to Washington to deal with the crisis, only to sit and watch as the Democratic candidate, his team and the Democratic leadership took Bush's TARP program and fashioned it into a barely acceptable piece of legislation.
This was followed by the Republican House digging in its heels and refusing to pass the program that thier own President had proposed. After years of borrow and spend, they suddenly (and belatedly) discovered "fiscal responsibility". And their program, such as it was, sounded a lot like Herbert Hoover's did in 1930.
What followed over the next two years was a repeated pattern of brinksmanship and hostage taking. The GOP held any effort at relief in the economy hostage for months while they insisted it be cut and watered down (and then condemmed its lack of instant results mainly because it was too small and watered down with unproductive tax cuts). The GOP then held the nation's unemployed hostage in order to preserve their precious tax cut for the top 1% in the fall of 2010. Emboldened by that maneuver, they decided to hold the full faith and credit of the United State hostage in order to push their radical and unpopular agenda (one that they never even thought of proposing when they were actually in power). This resulted in a debt downgrade and affected the pocketbooks of every American who had any retirement savings left. The punt from that manufactured crisis, set up this one.
Now that the GOP is confronted with yet another crisis of its own making, it's reacting the same way.
It bagan with intransigent demands, in an atmosphere where it had little leverage to negotiate. and descended from there. Sure, the President raised the ante on them. They had just had their agenda soundly repudiated in the last election. The public is not on the GOP's side.
And now the GOP is right back where it was in the FAll of 2008. They are the deer in the headlights.
John Boehner walked off the stage in one of the most stunning failures of leadership in the history of Congress.
And the Republicans APPLAUDED!!!! (politically, one could say that it was better than watching him shed phoney tears on the floor as his GOP colleagues voted against him, as they did in 2008).
So, once again, the White House and the Democratic leadership are moving the country out of a crisis manufactured by the Republicans. They have to do it because the GOP isn't willing to take responsiblity for what it has wrought. The GOP wrought the fiscal policy that pushed the economy off the cliff in 2008, and then walked away and left the Democrats with the mess. That way they could run home and tell their voters that the solution wasn't their fault.
Its deja vu, all over again.
