Democrats' economic views saved the day

[Tony_FLADEM]

By Robyn E. Blumner, Times Columnist
In Print: Sunday, August 1, 2010

Prospects are not looking too peachy for Democrats this election season. President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress are getting tarred by the nation's entrenched unemployment and the cost of efforts to reverse the damage. I can understand the malaise that afflicts a nation with close to 15 million people unemployed and millions more underemployed. But the blame is being put in the wrong place. The next election should be a contest over which economic world view — laissez-faire or Keynesian — turned out to be the better one, and on that score the Democrats should win.

Deregulation got America into this mess — decades of it — the kind of laissez-faire economics enacted by the Chamber of Commerce, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Republican leaders. America barely survived life under their tie-regulators-hands approach to markets. Wall Street sucked up the wealth in this country, hollowing out our productive sectors, while bankers got drunk on risk. It was only after $17 trillion in American household wealth was wiped out in 18 months that Greenspan acknowledged how bankrupt his views were.

[Demeter]

1. If Obama Insists on Employing Goldman Sach's Made Men

He has nobody but himself to blame.

[laughingliberal]

2. +1 nt

[Crazy Dave]

3. Obama admits more needs to be done about jobs...

...but at the same time Biden goes around chest thumping saying what a great job they've already done and gives the impression that even people still out of work for two years should be happy and thankful.

[whyverne]

4. I agree wholeheartedly, but I don't see it being framed

correctly. The Republicans wanted that middle class money, they got a lot of it and then gambled it away.

We need better frames for "spreading the wealth", etc. The Dems want to take a chunk of money from the top and stick it back in at the bottom. That worked fine, it always goes back to the top anyway and everybody gets a shot at it. The Republicans hate that.