The politics of fog.

"the policies Republicans now tout as the engine of recovery are the same ones that helped drive the economy into the ditch."

--Ronald Brownstein, National Journal


Why such a harsh, partisan statement from Brownstein, a usually calm observer of the political scene? I think because our main problem is becoming crystal clear, and Democrats like Brownstein prefer fog. They want bigger government, and nobody else does.

How does Brownstein make such a statement in the first place? All his friends may believe Bush’s 2003 tax cuts hurt the economy, but lots of others think they helped boost job creation; the economy added 5.3 million jobs in the four years after Bush’s cuts.

2009 stimulus spending on government jobs seems to have been ineffective on its face. Unemployment after the stimulus passed rose from 8.2% to 9.7%, with 3.3 million thrown out of work. So if Republicans would keep taxes low to help private sector job creation as it did in 2003-07, and cut the growth in deficit spending to finance continued lower taxes, who is Brownstein to say such policies would “drive the economy into the ditch”? Strange.