Paul Krugman reminds us that the past decade in economics was a zero sum game, which if you listen to conservative business concerns, does not exist.
The Big Zero By PAUL KRUGMAN
We had ZERO job creation in 10 years.
We had ZERO stock market advance in 10 years.
We had ZERO gains for Home owners in 10 years.
We had ZERO gains in retirement accounts in 10 years.
And while we suffered, Wall Street and our Bankers took the money we tax payers gave them to give themselves billions in salaries and bonuses. Outrage? Sure there was, gangs of white-wing festivals screeching about socialism and having to pay taxes (of any kind in any amount). Tea Baggers who the media treats not as the radical wingnuts they are but as their best customers.
Well there is always Christianity to step up to the plate to point a finger at our over the top avarice, greed, and usury? Gee… Their influence puts the whole damn thing into overdrive FOR CHRISTSAKE.
But don’t worry, we got gay marriage on the run, so everything is just fine.
Republicans increased the debt (tripled it just as Ronald Reagan did) by giving massive tax breaks to the wealthy, spending a trillion dollars on a war that got us absolutely nothing but blood and hate, and then spending another PURPOSELY UNFUNDED trillion dollars on a Medicare drug plan. They blame it all on SOCIALISM and an African, and it works! IT WORKS! The United States of Duh…
Not to mention the cause of it all… Bush and the Republicans give us biggest economic crash and crisis since 1929 with the NOW PROVEN failure of that sick Randian ideology of unregulated free markets. Which more than anything has taken its toll on everyone outside the Republican inside.
But don’t worry, we can now carry machine pistols into bars in Arizona and Tennessee, so everything is just fine.
The affect of all that is most painful for the unemployment rate now above 10% (with real rate at 17%) which is projected to not improve much over the next 10 to 20 years.
But we now know that Billionare Tiger Woods likes sex, a lot, so everything is fine.
Of course the Republicans have the fix for all this. Deregulation! Open up those Ayn Rand free markets and make the tax breaks for the wealthy permanent. They are shouting it from the rooftops of Wall Street, from their banks, their vacation homes in Aspen[watch out for Charlie Sheen, he has a knife], and their lobbyist offices on K Street.
But we fined that nitwit Balloon Boy Dad $50k and put him in jail, so everything is just fine.
And the kicker?
It is now pretty much a done deal that the GOP will gain seats in both houses of Congress next year. With immigration reform up next on the itinerary, the GOP is way past the huddle on how to work this to their advantage.
Our national White-wing xenophobia will insure Republicans win more seats than is now projected, perhaps even enough to take back the House. Which of course puts ALL PROGRESS to bed for another generation.
If you think the Health Care debate got nasty, you just wait for what the Republicans and their Tea Baggers have in store for us when they let loose on the Mexicans! Put on your seatbelt and make sure your airbag is working. It’s gonnn get uglier than imagining a clothless Rush Limbaugh sitting on Ann Coulter’s face. Thankyou Lou Dobbs!
Our collective moment of rational politics came to an end last Summer with the wingnuts screeching their Town Hall rants and the Tea Parties swinging their mad signs and slogans [and then praying]. Our moment in the light lasted all of 6 months.
But no woman will be allowed to choose to have an abortion paid for by insurance, so everything is fine.
The boys who caused this, the two who were in charge for 8 of those 10 years? Cheney is resurgent talking up the joy of more war and torture with a call for him to run for President. While Poor George finally found something he was competent at picking up dog poop in Dallas.