The Hole Was Too Big

[babylonsister]

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2011/10/9/11738/1158

The Hole Was Too Big

by BooMan
Sun Oct 9th, 2011 at 01:17:38 AM EST


I haven't read everything that Ezra Klein has ever written but I still feel comfortable saying that this is the best thing he has ever written. It's long. It's really, really long. But it's long because the subject matter demands it. It also confirms for me what I concluded about six months ago. The Bush administration screwed up our economy so badly that it wasn't possible to fix it. The hole that they created was so big that it was not politically possible to fill it. The Obama administration should have asked for a substantially bigger stimulus bill, but it wouldn't have mattered even if they'd succeeded in getting one, which they wouldn't have. The hole in the economy was so large that even if the administration had known how big it was, they couldn't have devised a way to spend enough money to fix it. Klein is right. With better information, things could have been done better and our current situation would be modestly improved, but the damage was really so severe that there was no escaping a prolonged period of pain.

The sad thing is that we could fix our problems and Europe could fix theirs. We could all fix this if the solutions weren't so easy to demagogue. But they are.

Ezra Klein's article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/could-this-time-have-been-different/2011/08/25/gIQAiJo0VL_blog.html
Could this time have been different?

[gateley]

1. K&R! Thanks, D -- I really like Ezra Klein! nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. the only way out is to get the money back from the people who benefited the most from the theft.

[Atman]

3. I've posted this before and I'll post it again...it was INTENTIONAL

BushCo spoke of "a prolonged period of pain" even before he was selected by the very people on the SCOTUS appointed to help bring about the pain. They desperately wanted to end the New Deal and bring about a New World Order. They spoke of how no societal change ever came easily, and that people would need to experience some profound, sustained pain in order to accept the need for the change they wanted to bring about. This is why the Bush tax cuts were so huge, and why Bush would never budge an inch to repeal them...they were needed, along with the ultra-expensive unfunded illegal wars in order to bring about the economic collapse they envisioned.

.

[Evergreen Emerald]

4. And the republicans in office purposefully...

...made sure the hole would remain because they know that the superficial voting public would blame Obama rather than looking at the whole picture--assuring their return to power. And, the whole picture is that the republicans are stealing our treasury. The Congress helped Bush to do it, and are blocking Obama and the dems from attempting to stop it.

The dems are not, however, without blame. We needed CHANGE (big change). And no one had the balls to make it (indeed many sided with the corporations and republicans).

And now, the media (corporations' mouthpieces) reinforces any made up load of crap the republicans spew. The media does not mention that the very programs they are advocating got us into this mess in the first place. The repubs are unabashedly lying to our very faces and the media's response via yesterday's morning talk shows: "has Obama lost his swagger?" "Swagger?" For God's sakes--someone tell THE TRUTH.

[zalinda]

5. A BIG first step should have been to stop the wars. He didn't. n/t

[flamingdem]

6. Wow, how much was diabolocal and how much was incompetence!

Bush is teaparty in the long run about destroying government, via destroying the economy and credibility of government to solve problems, so it seems.

[Enrique]

7. still going in the wrong direction

the debt deal was just a couple of months ago, and the Super Committee is coming up.

Ezra doesn't explain (maybe he does in another column) why a Democratic president became fixated on deficit reduction during a jobs emergency. Let me suggest an explanation: Obama's policies are geared toward the interests of rich people.

[uponit7771]

8. Went from 700k jobs LOSS to 90k jobs GAIN = success. Even if we're not beating churn the bleeding...

...I'd rather keep that up

[uponit7771]

9. We were LOSING 700k jobs a month!!! Now we're gaining 90k, it doesn't beat churn but its the right..

...direction.

Also, why aren't these articles mentioning congress and what Obama COULD have gotten passed congress at the time.

[lunatica]

10. Bush was one of the most successful presidents ever

He set out to gut us and he did it. In a short space of 8 years, with his rubberstamp Congress he destroyed this country. And he wasn't even our legitimate President.

[butterfly77]

11. Kicked&Recommended...

[Honeycombe8]

12. K&R. nt

[Martin Eden]

13. Kick for reading later. n/t

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[libinnyandia]

16. Democrats' control of Congress

When people say that the Democrats had conrol of the Senate, House and White House after the 2008 elections, I only partially agree. Because of the dysfuntional nature of the Senate, both in it's rules and the disproportional power of the small states- the 20 smallest states have appoximately the population of California, but have 20 times the number Senators-at times it can be hard if not impossible to get legislation passed or appointments approved. There are few , if any GOP memebers willing to work with the Democrats. And when millions of voters stay home in the mid term elections and thus allow Boehner and his gang take over, it's hard to get things done. And there is a very real possibility that the voters will give the keys back to the people who drove the car off the road. Lower taxes and fewer regulations, yeah that, will do it,

[Name removed]

17. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JoePhilly]

15. They GOP goal has always been to collapse the economy and then use that as

an excuse to kill Social Security and Medicare.

[Katashi_itto]

19. Likely that tactic will end up killing them, when Meltdown occurs.

[Katashi_itto]

18. Only one way to fix things and that wont happen

Declare derivatives illegal, put Glass-Stegall back in play and arrest/execute the bankers (restores faith in the markets and so traumatizes the criminal overclass they wont attempt such a thing for a generation or two..) Otherwise Meltdown in ten months.

Guess which will happen first?