Is Bob Packwood responsible for our economic crash?

[grasswire]

Local columnist for The Oregonian writes his Sunday missive about Packwood and the loss of concensus and civility in the Senate. And the columnist falls for the framing!

Columnist Steve Duin: "Packwood -- who resigned under pressure in 1995 -- is now a stranger to the Senate, as are civility and sincerity. But when we spoke last week about his crowning political achievement, engineering the passage of the 1986 Tax Reform Act, Packwood convinced me that the lessons of that era, and compromise, might serve President Obama and the Senate leadership in the effort to rein in middle-class entitlements. That effort is, seemingly, an economic imperative."

Uh, no. It's only an imperative as long as the U.S. deploys a war machine that costs (among other items) $390,000 per soldier per year.
End imperialism, and there will be money enough to pay for the retirement promised to our elders.

But another item revealed to today's readers is that Bob Packwood considers the Tax Reform Act of 1986 his crowning glory. Is the misery of our citizens over the last several decades on his shoulders?

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ssf/2010/04/bob_packwoods_reflection_on_19.html