As New York Times columnist Paul Krugman points out this week, President Obama finds himself up against several hard places as he struggles to create employment growth after the loss of some 6 million American jobs. The Republicans in Congress are almost unanimously against whatever he proposes, no matter the effect on the country, just as long as the president fails.
And a number of Democrats have balked at new spending in areas where it is needed to stimulate employment — while they stand ready to fight like stray cats against any move to trim unneeded big ticket military programs in their congressional districts.
Mr. Krugman, who has studied the Depression era, contends that President Roosevelt's lone mistake was in not keeping up the spending programs he initiated to create employment and economic activity into 1937 and beyond. The president was talked out of it by those who clamored for a balanced budget.
We are in the same place today, Mr. Krugman says, and Mr. Obama's hands seem tied when it comes to further stimulus spending — which the columnist strongly advocates.
Remember, this is the commentator who several years ago predicted the current meltdown and pinpointed
Almost none of our current problems would have reached crisis stage, however, if there had not been such a genuflection to the private sector and unnecessary tax cuts for those who didn't need them under past administrations — especially the most recent. We had a forecast of budget surpluses for years to come in 2000, but all that was squandered.
In private, some of the tax-cut, small-governmentRepublicans responsible for the economic philosophies that led to this mess have admitted they thought it would be OK if Social Security, Medicare and other federal programs crashed, because that was one way to shrink government in a hurry.
Well, here we are, on the verge; they actually may be getting their way. Congratulations.
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