Headline: Obama Seeks Freeze on Many Domestic Programs
Dear sweet Mother of God, and he's got economic historians working for him, too.
Look at the charts at Wikipedia. See the dip in GDP and the spike in unemployment in 1937? That was when Roosevelt listened to the anti-deficit opposition and rolled back many of his New Deal policies.
Apparently Obama feels that one year in, the economy is recovering enough that he can emulate that horrible, very bad decision. He's nuts.
Mr. President, if you thought your base might be demoralized in November with no health care reform plan, no closure of Gitmo, no investigation of Bush/Cheney war crimes and no repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Posted by Linkmeister at January 26, 2010 12:01 AM | TrackBackI have to agree. I'm finding it harder and harder to be optimistic about the future, both for the Democratic Party and for the country as a whole. With the country now up for sale to the richest buyer, I don't know that we can ever get it back. My husband thinks I've turned too pessimistic, but I feel more like I'm being realistic. Oh, how I do hate that feeling.
I keep looking for news that might indicate a turn for the better, but I sure haven't seen anything. Have you?
Posted by: Illanoy Gal at January 26, 2010 02:13 AMNo, and it depresses me. I'm actually starting to think about emigrating. Not right away, but I'm starting to gather data.
Posted by: Juli Thompson at January 26, 2010 03:24 AMThat was EXACTLY my comment on this: it looks like FDR in '37 when he got cowed into pulling back. I simply cannot believe how the Dems can't govern when given control of the gummit. I'm just about done with them.
Posted by: Scott at January 26, 2010 08:41 AMI'm going to hazard a guess that it's going to be way more than this (or any) administration can do to get us out of this mess any time soon - you have to look back a decade or more to see what processes got us here, and it's not going to be a quick fix. But I'm sure that's how everyone felt during the Great Depression and FDR was overtly hated and blamed by a good many Americans, despite all the abbreviated versions we hear of it in American History in high school. Obama probably won't be appreciated for about another decade - at which point everyone will probably be a lot nicer and say things like "he faced the toughest problems of any presidency in the last decade when it comes to the American and global economy."
Frankly I think the greatest problem the democrats have always had is giving up their own particular projects in order to vote with their own party. For some reason republicans always seem to have a better job at doing that. Frankly what we need are some old fashioned FISCAL conservatives - not people that gripe about giving money to the poor or midnight basketball partisan crap, but people who actually know how to balance a checkbook on a national scale.
I lived for about 9 months in the UK back in the Thatcher era - and from that experience I can tell you, things are usually just as messy elsewhere.
Posted by: batty at January 27, 2010 04:04 PM