David Stockman: Republicans Have Abandoned Their Principles And Crippled The Economy

New York Times:

The new catechism, as practiced by Republican policymakers for decades now, has amounted to little more than money printing and deficit finance -- vulgar Keynesianism robed in the ideological vestments of the prosperous classes.

This approach has not simply made a mockery of traditional party ideals. It has also led to the serial financial bubbles and Wall Street depredations that have crippled our economy. More specifically, the new policy doctrines have caused four great deformations of the national economy, and modern Republicans have turned a blind eye to each one.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[ALipschitz]

01:33 AM on 08/22/2010

SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS! Get off the Republican bus! You don't want to go where the Republicans are taking you!

[mtdon]

02:11 PM on 08/14/2010

unbelievable! one of the architect's of the voodoo economics from the reagan era now says republicans have no answers to the economy...... that is straight from the DUH category!

an economy Stockman helped create by exploding the budget!

and of course he takes a swipe at "entitlements" ie social security!

the BEST FEDERAL PROGRAM OF ALL TIME is social security..... and FDR set it up as SEPARATE from the general budget exactly so that the wealthy couldn't come gunning for it AFTER they destroyed the general budget.....

SS has been running a SURPLUS from the beginning - and the surplus was set up to deal w/ the blip of the baby boomers retiring -

-that is until reagan got his dirty little hands on the surplus and SPEND IT on the general budget - making it a TAX INCREASE on all incomes under 105,000 a year........

the reagan tax plan? tax the poor and give to the rich!

and the wealthy pay ZERO into the social security fund so why do we listen or even care about their thoughts on social security?

MEMO to the wealthy - STAY AWAY FROM OUR SOCIAL SECURITY - or sufer the consequences - tand that'll be a return to high taxes on the wealthy (millionaires and billionaires)

let's tax the rich at the rate the republican eisenhower did 91% on incomes over 3 million!

TAX THE RICH!

[unite4change]

12:30 PM on 08/14/2010

Here's the real problem:

Ronald Reagan - Cruelty with a Smile

"With his superficially sunny disposition - and a ruthless political strategy of exploiting white-male resentments - Reagan convinced millions of Americans that the threats they faced were: African-American welfare queens, Central American leftists, a rapidly expanding Evil Empire based in Moscow, and the do-good federal government.

Reagan declared that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

http://www.the7thfire.com/Politics%20and%20History/Norma_Sherry/out_sourcing_america-job%20loss%20and%20unemployment.htm


So, beginning with Reagan, our elected politicians sold us out using our money to enrich corporations:

Privatization and the Federal Government: An Introduction

Definition of Privatization - The shifting of government work from government employees to private sector contractors

Privatization attracted political support due to its rhetorically persuasive rationales, purported benefits, and political attractiveness. However, privatization also has been controversial. Critics have complained that privatization is a form of union busting and that privatization can have unforseen and undesirable consequences.


http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33777.pdf

[DRaymond]

10:38 AM on 08/04/2010

Republicans have always had two fiscal plans. The one they talk about and the one they don't talk about.

The one they talk about is the small government, limited debt, responsibility mantra that the voters want to hear.

The one they don't talk about is that for every ten dollars of direct or indirect tax cuts to the wealthy or corporate welfare they get about 10 cents of higher campaign donations the following election cycle.

Guess which one actually influences their behavior?

[FarOutFish]

05:54 PM on 08/03/2010

And this is new? Anyone watching the Bush administration, both during the Republican and Democrat control of Congress, already know it. Mr. Bush was not a conservative and Republicans only wanted to spend like Democrats.

[OBroadhurst]

02:30 PM on 08/03/2010

Sorry, David. They crippled this economy by EMBRACING their principles.

[Lahonda]

01:45 AM on 08/03/2010

"It's for the troops!"

That phrase used to make me ill. The GOP was preparing for "forever war".

Still is.

[Garbaj]

01:39 AM on 08/03/2010

this is perhaps THE MOST STINGING INDICTMENT of modern republican fiscal policy...!!!

it exposes in STARK & COMPELLING detail the hypocrisy of "supply side economics" as defined so elegantly by the reagan administration...and so monstrously by the gwb administration.

it is clear that the mask of modern republicanism has been duly EXPOSED...and by one of their own...one of the original ARCHITECTS of the policy itself...!!!

the question is: WILL IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE...?

are americans so distracted by the politikery of thinly veiled lies wrapped in a cloak of patriotism...foreign or domestic...??

are we so easily duped...or seduced...by the notion that they even care...???

it is a shame that INDEPENDENTS are now fleeling the president in droves. its not exactly his fault that the recovery is slow given what he has to work with: an absent & un-cooperative republican minority. if their entire ediface is predicated on BLOCKING every initiative to stimulate the middle class, what's a man to do...?

it may be unfortunate that mr. stockman's words will not propagate much farther than the blogosphere and the minds of intellectuals and political junkies.

certainly, the teapotty folks as well as the independents should be able to REALLY comprehend what mr. stockman is saying. perhaps, if enough of us are truly awake then such a critical & analytical deconstruction would not go unnoticed...or unappreciated...!!!

[nonvoters]

01:58 PM on 08/20/2010

The answer to most of your questions is "Yes"

[porsche996]

12:38 AM on 08/03/2010

That's correct and IMO the Republican Party did it for primarily racist reasons.

They are the most despicable people on Earth. Lower than AQ or Hamas.

Traitors to America.

[ResoluteBob]

12:28 AM on 08/03/2010

"The third ominous change in the American economy has been the vast, unproductive expansion of our financial sector. Here, Republicans have been oblivious to the grave danger of flooding financial markets with freely printed money and, at the same time, removing traditional restrictions on leverage and speculation."
Mr. Stockman, calling the Republicans "oblivious" is the one glaring misrepresentation in an otherwise fine article. Some may have been oblivious...but many more were bought and paid for.

[ejhickey]

08:30 PM on 08/02/2010

How about a national personal property tax? a tax on everything that everyone owns that is not real estate. By everyone, i mean rich and poor , individuals and corporations.

[amber15]

08:16 PM on 08/02/2010

This is news???
Even I could of told them that one!

[lightningbolt]

04:26 PM on 08/02/2010

We must make every effort to show every conservative voter that the republican party is not the party that has their best interest in mind. We need to make everyone aware that the republican party is the party of wasteful deficit spending.

[Freesia2]

02:35 PM on 08/02/2010

Yes.

[Carl Caroli]

02:01 PM on 08/02/2010

Pre Reagan I used to at least admire republicans fiscal constraint. Since then they have nothing to offer.