1 Boring Old Man

On the Edge
By PAUL KRUGMAN
February 5, 2009

A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to economic recovery. Over the last two weeks, what should have been a deadly serious debate about how to save an economy in desperate straits turned, instead, into hackneyed political theater, with Republicans spouting all the old clichés about wasteful government spending and the wonders of tax cuts.

It’s as if the dismal economic failure of the last eight years never happened — yet Democrats have, incredibly, been on the defensive. Even if a major stimulus bill does pass the Senate, there’s a real risk that important parts of the original plan, especially aid to state and local governments, will have been emasculated…

It’s no wonder, then, that most economic forecasts warn that in the absence of government action we’re headed for a deep, prolonged slump. Some private analysts predict double-digit unemployment. The Congressional Budget Office is slightly more sanguine, but its director, nonetheless, recently warned that “absent a change in fiscal policy … the shortfall in the nation’s output relative to potential levels will be the largest — in duration and depth — since the Depression of the 1930s.”

So what should Mr. Obama do? Count me among those who think that the president made a big mistake in his initial approach, that his attempts to transcend partisanship ended up empowering politicians who take their marching orders from Rush Limbaugh. What matters now, however, is what he does next.

It’s time for Mr. Obama to go on the offensive. Above all, he must not shy away from pointing out that those who stand in the way of his plan, in the name of a discredited economic philosophy, are putting the nation’s future at risk. The American economy is on the edge of catastrophe, and much of the Republican Party is trying to push it over that edge.

And, Paul Krugman, by underestimating the forces Obama was up against, instead of using your column to help him, you got on your high horse and joined the criticism instead of organizing the economist world around the President. "Not enough," you screamed.

Instead of bolstering Obama’s fight, you joined the other team. Now you criticize him for trying to be bipartisan, as if he controls the darkness of the Republican party. How about helping Obama instead of taking pot-shots? You know what’s right. Let’s see you screaming on the Talking Heads this weekend, and the nightly news instead of sniping at Obama for being unable to control the organized enemy. Pick up your gun.