Why Should Anyone Take the Republicans Seriously?
by Chris Edelson

I’ve got a bit of a personal situation I have to deal with over the next few days–very minor health issue, but a bit stressful.  So, apologies if I’m a bit off, but I did want to make a point about the absurdity of Republicans, en masse, standing in the way of a popular stimulus plan.

This is nothing new.  The last time the country had to pick itself up after years of Republican abuse of the economy was in 1993.  When Clinton took office, of course, things weren’t as bad as they are now, but they were bad enough.  Unemployment was over 7%, Reagan and the elder Bush had left a huge deficit, and people were worried.  Clinton ran a campaign during which he promised to focus “like a laser beam” on the economy.  When he took office, like Obama, he wanted to get a stimulus plan passed to get the economy moving.  Clinton’s plan passed without a single Republican vote.  As the Republicans closed ranks to oppose Clinton, they warned of dire consequences.  Rep. Bill Archer, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, called Clinton’s plan a “job-killing poison for the economy.”

Archer and the rest of the just say no Republicans couldn’t have been more wrong, of course.  The Clinton years saw creation of 23 million jobs.

When people have been as wrong for so long as Republicans are–and they are saying the same things now that they have said for the past 30 years, during which time their only economic “plan” has been to cut taxes for the wealthy–they shouldn’t be taken seriously.

The only question os whether the traditional media will ever realize that bipartisanship is lost on these Republicans.

(jhat tip to Democratic Underground for linking to the 1993 piece quoting Rep. Archer)

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