What Digby Said

Yet another episode:

I've been writing for some time that Americans are confused about the recession and furthermore that the Republicans are making headway with their easy explanation that the cause of all their pain is government spending. I have felt for years that the Democrats needed to explain economics better because the free lunch supply siders and deficit hawks are on the verge of turning America into a dysfunctional state akin to California.

I guess that's not going to happen:

Obama warned the United States' climbing national debt could drag the country into a "double-dip recession," though he said he's still considering additional tax incentives for businesses to reverse the rising unemployment rate.

Let's hope he just misspoke or the story is mischaracterizing his statement. If the Democrats really are so spooked by the Virginia and New Jersey results that they feel they need to cut spending with 10% unemployment and explicitly adopt the GOP's false implication of the deficit being the cause of recessions then we have a problem. A big one.

What I want to know is why Democrats feel the need to ever listen to the Republican point of view on anything economic when the last Republican administration was an unmitigated disaster that cost this country trillions and trillions of dollars, millions of jobs, and thousands of businesses. When Republicans open their mouths on anything economic, the universal Democratic response should be "We're still going to be fixing your fiscal and economic idiocy for years to come. You nearly bankrupted the global economy. You're no longer allowed to have a valid opinion on this matter. Thank you."

Instead, Obama sounds like Bush fifteen months ago. If President Obama really and honestly thinks that tax incentives are going to create jobs in this economy, he deserves the fate that voters will have in store for the Dems in 2010 and 2012.

But sure, cut spending during a recession.  Not like that's happened before.  Oh wait...it did in the 30's.  Obama can't really be that dense, can he?  That's something I expected from McCain.