by Sasha

I am not going to blame this particular mess on all conservatives or even all Republicans, even though a series of Republican Congresses certainly have enough blood on their hands to be noticed. But the Democrats who meekly said “Yes Sir” throughout are quite as culpable.

I could easily spend 10,000 words on what is wrong with the economy and Mr. Bush’s stewardship thereof but the Economic Policy Institute has been shouting to deaf ears on that matter for some while in a way that deserves serious attention. And anybody who hasn’t been comatose over the past five years knows that the cost of the war is amazing. Just a reminder for those who haven’t checked recently.

Mr. Bush, for reasons that escape me, decided to recognize The Troubles and propose a solution. His style was most peculiar. After earlier in the week seeming to fall to his knees begging the Saudis to pleasepleaseplease lower the price of oil because their widdle friend would be said if they don’t, he presented this in a series of staccato instructions, his face rigid and pointed. He seemed to be giving the Congress their marching orders as he so often has in the past. He looked for all the world like a naughty child doing something his mother was forcing him to do and not liking it one little bit. Perhaps that is why Mr. Cheney was behind him, keeping an eye on him.

I don’t even need to pay attention to the ridiculous details of the package. Remember back in 2001 when you got part of your tax refund early and the Gubmint pretended it was real money until tax time rolled around and people figured it out? I thought you did. Well it looks like we’re going to repeat that little scam. Oh, this is different you say? It surely is. Last time individuals got $300; this time $800. Last time married couples got $600; this time $1600. And just like last time when tax time rolls arouond some folks will be stunned to find out that they have to pay it back. If you have forgotten you have the internets to thank for a little bit of institutional memory.

Will it work? Who knows? Probably not, but this is a matter about which reasonable people can disagree. Whether it works or not, it is equivalent to putting lipstick on a pig. In spite of the $140 billion dollar cost it won’t do a thing for the mortgage mess, the deficit, the value of the dollar, and a host of other messes that this administration was blithely creating while strutting like a cowboy trying to pretend that his mother doesn’t look down on him with total distain.

What we know for sure is that within the next few weeks we will hear wingers shrieking into the wind about how we have to give more to the most well endowed corporations and take more away from the actual human beings. The totally flawed notions as well as the language of Reaganomics have been repeated often enough so that most folks think that they are a real part of our economic structure. Greenspan has moved on to quiet dinners with his wife and serious money-making in the private sector so we don’t have to prop up his ego any more.

So can’t we now, finally, declare Reaganomics a complete and utter failure? Please? Can’t we bring the issue to the table of public debate and tell the truth? Perhaps a clever politician can even devise a way of paying homage to Reagan, The Great and Powerful while explaining that the new economy of the 21st Century requires that we refine its essential notions? Please for once can we just deal with reality instead of an imaginary world that doesn’t exist?