Tuesday, March 09, 2004
Deja Voodoo All Over Again
By now it's obvious, if it wasn't from his entire life to date, that Bush plans to blame his almost unblemished record of failure on everyone else. And, since the economy's only period of sustained health since 1980 was the one not under Republican stewardship, it's doubly important that that blameshifting be at that Administration's expense.
So that means both pushing back the current recession into the Clinton term, while simultaneously denying him credit for the record-setting expansion that preceded it. That latter effort has taken the form of crediting Bush I for it instead.
The irony is that, if one Bush policy can properly be credited with helping right the economy, it was raising (however modestly) taxes to slow the ballooning deficit. In thanks, Bush I's own base crucified him in 1992, a "lesson" that his son appears to have sworn not to repeat. Yet that doesn't stop his minions from now implicitly crediting the successful policies that cost Poppy his job, while simultaneously clinging to the discredited ones that will likely cost C+ Augustus his.
The mentality of wingnuts is wondrous to behold.
So that means both pushing back the current recession into the Clinton term, while simultaneously denying him credit for the record-setting expansion that preceded it. That latter effort has taken the form of crediting Bush I for it instead.
The irony is that, if one Bush policy can properly be credited with helping right the economy, it was raising (however modestly) taxes to slow the ballooning deficit. In thanks, Bush I's own base crucified him in 1992, a "lesson" that his son appears to have sworn not to repeat. Yet that doesn't stop his minions from now implicitly crediting the successful policies that cost Poppy his job, while simultaneously clinging to the discredited ones that will likely cost C+ Augustus his.
The mentality of wingnuts is wondrous to behold.
