Pat Oliphant for August 12, 2010

The Democrats keep bringing up Bush but conveniently forget Carter who was so bad that a new expression had to be invented to describe his term in office. Misery Index,

Obama said Bush was terrible but let me spend you into bankruptcy and I guaranty unemployment will not rise above 8%. We are broke, indebted and in deep doodoo and unemployment remains at 9-10%

Now all Obama is praying for is a turnaround by November 2012.

Carter inherited Nixon’s mess. Nixon was a crook. And the debt is entirely Bush, two wars and tax cuts for the rich. And Bush/Cheney is a war criminal. Obama is not doing enough.

Ray-gun and Shrub did nothing for me but Obama’s giving great speeches. After which he waits to see which way the parade is going then runs to the front to lead across the finish line. We still have the Patriot Act, Homeland Security, domestic surveillance, Guantanamo, a bigger prison at Bagram, two wars and Bush-Lite. “Hope” in one hand and spit in the other. See which hand fills fastest. As for “Change”, look under your sofa cushions.

mdavis, that is ridiculous. The tax cuts did nothing, nada, zip to create jobs. That money went straight into the private pockets of rich individuals.

Curious that when the US was the strongest fiscally, taxes were much higher.

The point remains, however, that all the Republicans have to offer is the exact thing that got us into this mess. And since they are offering it, and since it’s no different than what Bush offered, it *is* appropriate to bring it up.

bigstrip is also correct that Obama is being way too meek in his response. There should have been a bigger government response, not smaller.

with reagan, i watched friends and neighbors’ businesses collapse, and their homes get taken. with king george I it worsened. clinton bailed us out for several years, then george II drizzled it away. the only drawback is each fiscal horror story was ramrodded through by a democrat congress. it was the democrats in (60%) of the state governments, and in congress that set these annual budgets, folks. the only time there has been a surplus was during a republican congress!!

Bravo Pat, This is one brilliant cartoon totally right on to the situation we got right now. If this country doesn’t wake up soon we will be in even deeper trouble than we are now. we will be in the hands of tmen who have no concern or feeling for the well being of our nation and its people..

yowsuh! never discount the stupidity of the american voter

“Curious that when the US was the strongest fiscally, taxes were much higher.”

This.

Curious that a “forced down our throat” (to use Republican terminology for reconciliation) temporary tax cut is now being billed as a “tax increase” even though it was a temporary tax cut. Gotta love short term memory. Isn’t it so convenient. Republicans know better how to capitalize on that lack of memory, that’s for sure.

“Wow, Obama suddenly magically created all of this debt out of nowhere, look at that budget.” TARP was passed under Bush and those wars weren’t put in the budget. Nor was Medicare Part D. Our DoD budget spiked up about 300%. Yet taxes were “lowered.” Feats of fiscal genius, I swear! Only a moron who hasn’t been paying attention would dare say Obama hasn’t spent like a drunken sailor. Duh. But that unsustainable debt didn’t start in January 2009, regardless of how much Fox News says so.

“Why don’t we all just admit the obvious: presidents are all men, not gods. It’s up to God and us to save our nation.”

God helps those who help themselves.

Congress will go into deadlock and nothing will get done. Congratulations. Meanwhile our tax dollars just booted out our decorated top air force war hero. Good job.

AMEN & AMEN!!

Dems ai’nt perfect, but Reps is dithpicable.

“Now bow down and worship Aqua Buddha.”

I occasionally ponder where we would be today if McCain/Palin had won.

If McCain and Palin had won you could kiss the Constitution and Bill of Rights goodbye. The religo-nazis would have burned the senate and house and told us the communists had done it.

This is from a comment on a the NY Times column - but this person said it better than I could:

The periods leading up to 1929 and 2008 were those with the lowest marginal rates since 1900. They were also the period when the richest 1% had the largest percentage of the income of the US. So what happened in 1929 and 2008? Catastrophe!!

When marginal rates are high the Rich reinvest their companies’ earnings. When they are low, they take the money and speculate.

During the period 1946 - 1973 taxes were much higher. Marginal rates were at least 70%; they were 93% under Eisenhower. The economy was better than what we now have. For example, median wages went up 3 times as fast as since 1973. Also I recently saw a graph of the national debt as a percentage of the GDP from 1946 to the present. It started high, went straight down until 1973, and then flatten out and in 1980 made a sharp turn and went straight up except for a wiggle during the Clinton administration. CEO’s earned 50 times what their workers earned; it is 500 times today. Staring in 1973, the percent of wealth and income taken by the richest 10%, 1%, and 0.1% has gone up at an ever increasing rate.

We are now told that taxes were too high during the Clinton administration, and it would be terrible to go back to them, but the economy was better then than what we have now. For example, 20,569,000 million private sector jobs were created during Clinton’s terms while Bush created 417,000 with 2 trillion in tax cuts.

Give me an example when raising taxes on the Rich hurt the economy. I have just given you two example when the opposite happened.

Sadly this ‘toon is accurate. Its going to work

OK..we get it….all the intelligent voters are Democrats. How much more elitist can you get?

Mitch and John have hired Newt’s hypnotist? Is Nancy’s astrologer standing in the wings to give them management advice as well?

I think it’s interesting how several science fiction writers over the years have dealt with voting. Some of them posit computers choosing the candidates, which are then voted on by the public. At least one I know had a computer select the voter–only one voter. Meanwhile, today we’re running the risk of forgetting the past and being condemned to repeat it…..

@nrauch - I’ve seen similar stories in a multitude of places… yet we keep trying to go back to this “trickle down” philosophy. It doesn’t work. Historical trends prove it.

Argue all you want folks, but Kylop nailed it…this one is accurate.

Isthere something presumeably clever with the George Bush porodies comment?

I’m no economist, but is it possible the unemployment problem might be caused by the tremendous amount of jobs being out-sourced to other countries? Look at the labels in your clothes for instance. See “Made in the USA” there? And that is just one of our employers in the past.

In the 1930’s I’m sure FDR was taking slings & arrows from both sides regarding high unemployment. The people stood strong with him & eventually America came back stronger than ever. There need to be sacrifices made by both parties if we’re going to survive this economic nightmare that I’m sure won’t end for 3-4 more years. We definitely need to bring home all outsourced jobs & keep them here

Human

Do you just make up anything you want to say and hope nobody will check?

In 1976 the inflation rate was 5.75% That is when Carter was elected.

It hit double digits for the first time in 1979. Carter was the worst President by far in my lifetime.

Interesting that GOP must go back to the 70s to complain about the DEMs, but the DEMs only have to back one election-cycle to complain about the GOP.

The more this discussion goes on - and it is a weekly discussion - the sillier GOP apologists look.

Those republicans are trying a democratic way for once.

Neither are worth voting for.

?

Tiger-striped Mittaines says; SPAMMER! HIIISSSSsssssssss!!!!!

The US right wing is bound to go too far. The US won’t have a non-demagogue president anytime soon, too many “real ‘muricans” don’t want one…

They won’t stop until america crashes and burns and know how to convince people to accept them.

If any american doesn’t want to get involved in that, they will always be welcomed to seek asylum in Canada.

^Darn! And I was hoping to travel together with Bruce.

Stagflation (the term for the Carter years) was essentially a pre-show for the Japanese depression and the effect of being too timid to take the really hard economic measures that cause a lot of pain to right the ship. The ship that was swamping under the weight of the Vietnam war debt and the oil shocks of OPEC really flexing their muscle for the first time, all things Carter inherited and didn’t have anything to do with. The long malaise essentially lasted the whole of the 1970’s, not just the Carter years.

Reagan wasn’t too timid to inflict a lot of pain, and inflict it he did up through 1983. And then Reagan’s massive stimulus package of unprecedented deficit spending brought about a modest recovery. Of course he blamed Carter for absolutely everything even after he left office.

I heard David Stockman being interviewed the other night. His basic point was “Okay, we tried Supply-side economics and it didn’t work at all. It’s reprehensible that the only thing the Republicans offer is a failed approach that’s been proven wrong.” And this was Reagan’s budget director.

The Republican strategy is working quite well. Please see the confused comments above from the libertarians and the reactionaries posing as conservatives.

Pat, I love your humor, are we related? Keep up the good work, the same goes Obama! Watch out for the Lincoln Memorial this coming Sunday.

From your old neighbor who used to live at the Wilbur’s farm house before YOU did.