Unbelievable

The following are excerpts from  the op-ed piece, The Axis of Depression by Paul Krugman in today's NYT.                                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What do the government of China, the government of Germany and the Republican Party have in common? They’re all trying to bully the Federal Reserve into calling off its efforts to create jobs. And the motives of all three are highly suspect. 

The Fed is trying to reduce interest rates, as it always does when unemployment is high and inflation is low. 

The case for Fed action is overwhelming. the main concern  is that they are likely to prove too weak, too ineffective.

But why are Republicans joining in this attack? 

Mr. Bernanke and his colleagues seem stunned to find themselves in the cross hairs. They thought they were acting in the spirit of none other than Milton Friedman, who blamed the Fed for not acting more forcefully during the Great Depression — and who, in 1998, called on the Bank of Japan to “buy government bonds on the open market,” exactly what the Fed is now doing. 

 

Republicans, however, will have none of it, raising objections that range from the odd to the incoherent. 

The odd: on Monday, a somewhat strange group of Republican figures — who knew that William Kristol was an expert on monetary policy? — released an open letter to the Fed warning that its policies “risk currency debasement and inflation.” These concerns were echoed in a letter the top four Republicans in Congress sent Mr. Bernanke on Wednesday. Neither letter explained why we should fear inflation when the reality is that inflation keeps hitting record lows. 

And about dollar debasement: leaving aside the fact that a weaker dollar actually helps U.S. manufacturing, where were these people during the previous administration? The dollar slid steadily through most of the Bush years, a decline that dwarfs the recent down tick. Why weren’t there similar letters demanding that Alan Greenspan, the Fed chairman at the time, tighten policy? 

Meanwhile, the incoherent: Two Republicans, Mike Pence in the House and Bob Corker in the Senate, have called on the Fed to abandon all efforts to achieve full employment and focus solely on price stability. Why? Because unemployment remains so high. No, I don’t understand the logic either. 

So what’s really motivating the G.O.P. attack on the Fed?   Stan Collender predicted it all. Back in August, he warned Mr. Bernanke that “with Republican policy makers seeing economic hardship as the path to election glory,” they would be “opposed to any actions taken by the Federal Reserve that would make the economy better.” In short, their real fear is not that Fed actions will be harmful, it is that they might succeed.

                     

 Republicans want the economy to stay weak as long as there’s a Democrat in the White House.

                                  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~If you have manged to remain calm after reading the excerpts from Krugman's op-ed piece, I have a few more items to add to this ugly picture.

The Republicans have made no secret that their only goal for the next two years is exactly the same game plan they have been following for the last two years.  They will do everything in their power to destroy the Obama presidency, even though they are destroying the country to do so.  It is despicable, unpatriotic, and cowardly.

I cannot fathom why anyone would vote for these greedy power hungry jerks again.  The party of 'no' has sunk to new depths of disgusting meanness.   They took an oath of office when sworn in to do the best for our country.  Not the best for the Republican party.  

Some of the other recent 'cute' things they have accomplished since the foolish voters gave Obama a drubbing.  

1. My  dishonorable Senator, John Kyle, has sabotaged the Nuclear Arms Proliferation Treaty to keep Obama from having a victory.  This comes at the expense of world safety. 
2. My other hypocritical Senator, John McCain, has  disgraced himself by throwing a monkey wrench in the repeal of the 'Don't Ask Don't Tell ' policy.
3. They have halted the funding of employment compensation for desperate people whose lives are being destroyed.   It isn't bad enough that the Republican party under George Bush brought the economic disaster on us.  Now they want to punish the victims of their incompetence. 

Shunning the President's invitation to the White House to   discuss ways to solve the nation's problems was an odious insult to our president.  They have managed to put off the date of meeting with him so that the President will not have time to  accomplish anything before they take over the House; thus robbing him of any good legislation.

That politics is a dirty game is a given, but the current Republican party crossed the line when they put their own greedy selfish desire ahead of the nation's needs.  There are so many real problems facing our country that will not wait for the 2012 election.   It appears that they are eager willing to take this country over the brink into the abyss rather than let Obama have a tiny victory.   When their goal of destroying Obama became more important than helping solve the critical problems facing us,  the party of 'NO' became the most unscrupulous political party in this nation's history.  

They have the unmitigated gall to blatantly say their most important goal is to stop Obama.  How outrageous !! To do so they will try to destroy the Health Care Reform act by not funding it until they have a Republican president so they can repeal it.  And that's just the tip of the iceberg.


Let the poor eat cake, let the uninsured die, let the country be reviled again as it was under George Bush, let the country sink into a Great Depression so the Repubs can ride in on their white horse and rescue the country from all those Socialistic programs.  The only problem with that scenario is that they don't have a clue how to solve a single problem.   The hints as to how they plan to do so are all so ineffective that it's almost laughable.   I think we will need a good laugh before this is over.


You may be relieved to know this will be may last rant for a while.  I will not be spending much time on the computer for the next month or so.   I have a project that will take most of my time.  I will check in daily, but will not comment often because it does take me most of the day to do so.  


I will be going to California to spend Christmas at my daughter's house and other family members hope to join us there.  I am looking forward to getting away from politics for awhile.  My son, Mark, celebrated his 60th birthday last Sunday.  Now if you don't think that makes me feel old, guess again.  So I will make this trip while I am still able to navigate.


An update on my Visa fraud woes.  I got a letter yesterday from my credit card company telling me that the case has been closed.  Hooray!  Of course, they added the caveat that the merchant has 45 days to refile.  I don't think the merchant will do so under the circumstances.


In the event that I don't have time to post next week, I am taking this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.