Democracy for Vancouver

Or is he just stupid?

From economist Dean Baker:

It is not that anything about the current economic situation can plausibly lead to ten years of double-digit unemployment. However, we are seeing views expressed by otherwise serious people that could in fact give us the sort of prolonged stagnation that we saw in the Great Depression.

Advocating spending cuts and/or tax increases in the wake of the downturn that we are now seeing make about as much sense for the economy as nuking Silicon Valley. If the advocates of such nuttiness get their way, then a Great Depression type downturn may be on the agenda.

McCain in last week’s debate:

I believe that we have to eliminate the earmarks. And sometimes those projects, not — not the overhead projector that Senator Obama asked for, but some of them that are really good projects, will have — will have to be eliminated, as well.

And they’ll have to undergo the same scrutiny that all projects should in competition with others.

So we’re going to have to tell the American people that spending is going to have to be cut in America. And I recommend a spending freeze that — except for defense, Veterans Affairs, and some other vital programs, we’ll just have to have across-the-board freeze.

Yeah, when unemployment goes through the roof and the economy is on the skids, pull more money out of it. That’ll help.

But, you ask, with a trillion dollar deficit and $11 trillion national debt, how can we ever afford to pay for reinvestment in our infrastructure and the creation of new industries and jobs, as we’ll need to to rebuild the U.S. economy?

Peter DeFazio has the right idea with his Rebuild America Tax: put a 10% surtax on all income of more than $1,000,000 for couples and $500,000 for individuals. This would allow the folks who’ve made the most out of the Bush tax cuts to give back to their country in its time of need. We could even sunset the surtax after a decade, giving it a nice symmetry with the Bush tax cuts’ planned expiration (unless McCain gets his way and makes them permanent, as he insanely still wants to do - he really doesn’t know anything about economics, does he?)

Anyway, ten years should be just enough time to get the economy back on its feet - or it would be, if we get at least two terms under a strong Democratic president with workable majorities in the House and Senate.

And while we’re building this new economy of ours, what a great opportunity to look at all parts of it anew: health care, banking and securities regulation, corporate personhood and responsibility.

Just as it’s taken the worst economic disaster in 80 years to get this country to, just maybe, look beyond race in a Presidential election, perhaps now is the moment for real progressive change.

That’s the kind of change we can believe in. Right, Senator Obama?