Obama Flails at Republicans Who Oppose his Socialization of Industries & Tax Hikes

The Economist has a nice little rejoinder to the torrent of crud that the American media lays daily on the laps of befuddled and bemused citizens wondering how the "stimulus/porkulus" package will ever get done. As for the banks, no one ever discusses the Resolution Trust Corporation and how that squeezed the toxic S&L assets out of the US banking system. Here is a nice sum-up:

Republicans also worry that the bill marks the start of a big expansion of government. Some recall that, when Franklin Roosevelt unleashed the New Deal to tackle the Depression, government grew beyond recognition and stayed big. They fear that Mr Obama plans to hire an army of bureaucrats, who will never be sacked and will mostly vote Democratic. And they fear a “tax tipping-point”, when a majority of Americans pay little or no taxes and discover that they can vote themselves goodies paid for by others. Currently, the top 20% of earners pay 69% of federal taxes, and that share is rising.

Obama ignores what Amity Schlaes points out in that 50% of economists who now look back at the FDR attempt to seize a Democrat kleptocracy [packing the SCOTUS in '37 is left unmentioned] and believe the "chameleon on plaid" was a con-man at worst and a baby-kissing faineant when it came to actually achieving a real recovery until the Second World War.

But that would be something that the newest con-man ignores:

Mr Obama has a holster of quick-fire retorts. To the Republicans’ earnest discussions of history, he scoffs: “They’re fighting battles that I thought were resolved a pretty long time ago.”

Those battles are never really resolved, young man....