Krugman Nails it

Here’s Paul Krugman’s take on today’s Republican inspired disaster: OK, we are a banana republic – Paul Krugman – Op-Ed Columnist – New York Times Blog

He’s absolutely right. The bill put forward today was a Bush Administration plan. It was likely from the beginning that a lot of Democrats would not go for it since it did not include enough to protect homeowners. My own opinion [see my post below] is that the bill was sufficient as a start. I assumed that new and better legislation would be presented after the election. So the Bush plan was what we had.

And the Republicans scuppered it. Even after McCain had said publicly he had brokered the deal.

Now both they and he look like partisan fools. What else is there that we can think?

The Republican right wing rose in revolt against both Bush and their party leadership because they still think that ‘private money’ can solve the problem. that would be, presumably, the private money that’s being lost today as a result of the collapse of the stock market.

These folks are idiots locked in some Reaganesque time warp. And then they have the gall to get all huffy because Pelosi says the obvious: this mess is a direct result of Republican deregulation. Specifically it is the result of the deliberate efforts of the then Senator Gramm who in 1999 wrote legislation to eliminate regulation on derivatives. that would be the same Mr. Gramm who is now advising McCain on economic matters. Whoops!!

So Pelosi calls them on their responsibility; they get bent out of shape for being shown up and vote against Bush’s legislation.

Get that straight: the Republicans shoot at Bush [a Republican] in order to spite Pelosi.

Krugman is right: that stuff only happens in a banana republic.

Meanwhile the rest of us with retirement funds etc tied up in stocks and bonds saw about $1.1 trillion of value wiped lout by this Republican spat.

Ugh!