Chupacabra Report

News that Gets My Goat..

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testified before Congress’ Joint Economic Committee yesterday.

Rep. Kevin Brady of The Woodlands, ranking Republican on the committee, is a staunch conservative, going so far as to get himself convicted of drunk driving, the better to emulate his heroes George Bush and Dick Cheney. Yesterday he called on Geithner to resign.

“For the sake of our jobs, will you step down?” Brady asked. “The public has lost all confidence in your ability to do the job, and it is reflecting on your president.”

Republicans “gave this president an economy falling off the cliff,” Geithner told Brady, “I can’t take responsibility for the legacy of crises you bequeathed the country.”

The “worst financial crisis in generations” happened after “almost a decade, certainly eight years, of basic neglect of basic public goods, in health care, in education, in public infrastructure, in how we use energy,” Geithner said.

-Well, I’m glad that somebody’s saying it. The GOP is desperate to prevent this administration from addressing the crises we face, whatever the cost, be it national security, financial peril or public heath, in order to gain advantage in the next election. This so they can take back the reins of government and do Lord Knows What.
(http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/24918)

Remember this bit I ran recently from an Atlantic Monthly blog:

"One analogy I've thought of often, aligned with your interests, is an economic analogy of an aerodynamic stall. When commerical credit froze and consumers reduced spending, the prevailing economic "lift" was gone. Stall! Conservative knee-jerk reactions for tax cuts were the equivalent of "pulling up" on the stick- intuitive but deadly. Obama's expert advice was to gain speed by spending (diving), even at the cost of altitude (deficit/debt). High unemployment was destined from the moment the stall occurred. Only when sufficient airspeed/angle of attack (spending) had been reached could the economy begin to pull up, and the unemployment would be analogous to the altitude lost even after the decision to finaly "pull up" had been made. Passenger relief (consumer confidence) would follow long after the immediate recovery (i.e., GDP), and no one would be "satisfied" until the plane came in for a (economic) "soft landing."

The Republicans are willing to crash the plane, for their purposes, if we only let them.