On CNBC this morning, Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist claimed that the current financial crisis facing America is rooted in the fact that Democrats took control of the House and Senate in 2006. "The economy's in the present state because when the Democrats took the House and Senate in 2006, you knew that those tax increases were going to come in 2010," said Norquist.... "The stock market began to collapse as soon as you recognized that those old tax rates were coming back. So, we're in the middle of responding to those tax increases."
Once upon a time, Grover Norquist may have actually been relevant to the body politic. Offhand, I can't think of any time that may have been true, but I believe in giving the benefit of the doubt...even in times when said benefit may hardly be deserved. To put it mildly, Norquist is the worst sort of partisan hack, willing to accept credit for successes that are neither his nor his party's...and even more willing to assign blame that rightfully belongs to him and/or his party. Norquist is at this point a completely irrelevant Right-wing blowhard, full of sound and fury, but signifying less than nothing. He is an irritant, background noise of the worst and most irritating sort.
His assertion that Democrats are responsible for the current state of the economy is laughable, so much so that the program's host immediately laughed at him and rejected his argument out of hand. Norquist's argument is so absurd that it barely warrants consideration, though he no doubt has managed to convince himself of the utter brilliance and unassailability of his logic.
If Norquist possessed even the barest hint of intellectual honesty, he'd be admitting that, if we're going to assess blame for our current economic clusterf--k, one need look no farther than the occupant of the Oval Office. Then again, if we were to be talking about intellectual honesty, Grover Norquist would be so far off the list he wouldn't even rate a mention
Though economists might disagree over what the exact causes of the financial crisis are, Norquist's assertion is laughable. Indeed, if he wants to find a real culprit, he should look at the Bush administration's utter failure to supervise our mortgage, lending and financial markets properly while also ignoring the ailing U.S. housing market.
Perhaps if Our Glorious and Benevolent Leader © and his band of neoConservative thugs had actually kept an eye on things instead of trying to line the pockets of their wealthy benefactors, we might be in a different place. Yes, I'm fully aware that economic cycles are complex animals, and that blaming this downturn on one set of factors or one group is simplistic in the extreme. Nonetheless, while the gravy train was still making it's rounds, the White House maintained it's hands-off, "deregulation is the tool of the Lord" philosophy. In retrospect, perhaps unrestrained greed masquerading as an economic philosophy might not have been the wisest or most prudent course.
All this aside, it IS rather entertaining watching and listening to Norquist make a complete ass of himself, eh? Yes, it is. ;-)
Carry on....
