David Stockman made an appearance on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night. Remember David Stockman? Former Congressman from Michigan who served as President Reagan’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Good Republican stock. Before his election to the United States House of Representatives he served as special assistant to Rep. John Anderson of Illinois, and Executive Director of the United States House of Representatives Republican Conference.
He believes the economically disastrous Bush tax cuts could not be afforded even in 2001, when they were first passed. If it were up to him, he would tell President Obama to take out his veto pen, especially as related to the tax cuts for the rich. For him, it’s a farce to even be having a debate about extending these tax cuts.
He spoke articulately about the same issue in September, as part of a panel interview with NPR’s All Things Considered. And in the New York Times, last summer.
From the New York Times:
It is not surprising, then, that during the last bubble (from 2002 to 2006) the top 1 percent of Americans — paid mainly from the Wall Street casino — received two-thirds of the gain in national income, while the bottom 90 percent — mainly dependent on Main Street’s shrinking economy — got only 12 percent. This growing wealth gap is not the market’s fault. It’s the decaying fruit of bad economic policy.
The day of national reckoning has arrived. We will not have a conventional business recovery now, but rather a long hangover of debt liquidation and downsizing — as suggested by last week’s news that the national economy grew at an anemic annual rate of 2.4 percent in the second quarter. Under these circumstances, it’s a pity that the modern Republican Party offers the American people an irrelevant platform of recycled Keynesianism when the old approach — balanced budgets, sound money and financial discipline — is needed more than ever.
This interview with Keith Olbermann comes on the heels of another interview on his show, the previous evening with Lawrence Eagleburger, the former career diplomat who served as United States Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush. His message: pass the START treaty by analyzing the facts, and not playing politics.
I am fairly certainly neither Mr. Stockman nor Mr. Eagleburger have crossed over. I have no reason to believe they do not remain loyal Republicans. But both these interviews are glaring representations of just have far over the edge the Republicans have gone.
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