Paul Krugman talks about the recent strong job numbers and the economic success story that's emerging, but wants us to know it didn't have to take so long to get here:
... We could have had a much faster recovery if the U.S. government had ramped up public investment and put more money in the hands of families likely to spend it. But the Obama stimulus was much too small and short-lived — as many of us warned, in advance, it would be — and since 2010 what we have actually seen, thanks to scorched-earth Republican opposition on all fronts, are unprecedented cutbacks in government spending, especially investment, and in government employment.Also, contrary to the media-amplified phony Republican talking points that President Obama's "anti-business" posture stymied economic growth, Krugman points out:
...[W]e can now say with confidence that the recovery’s weakness had nothing to do with Mr. Obama’s (falsely) alleged anti-business slant. What it reflected, instead, was the damage done by government paralysis — paralysis that has, alas, richly rewarded the very politicians who caused it.That would be Republican politicians, of course, over to whom a deeply ignorant and malicious slice of voters have turned the legislative branch of government (see "What You Get..." below).
BONUS: The Republican vandals continue to vandalize.
