Changing Gears: It's the Recession, Stupid

Today Paul Krugman writes in his New York Times column:

I used to think that the major issues facing the next president would be how to get out of Iraq and what to do about health care. At this point, however, I suspect that the biggest problem for the next administration will be figuring out which parts of the financial system to bail out, how to pay the cleanup bills and how to explain what it’s doing to an angry public.

I had thought the thrust of my do-it-yourself congressional campaign -- see the blog subtitle on top -- were going to be my advocacy of immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Medicare for all Americans.

But the recesssion and the economic mess we're in has changed everything.

It seems as if everything's going wrong with the American economy all at once. We've got a mortgage/foreclosure/housing crisis, a credit crunch, a liquidity crunch, a sinking dollar... well, it's too depressing to go on.

Earlier I'd proposed increasing federal taxes on gasoline as a means of fostering energy independence. That was before it cost me more to fill up the Cavalier with regular at the Diamond Shamrock on Ironwood and Southern than Congress allocated for one of Jeff Flake's egregious earmarks of the week.

Inflation has hit commodity prices other than oil, as I'm sure you've noticed when you go for groceries at Fry's, Safeway, Alberston's or other supermarkets. Whole Food prices have come to the food aisles of the Wal-Mart SuperCenter on Apache Trail.

And getting a dozen bagels at the Einstein's on Gilbert Road by Baseline or ordering a slice at NYPD Pizza at Santan Village? Flour is rising! Fuhgeddaboudit.

Rep. Jeff Flake was one of a handful of those in Congress who voted against the bipartisan stimulus package. He's called it one of the three worst pieces of legislation of the year.

Admittedly, the stimulus package is too little, too late. But Rep. Flake, as a leading intellectual light of the extreme laissez-faire ideology, has an obligation to tell us what he's going to do to help the struggling families of the East Valley -- and all over this country -- cope with economic hard times.

The Fed's monetary tools don't seem to be working and may even prove counterproductive. Surely fiscal policy and economic regulation and financial system reforms have to play a role in getting us out of this recession.

Arizona's families are crying out for help, Jeff Flake. Is your response just going to be more of the same: tax cuts for the rich, spending cuts for everyone else? Letting the market work its "magic"?

Right now Jeff Flake's mantra seems to be: Don't just do something, stand there.