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Bill Hobbs was wrong
Posted By katie allison granju
A week or two ago, TNGOP spokesman Bill Hobbs offered his rather anecdotal assessment of the economy:
Take a look around you. Most people have not lost their homes or their jobs. Most businesses are still open, still doing business. Yes, there are problems - high fuel prices, rising food costs, a housing sector that’s taken a sub-prime hit. But the overall economy is still growing, a fact not reflected in the news coverage of the economy.
Today, fellow conservative blogger David Oatney disagrees:
By now we know that Bill Hobbs’ optimistic view of the economy was just that-overly optimistic, and it isn’t talking down in the least to say that the economy is down the toilet
But Oatney isn’t ready to cede the economy to the Democrats:
The Democrats are proceeding to engage in the same tired politics and blame the Republicans for the entire problem. While there is little doubt that the present economic situation certainly favors the Democrats in the fall, we should remind ourselves that if a Democrat were in the White House, Republicans would be playing these political games with the economy as well. The hard fact is that both sides are somewhat to blame and banks, investment firms, and even consumers all bear part of the responsibility for the current crisis. The spiral really began in the 1990’s when banks and credit firms began to make loans to people who weren’t good for the money-and a lot of these firms were very much aware of that risk. Consumers acted irresponsibly in spending money they did not have, thereby taking on too much debt. The Democratic solution is always to raise taxes on someone, but in this present climate “blame the rich” can only go so far. Raising taxes on anyone will not solve the present crisis, but stabilizing the dollar will go a long way toward that end. The Fed should remember that reality, and so should all of our presidential candidates.
Mar 18th, 2008
