All of this is only true if you believe solely in supply side economics. Years of evidence shows that neither school of economic thought is always correct. Each situation is unique. Slashing the capital gains tax to zero will not matter to most Americans. It will only matter to those that have money to invest. It would be great for me, but benefitting me isn't the point here. The difference between you and me is that we both rallied when McCain stated "Country First!!!" Unlike you, I actually meant it. For this country to get moving again, you have to put people back to work. If that is rebuilding highways and bridges, great. If that is programmers working on computerizing medical records, great. If that is putting people to work digging latrines, I'm ok with that too. Once the economy is on stable ground again, then we can responsibly talk about cutting taxes, including those on capital gains. Cutting taxes has NEVER been the way out of a recession. Raising them would be a disaster. But you have to get people back to work in order to beat a deep recession. That is why WW2 got us out of a deep recession. The war reopened all the factories and put people back to work.
No, it's definitely ideology. All things in moderation except conservatism which is always right on every issue in every segment of policy. Isn't that the philosophy of conservatives today? There's little logic or objectivity, it's all what would Reagan do. I wouldn't compare this spending, formulated to stimulate an economy deep in the tank (a 100 year event according to some), to the spending over 30 years of Republican Presidents. Wasteful spending is buying stealth bombers when American high school kids can't read and write. Wasteful spending is a trillion dollar war in Iraq when the entire country's infrastructure is on life support.
The problem in this country is that the same thing can be said about both sides. It is ideology over logic, winning over being correct, and remaining in power over the good of the country. The Republicans are guilty of this, but it isn't like they have a corner on that market.
Your last paragraph sums it up. Most Republicans are absolutely distorting the concepts of supply side economics and the Laffer Curve. Supply Side Economics is a long term fiscal strategy designed to promote growth while cutting taxes. The Laffer Curve bolstered this by promoting the idea that we could cut taxes and increase tax reciepts. (the part of the Republican ideology that I find the most misleading) These are strategies to promote growth in a stable economic environment, not stimulate an economy in the midst of a recession. We have to pick our poisons right now and that means spending more with a gigantic deficit.
Sorry, I disagree. I never hear Democrats say that the answer to our problems is to follow more closely to liberal principles. I never hear them say they've gotten away from liberalism and this is the source of our problems. I don't hear them say they've gotten away from what JFK would do. I never hear those things but I hear them from the Republican side on a daily basis.
In my opinion, the greatest failure of the Democratic Party over the last 30 years has been allowing Republicans to define the issues. Basically, they allowed Republicans to sell their ideology to the American people without offering a coherent counter (probably because there is none, since any decent philosophy is somewhat flexible), which brings us to the political situation of today, with no Republicans willing to compromise on anything that endangers their creed.
You might be interested to hear interviews from Nassim Taleb and Nouriel Roubini. http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=161684 Mr. Taleb, in particular, is scathing in our current policy response where we pretty much socialize the losses and privatize the gains.
