Posted on June 1, 2009

Paul Krugman, like many other Democratic partisans, wants to blame Republicans and right-wingers for causing the financial disaster by deregulating the system.  This may be comforting to Dems but, alas, it requires them to falsify the history, as Krugman does in this morning's column. Krugman flogs the notorious Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982 and quotes Ronald Reagan's extravagant praise for the measure. [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/01/opinion/01krugman.html?_r=1&hpw]

The Democratic party is astride the same awkward straddle it has managed (not too successfully) for more than 25 years. The party tries to serve two masters with opposite interests.  It takes care of business for business, while it also speaks for labor and working people.  Guess who has gotten the short end of this arrangement.   What is different this year is that Dems have lost their best excuses.  Tthe party has the White House and robust majorities in both House and Senate. No longer gets to blame Bush.