GOP: The Statler and Waldorf of the economy

The GOP's kneejerk rejection of economic ideas simply for the sake of saying no is like the old men who heckle 'The Muppet Show' from the balcony.

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Copyright: The Muppet Show / The Walt Disney Company / All rights reserved.
Statler and Waldorf, the Muppets who sit in the balcony and insult everything performed on 'The Muppet Show.' The GOP serves the same role in the current economic discussion, criticizing President Obama's policies regardless of content.

I've so thoroughly trashed President Obama's economic policies and failed stimulus attempts recently that I fear I may be giving readers the wrong impression...the Dem's are only one half of the Economic Death Squad that now pretends to offer leadership in this country.

The GOP is probably 2/3rds responsible for the credit crisis to begin with (chain-sawing rulebooks will do that) and its current leadership has been equally pathetic in terms of bringing solutions to the table for joblessness and weak business activity. Unless of course you consider the Rain Man-esque repetition of "more tax cuts" as an example of innovative thinking.

So it should surprise nobody that Obama's $50 billion infrastructure stimulus speech in Milwaukee today was panned within milliseconds of its conclusion by House Republican leader John Boehner. As if there were any chance that Boehner would even listen to the address for any reason other than to know what it is that he is against.

The GOP's constant kneejerk rejection of economic ideas simply for the sake of Saying No has as much to do with our current malaise as anything being done wrong in the White House. The newly-minted fiscal conservatives on the Republican side of the aisle, many of whom are themselves responsible for the $3 trillion and counting Iraq War, are like the old men who heckle the Muppet Show from the balcony.

It's naysaying for naysaying's sake at this point and I hope voters will remember that their favorite Republican All-Stars are equally complicit in the crime that is 15 million unemployed 3 years into a recession.

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