There's a Far Side cartoon (Gary Larson's strong views on internet reproduction of his drawings prevent me from showing it) where a horse doctor's checklist of cures for equine ailments from "bad breath" to "broken leg" all indicate "SHOOT."
I thought of that as I read that no Republican lawmaker had voted for the Obama stimulus bill in the US House of Representatives. Apparently the Republican cure, for all economic events from death to depression, is "TAX CUT."
President Obama, on the other hand, knows that the cure for what currently ails America is going to have to be a bit more sophisticated than an over-the-counter pill that has been used to excess during the eight years of Bushism. And where has that gotten us?
Obama's answer to the Republican blindness and tone-deafness (cartoonist Tom Toles in the Washington Post shows the GOP as suicidal) was twofold: his frank and heartfelt condemnation of Wall Street and Big Bank billion dollar bonuses, and his signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
What we know about our new President is that he is a political pragmatist, but that does not prevent him from espousing a cause that is popular. Yesterday, he hit a double bull's eye: no one, except for perhaps the "master of the universe" recipients of mega bonuses, thinks that they make any sense as a "reward" for getting the world economy in such deep trouble. And they are inherently unfair, when most of the money to pay for said bonuses comes from taxpayers who may be on the verge of losing job and/or home.
And the Fair Pay Act? I guess there are only five Republican Senators moderate (or fair-minded) enough to have voted for the bill. Who, other than misogynists or worse, can be against same-work, same-pay legislation?
Tom Toles showed the GOP elephant falling off the cliff in response to Obama on bended knee. They weren't pushed - they jumped.
Herbert Hoover, after the Crash of 1929, had four years to turn a stock market crash into a Great Depression. George W. Bush escaped from the White House before his economic crisis reached its depths, but many of his fellow perps are still in Congress. If we get out of this Republican-generated mess, it won't be thanks to any help from House Republicans, who only look for problems in the solutions presented to them.
Congressional elections are scheduled for November 2010.