The problem we are having now is candidates are one or the other when success is in the middle. Of course who knows what can help with whats going on. Billions have vanished and can't be made up quickly to repair the economy. It might take another 5-10 years to fix. Think back to the last bank scandel in the 80's and how long that took to fix. This problem is like that one on steroids and crack.
Originally Posted by homer13
I don't agree that success is in the middle.
The seeds of this problem lie with Bill Clinton and his drive to export American industry and invite low-wage aliens into the workforce.
The reason why we're not recovering is because we've structurally lost too much manufacturing, and wages for many service jobs have been driven down by 'undocumented workers.'
Clinton was able to keep fiscal matters in check because there was no war on and high growth kept government revenues high.
W. Bush then came along and set us on a trajectory of high deficits in addition to the structural unemployment and underemployment put in place by Clinton's policies.
This problem can only be solved by someone considered radical.
Mainstream, consensus solutions such as expanding exports and trade, increasing education levels, etc. are what got us into this mess.
The mainstream economists are to blame. They don't know what they're doing. Conventional economics is BS. It's politics and ideology...not science.
The only thing that can solve this is to turn back the clock. We have to protect and re-build our manufacturing base, deport foreign workers, decrease government spending [particularly local governments]* and return tax levels to what they used to be [higher for the rich].
Turn back the clock to simpler times.
While we're at it we ought to review every law passed by government in the last thirty years. No more mandatory insurance of any kind, no seat belt laws, no helmets for bicyle riders, dissolve Homeland Security and bring back the INS., etc.....
Turn back the clock on government altogether.
*Local governments spend most of their budgets dealing with narcotics enforcement issues. Arrests and ajudication of minor narcotics laws is the grist that comprises most local government jobs. This is the huge burdon of the "War on Drugs," not to mention that 60% of Federal law enforcement is spent on this nonesense.