Krugman's party of denial

Paul Krugman takes on Barack Obama's annoying tendency to praise Republicans and damn Democrats - this time referring to Obama's positions when he went on that Fox interview. Mr. Krugman says:

Mr. Obama’s answer was puzzling because he gave credit where it isn’t due — and thereby undermined what could be a very effective Democratic line of argument.

In particular, Mr. Obama attributed to Republicans the idea that regulation can be flexible rather than a matter of “top-down command and control,” and in particular for the idea of controlling pollution with a system of tradable emission permits rather than rigid regulations.

Well, that’s not at all what actually happened — and the tale of what really did happen has a lot of relevance to current events.

What's nice is that Krugman actually points out something good about Jimmy Carter. Remember Carter? Remember how everyone bagged on him for his nasty scolding about environmental doom and gloom?*

It’s true that the first President Bush established a market-based system for controlling sulfur dioxide emissions, which has been highly successful at controlling acid rain. But by then the idea of markets in emission permits had long been accepted by economists of all political stripes.

And it had also been accepted by leading Democrats. The Environmental Protection Agency began letting cities meet air-quality standards using emissions-trading systems during the Carter administration — which also led the way on deregulation of airlines and trucking.
(emphasis mine)

Krugman then points out what everyone but Obama seems to know - that Republicans are not the ones taking the initiative when it comes to tackling quality-of-life problems (especially environmental ones):

...actually marked a sharp change in policy from the Reagan administration, which — committed to the belief that government is always the problem, never the solution — spent eight years opposing any effort to control acid rain.

...the Reaganites insisted that there was no problem at all. They denied the evidence, questioned the science, called for more research and did nothing. Sound familiar?

And that, surely, is the line the Democrats should be pushing in this election: Republicans have become the party of denial. If a problem can’t be solved with deregulation and tax cuts, they pretend it doesn’t exist.
(emphasis mine)

It's a mystery to me why Obama is so ready to tear down Democrats and the Democratic party.

He praises Republicans, and he frequently uses Republican talking points. He even takes Republican positions on issues. But he has nothing good to say about Democrats or the Democratic party. Surely I cannot be the only one who has noticed this.

Oh - and after Krugman changes the topic to health care (one of today's denial hotspots), he drops in the following tidbit:

And now that the economy is weakening again, another plunge is in progress: last week UnitedHealth warned investors that its business is suffering because fewer employers are offering coverage to their workers.

This may be the future's only hope - we may get a few economic concessions here and there just because we're getting too broke to buy stuff. Sad, isn't it?

Speaking of denial, Obama won't debate - but he was on Letterman again, telling jokes.



* unfortunately the lesson Carter taught us still has not been absorbed by too many Democrats, who still continue to lecture and scold about problems, rather than actually solve them. Action is to them a word to describe what they want someone else to do.