Metro's fundamental problem

There is a good deal of good research out there that posits that stimulus programs actually prolong financial downturns. One view is that the New Deal actually worsened and extended the Great Depression. So, your assertion that not doing the stimulus would have created a depression is simply an opinion.

washington financial world looks pretty much the same to me. so I have to agree with the T-party types on that one. But I wonder why we are even giving them the time of day everything else is scattered about senslesley. I wouldn't even mention most of it in passing much less HERE or on TV.

I would like to see the financial world with a new market in diversities and lots of control over hedge funds and there isn't even a glimpse of that.

The large banks which are refusing to lend to small businesses should be somehow taxed into submission. Why not everyone else is.

Also the military gay/not gay/maybe gay. . .just don't tell is still up for consideration. Wo;uldn't an executive order take care of that for a little while until congress fixes. and when will that be???

there is still a RELIGIOUS office in the white house so church and state are still moving along hand in hand . . .not right at all.

and and and. still thinking . . . I'm sure there is lots we don't know about because transparency is still a blue sky hope. . .don't ask don.t tell works for politics too.

CHECK THIS OUT:

http://www.american-architecture.info/USA/USA-Washington/800px-Red_line_train.jpg

Tom - What you are saying is that the Democratic Message Machine is completely broken The Republicans have Fox news, Newt Gingrich, and others heaving hand grenades and the Democrats cower in response. Democrats elected a Democratic president and large majorities in Congress in response to failed Republican policies. Obama should have oiled the message machine and sold the program to the public. If that had happened, we would not have the disconnect shown in this poll

Tom - Did someone actually pay to undertake the analysis? Duh ... Tea Partiers are white Republicans from the woods. Of course, Carl Paladino doesn't fit the mold. Rush, Hannity, et al, will promote anything that divides. Andy

Mr. Toles ought to get out more often - at least to ride the Metro. Then he will see the "third rail" on the side where it powers the train. Over the years, his drawings of Metro have been more artistic than realistic and never shown underground. But why not? He is an artist.

I am sympathetic to the Tea Party. If Toles had read the even-handed column by Democrat pollster Paul Caddell in the Post yesterday, he might have mentioned in his own inaccurate, half-baked missive that Tea Partiers are not only comprised of a large white audience but also Democrats, Libertarians, and a large number of Independents [Note: actually I'm sure Toles read it; he just doesn't want anyone else to have the facts]. It doesn't suprise me that folks like mike17 thinks Tea Partiers are all a bunch of hicks that don't understand bailouts. Critics of the Tea Party like to paint all with the same 'they're just stupid' brush. My observation is that most Republicans believe bailout I by Bush was necessary to calm the markets and was reasonably thought-out given the immediate crisis. Bailout II, by Obama, however, was not thought out. Mike17 and Toles can make a decent case it there was a definite requirement for bailout II [I won't argue that point here], but the execution of this bailout was pathetic. The Administration provided ZERO leadership in this legisilation, preferring to just hand over the keys to the Speaker and the Senate Majority Leader. The result was a predictable hodge-podge of programs that were ill-advised, not to mention all the pork for Democrat Congressional districts. Tea Partiers know this as do Americans that pay attention. What confuses me is that Obama could have done a tip-top job on bailout II but just didn't have the time (or skill) for it. Critical error.

I agree that none of these tea partiers even know what would have happened to our economy of there were no bailouts, or they won't say. If GM and Chrysler closed up shop, not only would their thousands of employees be jobless and adding to the unemployment rolls and off the taxpaying rolls, thousands more associated with the industry would lose their jobs. Same with the banks. Unemployment would be twice what it is. The economy would have really tanked, healthcare would rise at an alarming rate especially on those who now have it and have to pay for those who don't. They never see the other side of the story.

There's been a lot written lately on the idea that people are mad that their opinions aren't being represented. When Health Care passed and it was Obama, Pelosi and Frank leading the way the old guard didn't see anyone who looked like them and freaked out a bit. Don't know if that's too simplistic but it seems to be at least one undercurrent to the Tea Party supporters. It's hard to let go of the past when in the past all leaders essentially looked the same.