Too Much, Too Soon

Today I want to shine some "lyte" on overreaction.  House Minority Whip, Eric Cantor apparently feels that the Democrats are doing too much in response to the economic crisis.

He shared his feelings with reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast.  According to Cantor, "Doing too much has huge pitfalls too."

Now this guy also thinks that Rush Limbaugh has ideas.  So anything that he says should be taken with not a grain of salt, but like, a huge truckload of salt with extra salt on the side.  Representative Cantor is again demonstrating the lack of ideas or for that matter, the lack of compassion, that exists in the Republican party.

Representative Cantor is either unaware of the new unemployment numbers that show that unemployment is at a 26 year high, or he just doesn't care.  How can you do "too much" for over 12 million unemployed Americans?  How can you do too much for the countless citizens that have lost their homes, their savings, and their futures?  

There is one Republican who has a clue, sort of.  Newt Gingrich is warning the Republicans that they risk creating a viable third party by 2012 by failing to respond to the crisis. Now, Newt needs to be accompanied by his own truckload of salt, as he is positioning himself for a possible run for the presidency in 2012.  Maybe as the standard-bearer for the new 3rd party?How convenient.

Paul Krugman, Nobel prize-winning economist, feels the exact opposite.  He has been arguing that the Obama administration isn't doing enough.  The stimulus package was too small.  The bailout plan put forth by Secretary Geithner is not bold enough, the banks need to be nationalized.  I admire Krugman, but he is an economist, not a politician.  His ideas are great; if they didn't need to written as legislation and then debated, and then voted on, and then reconciled.  That process takes great ideas and waters them down to weak tea that pundits and populists like to drink by, well, the truckload.

Too much or too little?  Act now or wait?  Paper or plastic?  Everything does not fit into nice either/or propositions.  What we need is more of a both/and approach.  President Obama and his team are trying to listen to the all the voices, or at least they are pretending to.  Then they will do what they think will work.  Will it work?  The Dow broke 8000 today for the first time in months, despite the bad employment news, so maybe an end is in sight.  Then again, maybe not.  But if we had Republicans in charge, I am confident that we would still be exploring the bottom.  They are the masters of too little, too late.