A few years ago, for instance, Germany’s budget deficit was higher than Spain’s, but the competitiveness of the German economy far outpaced that of its southern neighbor. A major reason is that Germany had spent the better part of a decade reworking its inflexible labor market and revising a costly and cumbersome social safety net. Those changes have helped turn Germany into the economic powerhouse it is today. (NYT, 1/16/2012)
So the Germans figured out how to avoid economic Armageddon. Meanwhile Democrats continue pushing the U.S. toward the precipice:
By a state deadline on Tuesday, these volunteers, many of them Democrats and union supporters, say they will submit at least 720,000 names on petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker, the Republican who curtailed collective bargaining rights for public workers, leading to a face-off in this state. (NYT, 1/16/2012)
Bottom Feeding
The Senate’s top Democrat on Sunday accused Republicans — three times — of “obstructionism on steroids," which he blamed for Congress’s rock-bottom approval ratings this year.
“I would hope that they understand that everything doesn’t have to be a fight,” Reid said of the GOP on NBC's “Meet the Press.” “Legislation is an art of working together … and I hope that the tea party doesn’t have the influence this year that they had in the previous year.” (Politico.com, 1/15/2012)
Reid, of course, is widely admired for his bipartisan approach to passing Obamacare. Just kidding!
Say It Loud
“I want to hear from them — do they support Dr. King and the New South movement? Do they appreciate Dr. King’s legacy?” Jackson told POLITICO. “These candidates talk about free enterprise, but do they understand that there would be no Boeing plant in South Carolina if blacks and whites couldn’t work together? That you couldn’t have CNN with a segregated Atlanta, or a Disney World in a segregated Florida?” (Politico.com, 1/16/2012)
In a nation with black congressmen, governors, mayors, CEOs, coaches - indeed with blacks in leadership roles throughout American society - one-trick-pony Jesse Jackson proves once again that he is a walking anachronism. Oh, and there is an African American president as well.
You forget that the Affordable Health Care Act had a good deal of Republican influence in it from the bipartisan committee that failed. If not for that effort, Health Care Exchanges would not been included and you would have had a public option in the mix.
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