Time to Cowboy Up

[kpete]

"If Democrats were to waste this majority, and have nothing to show for it but bailouts of the biggest banks, auto companies and insurers, they deserve to be returned to minority status in the fall.

Who are they governing for? They can cowboy up, pass health care that helps right the major wrongs of the system and then explain what they’re doing. One way to start is to point to the bottom line, the market, and ask who gets rich when nothing changes."

more:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/time-to-cowboy-up/?hp

[elocs]

1. Well, if the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, WE'RE SCREWED! n/t

[frazzled]

2. One thing that could turn this around in a heartbeat

Is to let those Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire. They'd have to add in some more middle-class tax-cuts to do it during a recession, but it would be politically wise.

But the opinionator is really wrong about one thing: looking at the market. Whether any of us wanted it or not, for the last few decades most of us have been drawn into the markets, mostly through our workplace retirement plans. When the markets were tanking and financial institutions about to collapse, those of us who had struggled to make those contributions all those years, and who are not so far from retirement age, were terrified we'd be on the streets. More than a third, and almost up to half, of our retirement savings disappeared. Like it or not, we were going down unless someone righted those markets. I think sometimes we forget about those six months or so of real fear on the part of average, middle-class Americans.