Nov. 24, 2008. That was then.


Paul Krugman's lefty editorial in the New York Times on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to obliterate unions is provocative stuff:

There’s a bitter irony here. The fiscal crisis in Wisconsin, as in other states, was largely caused by the increasing power of America’s oligarchy. After all, it was superwealthy players, not the general public, who pushed for financial deregulation and thereby set the stage for the economic crisis of 2008-9, a crisis whose aftermath is the main reason for the current budget crunch. And now the political right is trying to exploit that very crisis, using it to remove one of the few remaining checks on oligarchic influence.

But it's not the Che Guevera stuff that I found most compelling. Krugman has a snide, offhand dig early in the editorial that provides another bit of potent context.

Here, Krugman puts the blame for the current crisis on the Obama administration—as opposed to right-wing demagogues. More to the point, Krugman subtly blames Obama for mishandling the great recession in a way that has given the Tea Party right a political opening.

Some background: Wisconsin is indeed facing a budget crunch .... Revenue has fallen in the face of a weak economy, while stimulus funds, which helped close the gap in 2009 and 2010, have faded away.

Krugman famously editorialized that Obama's stimulus was inadequate, calling for a much larger package. I would add another point to Krugman's ongoing critique of Obama's half-hearted stimulus bill. I think Obama's health care reform legislation—which some Monday morning quarterbacks have spun as off point because  jobs jobs jobs should have been the issue—wasn't a misstep for that reason (health care costs are, in fact, the number one cost of most state budgets that are bringing the national budget crisis into relief), but because, like Obama's underwhelming stimulus bill, his health care bill failed to go for it.

Had Obama followed the FDR example and passed a convincing health care reform bill along with Krugman's dream stimulus bill, we wouldn't be seeing desperate solutions to state budget woes like the rash move in Wisconsin to take away workers' rights.