A Decade of Self-Delusion

[Dardedar]

A Decade of Self-Delusion
Pat Buchanan

About the first decade of what was to be the Second American Century, the pessimists have been proven right.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the United States began the century producing 32 percent of the world's gross domestic product. We ended the decade producing 24 percent. No nation in modern history, save for the late Soviet Union, has seen so precipitous a decline in relative power in a single decade.

The United States began the century with a budget surplus. We ended with a deficit of 10 percent of gross domestic product, which will be repeated in 2010. Where the economy was at full employment in 2000, 10 percent of the labor force is out of work today and another 7 percent is underemployed or has given up looking for a job.

Between one-fourth and one-third of all U.S. manufacturing jobs have disappeared in 10 years, the fruits of a free-trade ideology that has proven anything but free for this country. Our future is being outsourced — to China.

While the median income of American families was stagnant, the national debt doubled."

The rest here

[Betsy]

Lots of good points and information; however, I'm a little worried about where Pat Buchanan is trying to lead us. I think he's teeing up the tea-party conservative movement, which is even worse than just plain-old republicans.

He really doesn't tell us what he thinks we should DO about these problems; just that we've gotten ourselves into a big mess and......stop it? and he implies that the current administration is just as bad as the last one.

I would have liked his column much much more if he had wrapped it up with some real solutions. He could have said "here's what needs to be done: this, that, and the other." instead he is just saying, it all sucks and we need to .... revolt? Not really very helpful.

[Doug]

I would have liked his column much much more if he had wrapped it up with some real solutions.

DOUG writes:
Yes, that would have been nice. But Buchanan is a Republican. He has no answers. At least none that work. Deporting immigrants, invading another country, and passing massive tax cuts would do nothing to solve our problems. Actually, Buchanan is an isolationist. He would not support yet another invasion of another country.

[Dardedar]

I like that the article acknowledges how sick the patient is and we all know who was leading the self deluding in the last decade. It's hard to work to get better if you don't realize how sick you are. The problem for Pat and his side is, the real solutions are going to require a lot more "socialist" responses. Fixing the medical system is (eventually) going to require (government) costs controls and some kind of universal coverage. Energy shortages are going to require "conservation," something ironically, conservatives have so much trouble with. Chronic unemployment will require depression era type government intervention. Dealing with the deficits will mean the worst off, taxing the rich more.

D.