A new caucus of pro-Depression 2.0 Republicans? Ed Kilgore looks at the possibility.
Check out Ed’s post, and his reference to another of Stoller’s. There’s an interesting and I think important question here as to whether neo-Hooeverite Republicans are pushing Hooverite policies for strictly economic reasons (creditors can do well in a deflationary economy), moral reasons (need a good hard recession to re-teach the poor moral values) or just because they’re economic illiterates who just don’t feel right echoing the calls of centrist and liberal economists. I think both Ed and Stoller are both on solid ground, with respect to the moral and economic rationales, respectively, though I think many of the folks I see on Cavuto’s show fall squarely in the third category.
Late Update: This too, from TPM Reader JF …
I tend to believe there is a simpler explanation for the Neo-Hooverite positioning: Given the new demographic realities of the country, Obama’s presidency must be a failure if Republicans are to ever emerge from the political wilderness. The more they obstruct, the more Obama and Congessional Democrats will be forced to water down economic policy. And a watered-down policy just won’t cut it at this moment in history. This is sabotage, pure and simple. If the poor and the middle class have to suffer in order for Republicans to have something to run against in 2010, so be it.
