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We did not have conservatives in charge in DC in the past few years. We had Republicans who tried to govern as Democrats-Lite.

Republicans had nearly unprecedented control of the government. And they went far, far right. Democrats were not behind them. So you can't call them "democrats-lite." All the pieces of conservative ideology were there- even economic ideology: transfer as much wealth from the middle-class to the upper-class, deregulation- take away as much oversight as one possibly can, allow for more environmental degradation, disempower the unions, lower wages, protect big businesses- their tax havens, their detrimental health side-effects, lower taxes a great deal (but mostly for the rich), the deficit doesn't matter, spending should be going to corporations, not Americans, etc. That's just a short list.

There has to be accountability. Economic conservativism ravaged and destroyed our present economic reality. And it is, and must be, our actions today which work to undo that damage.

Most people on the government dole are there due to their own bad behavior or bad choices in their lives.

I don't think going to school, or driving on a road, or going to a hospital, or breathing clean air is "bad behavior or bad choices" in my life.

Yeah, I know her kids didn't ask to be in that life, but still.

But still what? You're talking about having her kids removed from their home and starved to death as a reasonable alternative. I'm not saying these kids have to live the Fergie glamorous life, but they deserve to eat and live with a roof over their head. And they deserve an education and clean air and the opportunity to succeed on their own merits.

Now to make matters worse, we are bailing out banks, corporations and insurance companies. They all should be allowed to fail. The economy is stronger when losers are not propped up by the government.

Many large companies are failing. But the largest can not fail. If the fail, they take entire industries or vast swaths of jobs and revenues with them, massively deepening and compounding the recession (quickly turning it into our deepest depression). In the future, we must never let corporations get so big that their failure will be tantamount to our national economy failing. We must be like Teddy Roosevelt: trust-busters.

Be careful about a "soak the rich" tax policy. There are not that many rich to close the deficit gap in this country. The middle class is going to end up paying for all of this.

The rich could pay for all this. That's what happened after WW2 and our national debt was higher than it is now. It was also the most provident time in American history. It created a massive middle-class. It turned the United States into a superpower over night.

The sad thing is the bill is going to be paid by those not even born yet. What a mess.

The stimulus money is absolutely the right thing to do. The economic fall-out of inaction would be far greater, far-costlier and last far longer, exerting an even greater toll on future Americans. But there are still many lessons to take from where we are today. Economic conservativism- transfering wealth from the middle-class to the rich, and economic de-regulation- has massively fucked up our country. And we can't allow this to happen again.

Washington is seriously broken.

Washington is more "fixed" today than it has been in the past 35 years. A lot of action and solutions are being enacted to problems ranging from economic to social to foreign to domestic to environmental. We're finally in a position where we're solving our problems.

All of them need to be voted out and we need to start over with people who will put country first, before party. I don't think we have ANYONE in Washington that gives a shit about our country's future.

The ultimate judge on whether a politician is putting country first above easy money is where they stand on environmental issues. You'll get a lot more money just polluting the country's land, air and water, and putting forward the legislation for making that happen. But, if you really care about this country and our future citizens, more than even a quick payday, a politican will enact protections on our environment.

Because the New Deal progressivism has created the most prosperous, successful country in the world- the most prosperous, successful middle-class in the world. The Reagan Revolution has massively undermined the health and prosperity of both the middle-class and country as a whole. But this country can work its way back.