Chuck Schumer: Focus on Obamacare was wrong.

[AggregateDemand]

Schumer trying to get off the naughty list for Christmas. That's something to be thankful for.

He's right, but I wonder why it took 6 years of electoral beat down for him to say something publicly. Everything hinged on lower class and lower-middle class rejuvenation after 2008. Unfortunately, it was clear that Democrats could not achieve consensus within their own ranks as to how healthcare would be used to further a populist economic agenda. Rather than abandon a loser and search for another way to make the middle class strong, they fought amongst themselves, and wasted a year on a bad bill that wasn't going to work.

For the life of me, I'll never understand why the Democratic Party is stuck on stupid. They get shellacked by Reagan, but they don't change. They inherit power again after the Great Recession, only to commence with their ineffective social rabble rousing.

Democrats who think their party is actually going to create competent productive policy are about as smart as Republicans who think their party is going to cut spending.

[AggregateDemand]

I see it differently. They changed their economic strategy - they just adopted what I like to call Diet Reaganomics.

Left-leaning neoliberal bureaucrats within the Democratic Party are like unicorns. They certainly aren't the driving force. How many years has Baucus been pushing income tax reform without any traction in his own party?

Furthermore, they didn't adopt a Republican policy for ACA. Insurance is inherently socialistic, and the way the policy externalizes costs and the amount of cost the policy externalizes determines the nature of the insurance program. Saying that ACA and 1990s Republican healthcare are the same concept is like saying the Cruze is the same as a Silverado because they both have a bowtie badge on the front.

[AggregateDemand]

Here's some interesting critique of the stimulus package: it was primarily focused on funding social programs (health care, education, unemployment benefits, food stamps, and other social services) instead of "shovel-ready" jobs in infrastructure, construction, and manufacturing that the administration sold it on.

In fact, only 15% of the $360 billion in spending was spent on actual infrastructure projects ($425 billion was tax cuts). That's $54 billion to be divided amongst 50 states + DC.

I guess that's also a possible reason why Obama and the Dems haven't done so well amongst working class whites as well, because they relied on those jobs while stimulus funds went to sectors in the service economy that benefited Democratic groups. Of course, that's just speculation.

This article comes off as anti-feminist, but if you can put that aside it does make some good points: http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/659dkrod.asp?page=2

Democrats are incapable of comparing handouts and entitlements to employment. They can only compare handouts and entitlements to abject poverty........which, ironically, is often the result of excessive, poorly-conceived anti-poverty spending in the modern era. As if pointless beat-down of the lower-classes was not enough, Democrats have conjured a fantastic conspiracy theory about Republicans intentionally dismantling America for corporate gain.

The House of Cards will collapse upon itself eventually. Maybe it already has.