Is Michelle Bachmann God’s punishment for the US?
Read and ponder this column at TPMDC by Eric Kleefeld:
GOP presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) is now boasting the value of conservative economics, with a tweet noting that Canada’s economy has performed much better than the United States in the global recession, and that it had no stimulus spending.
Just think – a Republican who wants the U.S. to be more like Canada!
One problem: Canada did undertake a major stimulus program.
Bachmann’s campaign tweeted earlier on Monday:
Lesson in economic recovery: Consider Canada. No stimulus & unemployment is 20% lower than US. is.gd/jxebtd #tcot #teaparty#canada
It is true that Canada’s unemployment in May 2011, the most recent month for which data is available, stood at 7.4%, compared to 9.1% in the United States [16% lower than the US, not 20% - LG]. But the absolute fact of the matter is that Canada undertook a thorough stimulus program under Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party — one that was relatively smaller than the one here, but given the apples and oranges situation of having different economic needs, it was still a very considerable one. In addition, it should be explained that even this stimulus was undertaken under some very high-profile political circumstances.
Indeed, this issue was a major cause of a political crisis in late 2008 and early 2009, when the incumbent Conservatives, shortly after an election in which they had only won a plurality of seats in Parliament, put forward a budget that the opposition parties collectively attacked as too stingy. The three opposition parties then threatened to put their differences aside, vote no-confidence in the government, and form their own coalition to replace the Conservatives. Harper survived by successfully dividing the opposition again, chiefly by waging a strong public campaign against the involvement of the left-wing secessionist Bloc Quebecois — and by working out a stimulus package with the leaders of the moderate-progressive Liberal Party. . .
