David Stockman says his GOP sunk the nation’s economy into the Deep Doo Doo Sea

Just a little while ago I stumbled across this article on MarketWatch.com. I had to stumble upon it because I never read it unless I see a potentially interesting story linked to the site from Google News. Perhaps I should bookmark it or even add it to my blogroll because it has more than once produced great articles about some aspect of the economy or the other.

Rather than my blathering I think it best you read for yourself the story by Paul B. Farrell on how Reagan administration budget wonder boy David Stockman now says the Republican Party has wrecked the economy for the last 40 years. To better grasp what he is saying, first link to and read the rather simple definitions of some essential economic theories in the event they are not familiar: (Go on, it won’t hurt. I promise you.)

Laissez Faire, Keynesian and Supply-Side.

If you happened to read the article first, then I suppose there is no hope for you. Seriously, some economists — especially those who have seen the harm done by their own hands — sometime see only the darkest of the dark.

Secondly, Stockman  touches upon the mega-defense budgets of which President and General of the Army Dwight David Eisenhower saw as part of a “military-industrial complex” that should be kept in check and which is described by the former budget director for Reagan as “war-mongering.”

While Stockman’s description may be apt for some in said complex it certainly shouldn’t be writ large for either the military or the defense industry. Who was it said that “Only fools want to go war?” I don’t know. I did. Just now.

It has been out of necessity and, perhaps at times spurred by a  lack of vision, that the nation has seen its defense posture ebb and flow. It certainly built up for major wars the country fought and then cut back to bare bones. Reagan did advocate the buildup of defense in the post-Vietnam United States, his “600-ship Navy” making more sense to most folks than did “Star Wars.” However, the Navy buildup was not all “build” as ships were kept in commission for a longer life and others were sailed out of mothball such as the battleships Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri and Wisconsin. As for the latter, if you were a sailor and found ships kind of cool as I do you couldn’t help but be glad to see the old battlewagons back at sea.

But the ebb and flow of the nation’s defense seems often too much ebb and not enough flow or vice versa. The balance never seems to be enough. If only there was a way to make that equilibrium a reality, and there might be as I have just been talking out of my a**,  then perhaps we could at least solve the one problem David Stockman (remember him?) says has shot our economy all to hell. Batten down the hatches, full speed ahead and you may fire when you are ready, Gridley! Sweepers, sweepers man your brooms, give the ship a clean sweep down fore and aft. Yeah, something like that!