Krugman: Don't Cry For Reagan

Today's NY Times opinion by Paul Krugman (password protected by TimesSelect unfortunately) is very telling of the modern conservative movement. He states that as conservatives long for the good ol' Reagan days, the realization is that given the chance, Reagan would have been what Bush is, had it not been for a Democratically controlled Congress.

Krugman quotes Johnathan Cohn's 1993 American Prospect article, in which "Changing just a few words in that article makes it read as if it were written in 2007."

KRUGMAN: "Thus, Mr. Cohn described how the Interior Department had been packed with opponents of environmental protection, who 'presided over a massive sell-off of federal lands to industry and developers' that 'deprived the department of several billion dollars in annual revenue.' Oil leases, anyone?

Meanwhile, privatization had run amok, because 'the ranks of public officials necessary to supervise contractors have been so thinned that the putative gains of contracting out have evaporated. Agencies have been left with the worst of both worlds — demoralized and disorganized public officials and unaccountable private contractors.' Holy Halliburton!"

Modern conservatism isn't what the party of Eisenhower once was, and that is what is misleading those who misunderstand the definition of conservatism. What you're seeing now is what could have happened in the 80's, had we not kept the system of checks and balances in place.