GOP Must Rethink 'Totally Misguided' Stance: Brooks

The Republican response to the fiscal crisis is “totally misguided,” David Brooks writes in the New York Times. Republicans are opposing everything out of a belated sense of fiscal discipline, “at the one moment in the past 70 years when it is completely inappropriate,” he sighs. “If Republicans wanted to do the country some good, they’d take the economic crisis more seriously than the Democrats.”

“Republicans could argue that it’s Nero-esque for Democrats to be plotting extensive renovations when the house is on fire,” Brooks suggests. They could offer a realistic assessment of capitalism, and ditch their populist talk about letting Citigroup fail. Then, they could devise ideas to prop up wealth-generating industries. But does Brooks expect such a grand turnaround? “Not really.” (More David Brooks stories.)