The Michigan model, PolitiFact's lie of the year

THIS is the political reality
"The whole country is now seeing the story that Michigan has been living with for a long time," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. "We have kicked the can so far down the road that now all we have is a cliff to fall off."
"The recession merely revealed a reality that has been with us for a long time. We faced a growing gap in education and skills that we tried to fill with debt and credit, which gave us the illusion of growth."
After World War Two, unskilled blue-collar jobs in manufacturing -- typified and in many ways defined by the auto sector -- became America's easy path to the middle class. As U.S. manufacturing declined, starting in the 1980s Congress and successive administrations focused instead on the financial sector and relied on debt -- its own and that of the U.S. consumer -- to foster economic growth.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BF28720101216?pageNumber=1

It's a sad state of affairs that is only continued by bankrupt political strategies bent on keeping politicians in power not in politicians bending their shoulders to reversing the problems. And this action to pass the tax cut bill is just more of the same.

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Like sheep to slaughter—why democracy doesn’t work
The Founders were thinkers and writers AND activists who thought their small country would be filled with people like them. The Republicans now know better.
In the spring of 2009, a Republican strategist settled on a brilliant and powerful attack line for President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to overhaul America's health insurance system. Frank Luntz, a consultant famous for his phraseology, urged GOP leaders to call it a "government takeover."

"Takeovers are like coups," Luntz wrote in a 28-page memo. "They both lead to dictators and a loss of freedom."

The line stuck. By the time the health care bill was headed toward passage in early 2010, Obama and congressional Democrats had sanded down their program, dropping the "public option" concept that was derided as too much government intrusion.
http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/dec/16/lie-year-government-takeover-health-care/