The "Bailout" is a consequence of a collapse in our economy that is 25 years in the making. The real blame for our predicament is the entire "government is the enemy" Republican philosophy which was championed by Ronald Reagan and followed to the nth degree by George Bush. The reality is that the financial

meltdown we are seeing now is the final verdict on that bankrupt philosophy.

I am not aware of a country on earth where widespread prosperity and high quality of life coincides with weak government.  We do not live in a vacuum -- we have the benefit of seeing

examples of government played out around the world. And almost without exception, widespread quality of life is brought by social contracts (through strong democratic government) where the citizenry share responsibility to provide health care, to provide for dignified life for the elderly, to provide a safety net for those who have lost everything, to provide quality public education, to provide a good infrastructure, to protect the environment etc. The verdict is in -- the Reagan revolution was a stunning failure, and we are now harvesting the fruits of that failure.

Our current problems are the long term result of the destruction of the middle class due to a massive redistribution of wealth which Reagan set in motion. Reagan ran through Congress huge cuts in the top marginal tax rates and simultaneously ran up a huge budget deficit with his love of military contract spending. Having

slashed taxes on the wealthy, it was left to the middle class to pay off Reagan's budget deficit. Simultaneously, the government had no money to invest in the type of domestic spending that would have paid dividends for decades to come -- improving teacher pay (which would have recruited better teachers and paid long term dividends in a better educated population), developing our infrastructure (mass transit anyone?), and moving toward some type of universal health care system are just a few examples.

If we hadn't gone down the path of trickle down economics, working people wouldn't have collapsed financially so far so fast -- leaving so

many foreclosures -- at the first sign of trouble in the economy.

That's what started these dominos falling.

It's the final verdict on the complete failure of the

Republican philosophy of weak government and unbridled corporate greed. Basically the flip side of the new deal -- which brought growth and prosperity to the middle class for 60 years until the effects of the Reagan revolution starting unraveling the benefits brought by FDR.

To my Republican friends who disagree -- take a look at the other 300 or so countries on earth.  We are not alone.  Which ones with a weak central government are prosperous for a majority of their population?  Now look at the countries with a strong democratic central government and strong national programs for education, health care, workers benefits, infrastructure, pensions, energy, economic development etc.  How are the citizens of these countries doing in relative terms and in terms of quality of life for the majority of people?

Anyone who wants to disagree with me needs to name the examples with specificity.  Don't give me clichés or generalized propaganda.  Be specific. 

By the way, don't bother blaming Clinton, whose government did well in spite of what Reagan started (and what Bush finished).  The effects of these policies take 20-25 years to fully realize.  The kids that are getting a good education when they are 10 are doing well or not 25 years later. 

The new deal that was pushed through in the 30's brought huge growth in the middle class in the 50's and onward, until the Reagan/Bush policies eventually took their toll by gutting the middle class. 

The Republicans fought like hell against the new deal policies that created that middle class - social security, medicare, workers' benefits, college aid.  Fortunately, FDR was able to push those social contract policies through and the long-term result was the creation of a middle class our country had never seen before - a large class of people that owned homes, had money to send their kids to college, had comfortable retirements.

But now, the Republicans have had the keys to the government in the form of holding the White House for 20 out of the past 28 years, and it's their appointees that have dominated the federal courts, the Treasury Department, the Justice Department, the FCC, the FDA etc. since 1980. 

What we are seeing now -- the bankruptcy of the entire working class and much of the middle class (most middle income people are now in the red on the balance sheet unless they have had substantial inheritance) -- has been a 20-25 year process, in the same way the new deal didn't create a large middle class overnight.

Reagan famously claimed that government was the problem.  He started in motion two things -  1) tax policies (massive reduction in the top marginal rates) which pushed us toward a huge redistribution in wealth toward the top 5 percent, and 2) massive deregulation, which included gutting antitrust enforcement, which over time led to industry consolidation and the type of monopoly/oligarchy capitalism we enjoyed 100 years ago, when the country had a small aristocracy of wealthy people that owned everything and a huge class of peasants that owned nothing.   

Again, if you disagree with my basic theory, give me examples from the rest of the world.  Let's hear about the prosperous, "government stay out of the way" countries and contrast them with the social democracies of Europe, of Canada, of Australia and New Zealand, of Israel.  Be specific.

The need for the "Bailout" is the result of a bankrupt Reagan/Bush "government is the enemy" philosophy.  We better put that philosophy behind us or we'll turn the clock back to 1920, when we had a few wealthy aristocrats and lots of uneducated peasants.