Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank provides Exhibit A of New Normal thinking:
Now, after a long economic winter, green shoots are everywhere: The stock market is booming, housing prices are rebounding and mortgage providers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, long demonized by Republicans, are returning profits to the Treasury. Job growth has accelerated and consumer confidence has reached its highest level in almost six years. Health-care cost increases are slowing, Medicare’s prospects are improving — in part because of President Obama’s health-care reforms — and gasoline prices are forecast to decline. Long-term fiscal problems remain, but the federal deficit is shrinking, putting off Washington’s debt-ceiling standoff until late fall .
And thus, Milbank concludes, 2013 Republicans are in the same pickle at those in 1999, complaining about White House scandals (Lewinsky them, IRS now) as the economy booms. Except the economy is nowhere near booming, not even at Bush levels much less Clinton levels. At National Review Online, I ticked over a slew of reasons why as we begin the fifth year of the economic recovery, things should be much better:
(Excerpt) Read more at aei-ideas.org ...
