Looking at the Trump economy, which is fueled by massive deficits — deficits driven by hyperpartisan legislation, enacted through reconciliation that bypassed the filibuster — makes me think of the tragedy of the inadequate Obama stimulus 1/
Some of us were tearing our hair out over the fact that the stimulus was obviously too small. But Obama and his inner circle insisted that it was inconceivable to use reconciliation to enact something bigger, because norms or something 2/ nytimes.com/2009/01/09/opi…
In the end Obama paid a heavy political price because recovery was too slow thanks to inadequate stimulus; Trump is getting a dividend because nobody, including the bond market, actually cares about budget deficits. 3/
So many bad things have followed from Obama's caution back then. The course of history could have been very different 4/
