If the average worker made gains over the last 8 years. . .

[Cary]

equivalent to the gains made during the Clinton years, would we be having a mortgage crisis?

Why is no one talking about this, and why is the issue being phrased as "helping Main Street?" That sounds like a euphemism to me.

Let's face it. When it comes down to it "conservatives" are intent upon crushing the middle class and transferring wealth to their cronies, and they're winning big time.

[Democrats_win]

1. That's a big point. Big business got a New Deal from bush and we got a Raw deal.

While I waved good-bye to jobs being shipped to china, the housing industry was having a heyday. Now why should they be given such a massive bailout when they had their reward in full over the past 8 years? I'm still having difficulties which will increase due to the inflation caused by this massive rip-off.

[Cary]

2. The more I think about this whole thing, the less I understand it.

Something smells.

[LiberalEsto]

6. We should frame this as The Raw Deal nt

[firedupdem]

3. At 42 years old I am so screwed....

my husband and I both lost jobs in the automotive industry in michigan...we're starting over in a new state with one kid in high school and one in college...savings used to survive and I still haven't found a job yet. These last 8 years have put me in a tail spin. I hate those bastards..they have created 0 new jobs! They have done nothing but take and take. There will be 2 classes of people now poor...and filthy rich.

[Cary]

7. Where is the outrage?

There isn't enough outrage, and I'm sorry for your hardships.

[Booster]

4. If the average worker had actually been working over the last

8 years and paying taxes through payroll tax, we wouldn't be having a mortgage crisis. No jobs, no taxes.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

5. declining wages, lack of good family wage jobs, outsourcing

AND the ridiculous home prices. $500,000 for a single family dwelling, that is supposed to sold to a middle class family? 40 year interest only mortgages? Executive pay in the millions for failure? When the powers that be in Washington start talking about the real issues at the root of the meltdown, I will start considering a bailout, until then, not only no, but hell no.

[IrateCitizen]

8. Clinton was also 8 years ago, when oil was less than $10 per barrel

Personally, I think our problems go back to the 1980 election, and every president since has been complicit -- INCLUDING Clinton.

When Dick Cheney said, "The American way of life is non-negotiable," he wasn't saying anything new. Ever since we as a nation derided Jimmy Carter's "malaise" and instead embraced Ronald Reagan's "morning in America," maintaining an ever-expanding standard of living won out as national policy over honestly dealing with our (then) coming energy and ecological issues.

I don't think that Clinton's economic plans had much to do with the "success" of the economy by government-measured indicators. Rather, I think it was that he happened to be in office during a global oil glut -- the last party before the age of petroleum scarcity began to set in. Remember -- most of his economic policy was driven by Robert Rubin. Furthermore, the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act occurred under his watch, and a lot of the current mess we're in was a result, in some measure, from that repeal.

Reality is what will probably "crush" the middle class, at least as we've come to know it. That reality is asserting itself in the form of peak oil, exponentially-growing national debt, ecological crises (climate change, water shortages, falling grain production) -- all at the same time. The Democrats can't -- nor will -- do very much to change all of that. To do so would mean first questioning the "American way of life" -- and no current politician is going to do that right now, because there is no critical mass of the public doing so.

Just look at the bailout right now -- instead of dealing seriously with our current debt issues which are undermining our economy, we are talking about adding even more debt to the system. I just can't see how more of what hasn't worked is going to make things better.

Personally, I've resigned myself to the idea that my life over the next 25 years is going to become a lot more like my grandparents' life instead of "more" of what we've come to expect over the last 25.

[Warpy]

9. They want us to keep falling for that tax cut boilerplate

even when anyone who's paid attention knows that every nickel they've tossed at the middle class has resulted in a thirty cent hike at the state and local level.

People only started to do better during the last 2 years or so of Clinton's last term, mostly because unemployment fell to the point that full employment was statistically achieved.

The only thing that will help Main Street is reversing the transfer of wealth from the demand side to the supply side, something Clinton failed to address.