John Boehner's Fantasy World

In an interview in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) opines Democrats are "snuffing out the America (he) grew up in."

Well, let's look at that America.

Boehner was born in 1949, so say by "growing up" he means the time between his First Communion at age eight and his marriage at 24. Now it may have been sweet to have a father who owned a prosperous suburban restaurant, graduate from a private, all-male, segregated, college preparatory academy, avoid the draft by enlisting in the Navy and, only six weeks after the induction physical, be honorably discharged by miraculously developing nonspecific back problems, go home to marry your college sweetheart and live tan ever after, but for the rest of America 1957 to 1975 looked more like this:

At the Cold War height -- if things weren't dicey enough -- the Soviets launch Sputnik igniting the space race, the U.S. develops the first ICBM upping the Mutually Assured Destruction ante and the two come close to obliterating the world during the Bay of Pigs fiasco and Cuban Missile Crisis.

JFK is assassinated; LBJ uses the Gulf of Tonkin incident to escalate the war in Vietnam; in the South, Black churches are torched and civil rights workers murdered; African Americans, Native Americans, Chicano farm workers, feminists, gays and the disabled are discriminated against by their own government.

Anti-war protesters are beaten in Chicago and killed at Kent State; the U.S. invades Cambodia; President Nixon resigns under threat of impeachment for the Watergate cover-up; The U.S. capitulates in Southeast Asia but only after fifty-nine thousand Americans are killed and 154,000 wounded.

So! this is the America Democrats are "snuffing out"? Probably not a bad idea.

Of course there was more to America than that: A prosperous working class -- propelled by expanding union membership -- could afford a house, car and college for the kids on one income instead of barely surviving on two-income McJobs.

The economy was growing by an average of 5.1 percent per year; real median household income rose 1.6 percent a year and inflation stood at less than 2 percent for most of the period. All of this with a top tax rate of 70 to 87 percent! In 1968, U.S. debt was $909 billion or 33.3 percent of GDP.

Since 1973, economic growth has averaged only 2.7 percent a year and living standards are nearly stagnant with household incomes increasing by only 0.3 percent annually. By 2008 debt was $13.7 trillion or 83.5% of GDP courtesy of a top tax rate of 35 percent.

Oh yeah. Since 1972, Republicans have held the presidency for 24 of the last 38 years. So just what the @#%^&* is Boehner talking about.