Richard Shelby (R-AL) was quoted yesterday as saying that the Obama administration's stimulus plan would lead to disaster. This in stark contrast to the GOP's support, 16 years ago, for the Clinton administration's budget resolution.
Oh, wait. That legislation passed without a single Republican vote. Then, as now, Republicans ran to the media insisting that the legislation would lead to disaster.
And how right they were.
It led to two disasters. First, it cost a number of courageous Democatric representatives their seats in the 1994 midterm elections. And, perhaps as a result, the phrase "courageous Democatic representatives" is no longer in use.
Second, by creating realistic scenarios of budget surpluses well into this century, it led the electorate to care so little about the need for intelligence and judgment in political leadership that George W. Bush got enough votes to steal the 2000 election.
On the other hand, it didn't lead to the sort of economic disaster that the Republicans were predicting. That's probably because the difference between a top marginal rate of 35% and one of 39% does not reduce economic activity much more than imposition of an estate tax reduces dying.
I wonder how long it will take the Daily Kos community to come up with what Richard Shelby was saying back in 1993 about a new Democratic administration's economic agenda. I also wonder if we'll ever live in a land in which it will matter sufficiently whether people have been right or wrong in the past.