Admit 'trickle-down' theory hasn't worked

I find mildly amusing the recent editorials that complain there is too much "Bush bashing" in current politics. These editorials typically advocate a return to more of the same old "trickle-down" economic policies that got us in to our current economic mess.

Have we learned nothing in the last 10 years? The trickle-down economic policies of the Bush administration failed miserably. A big part of the recent recession was caused by putting ideology before common sense. When Dick Cheney quoted Ronald Reagan in 2004 and told us that "deficits don't matter," we should have all screamed back at him and said "yes, they do." Our current economic problems have all been exacerbated by trusting the ideology of trickle-down economics and deficit spending while common sense told us this was wrong.

Likewise, we should all acknowledge that the Reagan principle of "deregulation" has been hijacked in recent years by unscrupulous business interests. I don't believe Reagan ever intended for his deregulation principles to be used to justify exotic mortgages or hedge funds and derivative trading scandals or corporate greed, and so much more that we have seen empowered by the Bush administration. Deregulation was intended to simplify. Even Reagan said "trust but verify."

Does anyone not know that the mortgage industry meltdown was born of deregulation? There is a proposal being put forward by Elizabeth Warren, the Obama appointee to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to simplify the consumer credit card contract. Credit card contracts should be no more than two pages long, simple and transparent, and with a minimum of legal jargon.

I would submit that this proposal is exactly what Ronald Reagan meant by deregulation. Yet the current Republicans, supported by big business, have basically declared war on these deregulation efforts. Why do you suppose that is?

Phil Graf

Rolling Meadows