Once more on Mitt Romney and his jobs trope: Michael Tomasky writes in his new blog at The Daily Beast apropos conservative efforts to compare apples and oranges, the Bush crash of 2008 and the Reagan recession of 1981-82:

Put it like this. In 1981, the house was on fire. Democrats did a lot of finger-pointing, but at the end of the day, enough of them did help unfurl the hose. In 2009, the house was ablaze again, and the fire was more intense. And Republicans went down to the basement, turned the water off at its source, and sat back hoping to see the flames spread.

President Obama makes the same point, although in a far less blunt fashion, in his newest ad (and also confronts Romney’s silly contention that there is no Obama jobs plan):

Wanna know just how lame Missouri Senatorial contender GOP Rep. Todd Akin (R-2) really is?  Just read his statement on President Obama’s jobs plan:

Instead of repeating the same mistakes that have deepened our financial crises, the President needs to work for real solutions. Unfortunately the President insists on pushing tired, failed, job killing policies – more stimulus, more debt, more taxes and more burdensome regulations.

Your head spinning too? Do you too remember when Republicans led the charge to deregulate financial industries and cut rich men’s taxes, while cheering on expensive, unnecessary wars – right up  until they crashed the economy, leaving the country reeling and deeply in debt? Remind me now – just who is it who’s proposing to deregulate and cut taxes even more, while pulling the safety net out from under a middle class in crisis after the failure of Bush-era policies?  And Akin thinks we’ll believe the results will be different the second time around?

Akin adds:

He [i.e. Obama] should instead work with the Congress to create certainty in our economy, relieve businesses of costly red tape regulations, and let American families keep more of their hard-earned dollars. Only then will America go back to work and our economy recover.

Do I even need to say it? Work with congress? The word “with” is operative here – it implies a two-way street that, in reality, has been blocked by a cadre of true-believers intent on taking our well-being hostage. There is no “with” in play when the outcome is formulated prior to the negotiation, as it is when Akin precludes any solution other than to “relieve businesses of costly red tape regulations, and let American families keep more of their hard-earned dollars,” which translates into deregulate and decrease taxes for the wealthy.

Bear in mind, Akin wants us to send him to the Senate where he can join his fellow GOPers who are fiddling the same, tired tune that he’s playing while the economy burns. Given the stakes, don’t you think he could have managed to come up something a little less rickety to justify the lack of a real GOP alternative to the Obama jobs plan, something more than their fallback program of obstructionism and corporate boot-licking?