Obama: Krauthammer overlooks key trend

For the record, communism is primarily a political system, while socialism is primarily an economic system. And shame on Charles Krauthammer for conflating the two (column, 2-12). But his real offense is more egregious.

In exercising an almost pathological and chronic animosity towards President Obama, attributing to him the “economic and geopolitical wreckage all around us,” Krauthammer overlooks the trend of the last 30 years, since the introduction of Reagan economics.

In those 30 years, the American middle class has withered, inequality has risen exponentially, with trillions of dollars flowing upward. Student debt has skyrocketed, wages have stagnated, and the American dream is increasingly an uncertain achievable goal.

In other words, the “wreckage” Krauthammer refers to started long before Barack Obama took office. It’s been an ongoing phenomenon for decades and has been exacerbated not by Obama’s policies but the deliberate, calculated obstructionism of the Republican Congress.

How much more could Obama have accomplished with a little bipartisanship and compromise? We can only guess.

But don’t forget George W. Bush’s legacy. His deregulation of Wall Street, the folly of two costly and unnecessary wars and a recession unparalleled in recent memory did nothing to make life appreciably better for millions of us.

Wreckage, indeed!

This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 11:49 AM with the headline "Obama: Krauthammer overlooks key trend."