There is a great disconnect about the stimulus bill. Understandably Obama, in pushing for it, made the argument that the last eight years got us into this mess. So why, he asks, are his critics calling for more of the same? But are they really?

The weird thing is that economy got over-stimulated with massive deficits, cheap Chinese capital, low interest rates, inflated houses, and climbing food and fuel costs. The stimulus medicine is sort of like telling an exhausted sprinter that collapses after being unable to keep up the unrealistically fast pace that his cure is to get up immediately and try excessive sprinting again.

In short, things are upside down: The conservatives are mad that Bush over-spent, and suddenly when out of power want to restore fiscal sanity, while Obama says that the Bush borrowing brought on this mess and must be addressed by more borrowing. What is what? Conservatives suddenly are once again fiscal purists when out of power? Liberals blame Bush for reckless Keynesian spending and want to cure it by more of the same?

Few tell the truth: The conservatives should say ’Mea culpa–our deficit spending and borrowing helped to get us into this mess, so we’ve seen the error of our ways, and want you liberals not to repeat our mistakes.’ And the liberals should say, ‘Bush on the budget was one of us in borrowing and spending and priming, so we can’t really trash the last eight years since we’re now advocating more of the same.’