Pols Say Bad Economy Good For Dems

I see a bad economy, and I start thinking about what can be done to turn it around into economic growth. Apparently, when congressional Democrats see a bad economy, they see an opportunity to get their liberal agenda enacted. In other words, what is bad for the country is good for the Democrats.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/us/politics/25assess.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

The bad economy is good for President Obama and Democrats as they try to reinvent the health care system with scant Republican support.

That is the conclusion of many Congressional Democrats, who say that economic insecurity and high unemployment stoke public support for their proposals to guarantee insurance for millions of Americans.

Representative Jim McDermott, Democrat of Washington, said this was one of the biggest differences between the health care wars of 1993-94 and the battle today. When Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton fought for universal coverage, Mr. McDermott said, the economy was on an upswing, in the early stages of a 10-year economic expansion, which proved to be the longest in American history.

Today, by contrast, the economy is weak. Americans have struggled through the worst recession in decades. The unemployment rate is at a 26-year high.

“The mentality in the country is different,” said Mr. McDermott, a psychiatrist who has served in Congress for two decades. “In 1993, we were talking about the uninsured as ‘them.’ Now it turns out this is for us. When a bank like Washington Mutual in Seattle lays off 3,000 people, they lose health insurance. Millions of people with insurance are asking, ‘What if I lose my job?’ ”

Mr. Obama is doing everything he can to highlight this sense of insecurity as he tries to persuade people with insurance that his proposals would help them. Worries about insurance are “keeping more and more Americans awake at night,” he said last month.

The fate of health legislation may hinge on whether those anxieties trump concerns about the effects of the Democratic proposals. Republicans say “Obamacare” would kill jobs by imposing new taxes and destabilize the employer-based system of insurance on which 170 million Americans depend.

I don’t know if it is wise to trust an idea that needs people to feel frightened and insecure in order to get it passed. The fact that Democrat politicians are trying to make us feel MORE insecure in order to pass their agenda is repulsive enough, but it does raise a thought. Are those same people also taking actions to intentionally make our economy worse in order to get their agenda passed?It’s a question worth asking. What do you think?