Mr. Hunt must think everyone has a short memory. I remember there was this fiscal stimulus in January 2009 that temporarily halted the economy's free-fall.

Then Republicans during the mid-term election won by pounding the President for working on health care rather than jobs.

Did the new Republican majority in the house of representatives worry about jobs? Ha, no, these Republicans began making demands for government budget cuts through threats to default on the nation's debt (twice) and shutting down the government (once).

Now four years into the recovery government spending has been reduced as a result of house Republican demands for budget cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. As a result public sector employment has dropped resulting in an increased drag on the economy.

We're talking about a serious drag on employment because if the public sector cuts a job then the private sector has to add two jobs before the economy adds one.

State and local government job losses could have been reduced with federal assistance, but President Obama's proposals were blocked by Republicans in congress.

Furthermore, 11 states where Republicans won the 2010-mid-term elections and took control of the state legislatures account for nearly half of public sector job loss, gleefully laying off teachers, police, and firefighters.

What is clear to anyone with modicum of memory is that policies of Republicans at the federal level and in states where Republicans control the legislature are the "disaster" hampering President Obama's stewardship of the economy.

(Thanks for the citrus tip, though. My poor lemon tree looks sad, but I'll leave it as is until March.)

Tim: it is quite obvious that the problem with the economic recovery is Not that the government has done too much, but that it has not done enough. History will reflect that the Obamans bought too deeply into the GOP austerity orthodoxy, and cut spending at precisely the wrong time. Europe is repeating that error, and is sliding back into recession (which also makes things worse here).

The Recovery started off pretty well with the help of the Stimulus, and then stalled, due to insufficient demand, and has stayed stalled, because the middle class no longer generates sufficient buying power that constitutes demand, and the Upper Enders simply cannot spend lavishly enough to take up the slack.

Further, and akin to the GOP responses on Tuesday evening, all you do is complain, and caricaturize, and vaguely claim to have "ideas." There is no cogent plan, just catchphrases like "let the marketplace flourish." It's wrong-headed, ill-timed and unhelpful.

In addition to a rather conspicuous paucity of ideas, the man's writing is atrocious. And get this, people: he's PAID to contribute these ongoing messes he calls ideas. He's a real exemplar of the private sector which is where we're supposed to find so much competence versus what we find in the public sector.

Look at the first sentence of his insipid screed on Obama. My kid's grade school teacher wouldn't even know where to begin. A newspaper man. Right. Private sector. Right. What a joke.

Let the free market flourish. Yeah, right. Like Bush let it flourish. No ideas from this guy, and no apparent ability to gauge the significance of a fact. But, hey, if he can't handle a simple sentence how is he supposed to ponder the historical causes of the country's recent recession? No, my question was meant to be rhetorical. Surely no one would want to take the question seriously.