All too predictable

Conservatives like Brownback see capitalism as a sacred, supernatural force and believe that their angry market God requires human sacrifice in order to be appeased. When the suffering abates, as it always does eventually, they will feel sanctified and emerge with their beliefs in suffering (for others) as a purification ritual intact. "See, I told you it would work!"

I think we need to find a way to deal with that cycle of credit and blame before we will ever be able to deal with the larger cycles of capitalism in any rational way. Somebody's got to inform the human sacrifices that these high priests of capitalism are charlatans.

Grover Norquist would like Republicans to shut up about how bad the economy is, and instead take credit for the recovery.

The prominent anti-tax crusader hasn't turned into a bullhorn for President Barack Obama's economic policies; he still thinks they're a drag on jobs and wages. But he's also grown critical of his fellow Republicans for making poor strategic and messaging decisions on several key issues. Rather than tying the economic recovery to spending cuts ushered in by the sequester and to the continuation of 85 percent of the Bush tax cuts, he said, some in the party have insisted their own leaders fumbled those items.