The Washington Post has an interesting article on why Sweden has recovered from the economic crisis much faster and much more strongly than the US has.

The overarching lesson the Swedes offer is this: When you have a financial crisis, and Sweden had a nasty one in the early 1990s, learn from it. Don’t simply muddle through and hope that growth will eventually return. Rather, address the underlying causes of the crisis to create an economic and financial system that will be more resilient when bad times return.

Are we learning from our financial crisis? On the campaign trail in New Hampshire, GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachman just endorsed a one-year federal income tax moratorium. In other words, no American citizen would pay a dollar in federal tax for a year.

The Boston Globe reports that Bachman has also said that…

As president…her top priority would be improving the economy by cutting government spending and lowering taxes. She said she would reduce corporate taxes, eliminate the capital gains tax, and “put a nail in the coffin of the death tax.”

Given that no one’s having a lot of luck cutting spending in any meaningful way—that darn Medicare, etc.—how exactly would Bachman pay for her massive tax cuts favoring corporations and the wealthy?

Some might argue that Bachman is a GOP extremist, staking out positions to appeal to her Tea Party base. Huh. In other fiscally responsible news, Republicans are threatening to walk out of debt ceiling negotiations because Democrats are insisting on addressing the following issues:

Specifically, the Obama administration was looking at a rule that lets businesses value their inventory at less than they bought it for in order to lower their tax burden, a loophole that lets hedge-fund managers count their income as capital gains and pay a 15 percent marginal tax rate, the tax treatment of private jets, oil and gas subsidies, and a limit on itemized deductions for the wealthy.

So the GOP is going to the mat for tax breaks for hedge fund managers and private jet owners.

How do voters not get the problem here?