In his comments that have attracted wide attention because he said financial reform regulation was like taking a nuclear weapon to an ant, Republican House minority leader John Boehner also noted that today's Democrats "are snuffing out the America that I grew up in."

Boehner was born in November 1949. Let's take a look at the America he grew up in.

In the America John Boehner grew up in, the top marginal tax rate on wealthy earners was 90%. It had gone up there during the war, and five, 10, 15 years after armistice, no sizable group, Democrat or Republican, felt any strong urge to lower it.

In the America John Boehner grew up in, private-sector union membership was around or above 30%. Today's figure is 7%. The right to form a union was broadly accepted. Outside of a few small turbulent pockets, there was no such thing as today's union-busting law firms hired by management to go into workplaces and intimidate workers.

In the America John Boehner grew up in, the country had a president - a Republican president - who believed the following:

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.

Interesting, that mention of unemployment insurance, the week after a "majority" of 40 Republicans in the Senate (plus one Democrat) managed to block the will of 57 Democrats and cut off such benefits for 1.2 million Americans.

In the America John Boehner grew up in, when little Johnny was just starting school in fact, the federal government undertook the largest public works project in the country's history, the interstate highway system. It cost $100 billion dollars, a little more. The feds picked up 90% of the tab, and it was paid largely through dedicated taxes.

In the America John Boehner grew up in, the Republican Party was a moderate-to-conservative party. The modern conservative movement was just coming to life - in Bill Buckley's offices in Manhattan, on the campus of Notre Dame University, in Orange County, California. But many establishment Republicans considered these people a bunch of dangerous kooks.

Obviously these points don't represent the sum and substance of the 1950s, and there were ways in which the period was more conservative than ours. But if Boehner really wants to go back: fine, let's start negotiations.

