Worse and worser

The choice facing Republican voters in their presidential primaries this year don't seem like much of a choice at all: The Donald vs. Anybody Else -- and Anybody Else is losing ground fast. Donald Trump is already projecting an air of inevitability like the crack of doom. Or at least the crackup of the once Grand Old Party, which is looking less grand all the time.

The choice facing Democrats would seem dismal, too: Hillary Rodham Clinton or Bernie Sanders, aka Worse and Worser.

Consider: Her "new ideas" boil down to the oldest when a country finds itself in trouble. Just inflate the economy. And she's still defending what may be the worst idea of the century: Obamacare, a mandatory tax in the guise of health insurance. Oh, yes, she's also for taxing corporations on their profits abroad, which is a good way to export American jobs there, too.

Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders is doing what he can to outbid Miss Hillary in the Bad Ideas department. An old-fashioned protectionist, he would stifle international trade the same way the Smoot-Hawley tariffs did in the 1930s, setting the stage for the Great Depression.

Here's a better idea: How about just leaving the American economy well enough alone, and letting it continue its steady recovery without interference?

Payrolls were up by 242,000 last month even while unemployment held steady at 4.9 percent. Why not just do nothing and do it well? Instead of fiddling with it? Which may be good advice for private investors, too.

Note what Jason Zweig, the Wall Street Journal's investment guru, had to say the other day: American workers can now invest safely for their retirement with their hands tied behind their backs, never having to make another decision in their lives. And many do.

Let's just say the real loser in this year's presidential race is becoming clearer all the time: the American people.

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Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer-winning editorial page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.