by jdmartin » Wed 23 Jan 2013, 12:53:11
If we want to get real, let's face facts: Nearly all politicians at the federal, and most at the state level, are liars. Some would have you believe that if we just cut taxes, or quit deficit spending, the American economy will come back with a roar.
Please. That ship sailed a long time ago.
Obama deficit spends because he has no choice. Neither did Bush. Neither did Clinton, who really didn't have a surplus when you take into account long-term liabilities. When we let our middle-class economy leave for Mexico, China, Vietnam, Laos, India, and a dozen other places, we signed on to either permanent austerity or deficit spending.
Military spending is nothing more than a welfare system for the right wing. We can't cut military spending because most of it - the billions wasted on the Haliburtons not withstanding - pays for personnel. If those personnel weren't paid, they would leave the military and look for non-existent jobs, and become a further drag on domestic spending.
We might as well face facts that government spending - redistribution of dollars - is the only thing keeping the economy going right now. No one - not Obama, not John Boehner, not even Rand Paul - is going to cut spending because it would wreck the economy. And no one is going to prime the pump by recirculating the dollars being held by the global corporatocracy back into the lower classes. Example: when the bank bailout was done. If the government was going to spend the money anyway, to bail out the banks, why not circulate it through as many hands as possible before the banks got it? Provide everyone with a mortgage voucher, good only towards payment of the mortgage. Then the banks end up with the money anyway, and it cancels out a trillion dollars worth of outstanding debt. The bailout was a bad idea, but this would at least make some smittance of sense. Instead, the banks get the money, the top of the corporatocracy creams it off, and everyone else still walks around with trillions of dollars of debt.
There's no way out of this predicament. There's no way the rest of the world can live as good as Americans and Europeans; there just aren't enough resources. So either we remain living good, and the rest of the world goes back to the rice paddy, or we devolve our standard of living to match theirs. I think it's obvious which road we've chosen (and yes, we chose it every time we bought a Wallyworld T-shirt for a buck less than the American shirt).
The only way out of the debt situation is a controlled default. Since we're going to have to default anyway - there's really no question about it - we might as well spend into oblivion. Let's face it: if you were about to declare bankruptcy, and have all your debts washed away, the prudent thing for *you* personally would be to buy as much as you could before walking away. We will do the same in the US because there's no other option. Just try to eliminate food stamps; housing subsidies; unemployment funds - you know, the popular things to get rid of because these people are supposed moochers. The economy will be in total freefall.
If not for my own selfish sense of survival, I'd almost say let them burn the mother down by cutting all spending.
After fueling up their cars, Twyman says they bowed their heads and asked God for cheaper gas.There was no immediate answer, but he says other motorists joined in and the service station owner didn't run them off.
