There is no doubt what should be done in the debt and budget problems.
We should be raising taxes on the very wealthy, insuring that multi-billion dollar corporations actually pay taxes and widening Medicare eligibility to bring in users who don't need as many medical services as seniors. At the same time there should be a $100 billion a year infrastructure program to help create thousands of jobs and rebuild this country's physical plant.
Well, that isn't going to happen. However, we really need to stop the overbearing hand wringing at the what we are likely to get. It does not serve us at all.
I was wondering last night, what would be going on if there was a Democratic House. There would have been passage of a clean debt ceiling raise with little fuss at all. The Senate would have had a filibuster or two, but there are still enough Republican senators who would know better, voted for cloture and it would have passed their too.
Unfortunately, that is not the case. The entire nation is being held hostage by the lunatics that is the GOP Caucus in the House.
What they really want is absolute armageddon. They would love to see Medicare go down the Ryan Road to privatization. They would love to see Social Security go to Wall Street. And even if they got that, at the last moment, they'd tie the debt ceiling to abortion rights or something like that.
So, what's a Democrat to do?
Well, the President decided to dare them. He became a bigger deficit cutter then they ever really want to be. He'd cut programs, but he also would raise taxes on the wealthy. He knew they wouldn't bite because they are so beholden to their anti-tax pledges.
In the end, a bill has to get passed and more than likely it looks like Harry Reid will be the writer of it. It doesn't sound good on the surface, but dig and it may not be all that bad.
Reports are that it is $2.7 trillion in cuts and no tax changes. How do you do that with killing everyone? Well, simple actually- end the wars.
Take the wars out the budget by setting concrete timelines of withdrawal and the CBO cuts the money out the future budget projections. For our actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, that amounts to $1.2 trillion. Add to that the interest saved over ten years, and you have another almost $300 billion.
So, for everything trillion we save over ten years, we also save about $250 billion in interest. Great.
So, to get the other $1.2 trillion, we need to find about $950 billion in actual cuts... $95 billion a year. A defense program or two, some slicing around the edges of certain Medicare spending (like the dual testing that a lot of doctors have been doing, and other inefficiencies in the the program, and finding a $100 billion to cut shouldn't be all that hard or painful.
Yet, all I seem to see on this site is diary after diary of the caving of the President, of the Democratic party, and so on and so on. It really is getting tiring.
Worse yet, what effect does that have on next year?
Haven't we learned our lesson yet? Was 2010 not enough?
The reason we have an insane asylum for a Congress is not because the country is so taken with the Tea Party lunatics, the reason is because so many people were so angry at the Democrats and the President for not being FDR and his 73rd Congress that they just stayed home and didn't vote.
Awesome. That worked so well. That really showed them.
Just like all the morons who voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 because they believed his bullshit about no difference between Bush and Gore. (And if you were one of those people, and are insulted... tough shit. Imagine the last ten years if Gore had been President from 2001 to 2009. Go ask the families of the 4000+ killed in Iraq.)
So here we are again... still bitching because we have to be the adults and do things we do not like even if the deal is at least half smoke and mirrors. Criticism is fine, it is welcome, but it also needs to be constructive. What I've been reading around these parts isn't just not constructive, I see it as destructive.
Really want to effect change? Really want that WPA for the 21st Century?
Stop the fucking bitching and whining and get out and vote for Democrats. Yes, the more progressive the better. But keeping whining and threatening not to vote or to get a primary challenge to Obama... might as well just hand the Senate and the White House over the Tea Party.
The choice is ours- we get out over the next 16 months and re-elect this President (because honestly, unless he decides not to run, he's our only choice) and to take back the House and win a some additional seats in the Senate. The other choice, bitch, whine, and stay home... and the Bush years will seem quaint when compared to President Bachmann or even Romney and Majority Leader McConnell or DeMint and Speaker Cantor.