I’m No Expert…

I have to hand it to the GOP; They’re the best marketers. They can even make the super wealthy sound like “victims.” Yes those poor super wealthy, who control more wealth than the bottom 50% of American households (~150 million people). How dare we ask them to asked to help their country’s debt crisis. How dare we ask them to pay a little more, or at least pay something  in taxes. According to the GOP, America has crossed the line and it’s nothing more than “Class Warfare.” And they should know.

The GOP continues to try to block legislation to continue unemployment benefits for the 14 million Americans, what do you call that? The GOP is working hard  to cut Medicaid and Medicare spending that will take away life lines to the middle class and poor, what to you call that? And  Republican-led state legislatures favor legislation to end collective bargaining for tens of thousands of public workers. Well what do you call that? I call it Class Warfare, it has been going on for years, and for the most part the GOP has been winning! Unfortunately nobody seems to notice. Maybe we need a slogan or sound byte for people to take notice.

We can call the GOP “The anti-Robin Hood Party”. They take from the poor and give to the rich. Not catchy but true!

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The current debt cieling debate is in turmoil. Worse it resembels stubborn children trying to solve a problem on their own. What Congress has forgotten is there is a reason, we have a two party system with checks and balances. It’s so the views or all Americans are included, not just a stubborn few. The minority of ultra conservatives don’t seem to recognize, that they are not representing the majority of Americans. Their ideas will never pass without including ideas of the opposition. That is our system and why it was set up that way.

Instead Tea Party members and other conservative Republicans sit with their arms folded just saying no. They may have come to Washington with a vision, but its clearly not a vision of democracy.

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I don’t know about you, but I find these budget deficit talks infuriating. In negotiations you have to give as well as take. Not just take a stance and completely refuse to budge.

Huge spending cuts appear to be on the table. But you don’t need to be  a Nobel laureate in economics to know that “revenue increases” are an essential part of the solution. However Republicans have painted themselves into a corner by signing a pledge years ago not to raise taxes. That pledge was signed at a time when the country was not in such a desperate financial situation. Times change, conditions change, unfortunately the Republican’s position has not. I fear that the county may default on its debt.

Should the country default, the President said social security checks may not go out. The first thing that should not go out are paychecks to Congress and the Senate. Along with health benefits and expenses being stopped until the country can again pay its debts.

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You may not be following all the news, but Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell has been causing a lot of stir. Mainly due to claims from Republicans and Democrats that she’s unqualified to hold the post. That besides her dabbling in witchcraft and not becoming a “Hare Krishna” because she loves meatballs (“the God’s hones truth”).

However, in a sole short interview, she was able to elicit the Republican economic position and show that has the same effect as the Democrat. O’Donnell correctly states that with tax cuts “…you’re putting money back into the private citizens who then go and start businesses and create jobs based on the private sector not government spending.” But the deficit continues because you have cut revenue to the government. The Democrat’s spending programs also put “money back into the private citizens.” So the outcome is the same. One difference is the the “private citizens” who get most of the money with the Republicans are the top 2% of the Wealthiest Americans.

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The stimulus packages passed in 2009 and being proposed now are good ideas but fall short in really moving the country forward. When Roosevelt created the New Deal to get the country out of the depression, the money was spent on creating highways, bridges and dams to name a few. The difference between then and today’s stimulus proposals is that the roads, bridges, and dams created by the New Deal did not exist before. These new interstate highways paved the way for growth in industries such as trucking and overall coast-to-coast commerce in general. What’s more, projects like the Hoover dam created huge energy supply for new growth in the west. Today’s stimulus, simply fixes the status quo, nothing new is created and new industries for the future are not simulated.  Instead we may be better served if today’s stimulus focused on renewable energy projects. This would create millions of long-term jobs, providing needed energy for growth while at the same time increasing the country’s energy security.

Tags: Economy, Energy // 2 Comments »

As reported in the NY Times, “Medicare will remain financially solvent for 12 additional years, until 2029, because of the cost-cutting measures in President Obama’s recently enacted health care legislation, the program’s trustees projected on Thursday.”

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In 2002, the year after the Congress passed the Bush Tax Cuts, William G. Gale, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, concluded “We estimate that the tax cut will not raise long-term growth, but it will raise burdens on future generations.” Today he debunks five common myths about what extending the Bush tax cuts would accomplish:

1. Extending the Bush tax cuts would stimulate the economy.
2. Allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire would hurt small businesses.
3. Making the Bush tax cuts permanent would facilitate long-term growth.
4. The Bush tax cuts are the main cause of the budget deficit.
5. Entitlements, not the Bush tax cuts, are the obstacle to long-term fiscal health.

Why does Gale maintain these are myths? Read More

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 Former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman, one of the founders of “Trickle-down economics” writes an insightful editorial in the NY Times. If you ever thought the Republican economic approach of tax-cut, tax-cut, and more tax-cuts was just self-serving smoke and mirrors, David Stockman seems to confirm it. Below are a few key quotes, but this editorial “Four Deformations of the Apocalypse” is a must read.

“If there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing.”

“But the new catechism, as practiced by Republican policymakers for decades now, has amounted to little more than money printing and deficit finance — vulgar Keynesianism robed in the ideological vestments of the prosperous classes.”

“Through the 1984 election, the old guard earnestly tried to control the deficit, rolling back about 40 percent of the original Reagan tax cuts. But when, in the following years, the Federal Reserve chairman, Paul Volcker, finally crushed inflation, enabling a solid economic rebound, the new tax-cutters not only claimed victory for their supply-side strategy but hooked Republicans for good on the delusion that the economy will outgrow the deficit if plied with enough tax cuts.”

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I have to hand it to the Republicans, with slight of hand and misdirection they have all but convinced America the deficit was caused by the Democrats and President Obama. But this is not the first time they misdirected the attention of the American people:

“Democrats were quick to point out that President Bush’s budget creates a 1 trillion dollar deficit. The White House quickly responded with ‘Hey, look over there, it’s Saddam Hussein.’”
– Craig Kilborn, April 2003

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The Republicans have always had an uncanny ability to fool the American people and here we go again. Well they are at is again. In July,22 NY Times, Paul Krugman’s insight into the Republican’s new campaign to rewrite history and cleanse Bush policies of having anything to do with the current ec0nomic mess will have consquences if the American people fall for it again. Don’t miss this important read!!

 “Republicans aren’t trying to rescue George W. Bush’s reputation for sentimental reasons; they’re trying to clear the way for a return to Bush policies. And this carries a message for anyone hoping that the next time Republicans are in power, they’ll behave differently. If you believe that they’ve learned something — say, about fiscal prudence or the importance of effective regulation — you’re kidding yourself. You might as well face it: they’re addicted to Bush.”

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