| Call it lazy blogging if you wish, but this post is certainly going to be a link dump. Don't hesitate to follow any of them, as your own ideas may form and scream for expression on account.
The Lame Duck session of Congress has now begun. In truth, I hate that fowl term. Do these politicians have any less power than they did before Nov. 2nd? Of course not. "Lame Duck" is simply handy perception management, and it appears to be needed now more than ever. Congress will undertake the 'work' of naming post offices and roads, lauding villages which managed to remain solvent for a particular and arbitrary number of years, and otherwise feigning interest in what the American people want. (I used to only refer to the Senate as the Clown Circus, but now that the House appears poised to be the yipping poodle jumping through flaming hoops for the red nosed ones, I think I'll just extend that term to the entire Congress.) What the American people really want is Deficit Reduction. Oh wait, no they don't. Still ...
The only meaningful thing that the Clown Circus has to tackle before the end of the year concerns revenue, the Bush Tax Cuts. What the majority of American people want is to repeal the cuts for the wealthy, or let them all expire. Here's your data. Notice that of non-voters, the highest percentage wanted to repeal all the tax cuts. Make of that what you will, but it's not on the table. That I can guarantee. Something will be done, if only for the political sake of doing something, and the White House/Democrats appear poised to capitulate to Republican demands to extend all the tax cuts. It could be argued that temporarily extending all tax cuts would lead to a future fight over the permanence of just tax cuts for the not-so-wealthy. Uh, no. This strangulation of the government's revenue stream is precisely what is dragging this country to hell, and that most definitely favors the Republicants to further the effort to get well rid of that ... person ... in the White House. The time for the fight is now. That's what the Left wants, and what should be.
However, it can't be done. Lame Ducks are lame, and the Teapublicans run the show. Not.So.Fast. No, they really don't. Not in this session they don't.
As if in evil Kabbalistic confluence of forces, late last week the cat-food Deficit commission released their suggestions for how to screw the middle class while fostering our betters to new heights of financial security. We've dug us a big ole hole of debt, and what is to be done? Well, let's see. Here's an overview, and nobody seems to like this. My opinion, of course, but it seems way too top heavy on cutting and lite by far on revenue. The Republicants love to equate governmental budgeting with family finance. Allow me a relevant anecdote. Every time I have found myself in fiscal trouble (often) I have cut my spending even for essentials, which often makes things worse. I have also struggled to increase revenue. Several times in my life I've held two jobs. I have always, successfully, sought to improve my position through promotion. Notice please how simply that equation works. Cutting expense while, sometimes radically and painfully, increasing productivity. What a marvelously simple thing. Yet that isn't what is 'could be' to the cat-food commission. What they seek is to cut the reward for productivity, while scattering the pain of expense more broadly among those who can least afford it. Well, I'm glad we had this talk.
What will be will be. But I'm not completely disenchanted with fantasy, so let's us see what you'd do. Given that the rich and privileged will do what the rich and privileged do, how would you, given the power, deal with the deficit ... fourth or fifth on the priority list of America as it is? How would you solve our budget crisis? I did it through defense cuts, and increase of revenue. Your turn.
Here's where the real link dump comes. I love MetaFilter. I truly do. And comments like this are why. kluiless offers more compressed knowing than I could ever offer in a post here. Read it, follow the links and tell us what you think. |
