The Joint Select “Super Committee” is expected to announce today that they couldn’t do what Congress was unable to do last March. Should ANYBODY be surprised? The major surprise would have been to learn that compromise had been reached, more specifically that the Republicans had allowed it to happen. The outcome was pre-ordained when, in concocting the plan, each party caucus was allowed to pick their representatives for the Committee. You might as well have asked two packs of wolves to equitably split a dead moose. If they had wanted half a chance of succeeding the Republicans should have picked the 6 Democrats for the panel and vice versa.
I absolutely believe, and the anecdotal evidence supports, that the problem is with the Republicans, who determined that they could use this committee, moreover the potential failure of the Committee, as leverage to make the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts permanent. John Kerry in his Meet the Press interview yesterday whined about that fact like a schoolboy complaining that the other kids won’t share the football unless he gives up the key to the candy cupboard - whining has become a forte’ for the Democrats.
The fact of the matter is that for Congressional Republicans, who enjoy the macho, red meat eating, flag saluting, white gridiron image they’ve cultivated, this has become a game. The objective is to lower taxes a la Grover Norquist. All the rest, including discretionary spending, defense, entitlements, regulations, and the size and roll of government is just detail. It could be something played on an Xbox. Instead of Call of Duty, perhaps it might be called Hall of Doodie.
The Republicans want those Bush Tax Cuts made permanent in the worst way, second only to removing Obama as President. They know that once they expire at the end of 2012 they won’t be able to do anything to restore them if Obama is re-elected, even if the Republicans hold both houses of Congress. But I can’t help but ask myself why it was allowed to become an issue in the first place.
I was one of many, perhaps a majority of Americans, who was incensed that Obama allowed the extension of the cuts in November 2010. The Republicans had vowed to block all legislation during the lame duck Congress (the last gasp for the Democrat House majority) if the cuts weren’t extended. Obama caved, using the growth/jobs argument as justification. How did that work out? Further, he agreed to extend the cuts till the end of 2012 placing them at ground zero for the 2012 Presidential election. I thought he must be getting ready to drink the Kool-Aid. Just crazy…or so I thought.
But now look what’s happened. Unless the US economy completely tanks during the summer and fall of 2012, even the status quo gives Obama a good shot at winning - depending on who his opponent is. The election itself will become a National referendum on whole issue of revenue, and the Bush Tax Cuts will be the tangible icon for whichever side you’re on. It will be a crystal clear difference between the two candidates. Obama will absolutely say he will veto any extension and the Republican candidate will be forced to support it. Further, the same will be true for most Senate and House seats. The direction of the economy may be the underlying issue, but the yea or nay on the Bush Tax Cuts will be something that the electorate will actually understand.
Republicans may have felt that being on the side of fewer taxes was a fail-safe position. However, perhaps Obama and his handlers had more insight for what was coming down the road. It seems downright foxy with hindsight. The spotlight on the immense increase in economic inequality, a spotlight that Republicans fondly call Class Warfare, works to the Democrats advantage. If that issue has 10 months of life to it, and it should, the idea of increased taxes for the wealthy will not be hard for the general populous to support. If there is to be a solution to the gridlock in Washington, which the American people can no long stomach, the easiest way for the 99% to deal with it will be to vote the 1% to pony up a few more bucks.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Longing to be Sunk in the Middle
There is an old Lithuanian proverb that says “the older the bed, the closer the couple”. Actually…I just made that up, but old world proverbs – let’s face it - sound better than blogging bromides. The message is a good one nevertheless. Old mattresses worn in the center bring people together and if a couple wants to get some productive sleep they’d better work it out.
There is a construction currently today in America which has built a national mattress with a big lump in the middle. It seems that when too many American’s get into bed they involuntarily roll to one side or the other. It also seems that too many are oblivious to how they got there. Their time is spent primarily on tugging the blankets with those who have rolled to the opposite side.
Once again I’m reminded of one of my conservative friends, retired from business and now a part-time Methodist minister. In political discussions I have had with him, when faced with the inability to answer a point, he falls back on a simple axiom: whatever government does it screws up. He never really expands on what “government” means – Federal, State, Local, homeowners association, or all of the above? Given his fundamental conclusions he finds comfortable consistency from the ravings of (such as) Glenn Beck, who he loves, and therefore is content to be on his side of the bed…although he probably doesn’t get much sleep.
The blanket that he perceives being pulled back and forth is (to him) clearly labeled Capitalism on his side and Socialism on the other. Conservative talk personalities have successfully been able to link as synonymous the terms Liberal and Socialist for their audience, inferring of course that Socialism is just an anagram of the term Communism. They present it as if it was a secret puzzle that is completely obvious for the pure of heart: those pesky liberals are just Communists in disguise. Whipping the blanket to one side goes well beyond practicality. It becomes a duty. Of course it ignores their inherent conclusion that presidents from Washington to Lincoln to Roosevelt to Kennedy to Clinton and even Eisenhower, to a great degree, were all closet Communists.
The radical Right wing Conservatives have been successful in attaching “ism” to the word “social”. In doing so they have made the necessity we all have of coexisting into an economic system that they proclaim is a direct competitor of Capitalism (or its friendly synonym: Free Enterprise).
Free Enterprise is not only the critical underpinning of the American economy, it has proven (to my satisfaction anyway) to be the underpinning of the World’s successful economies and has done so by clear testing – the most recent being the collapse of the Soviet Union’s economic structure. Freedom works, and I have never heard an American economist or politician of any persuasion state anything to the contrary.
However, Republicans would have you believe that our social organization (i.e. Government) is an obstacle to Capitalism. Therein lays my friend’s black and white political/economic philosophy: business good – government bad. Yet it is absurd to think of Capitalism in a utopian fashion. Slavery works just fine in a Capitalistic model, so does child labor, or 70 hour work weeks. The entire concept of a middle class (as we hear used by politicians like it was comprised of nothing but mothers and babies) is not necessary within a capitalistic model for it to be viewed as successful. Poverty generally works against Capitalism as consumption is critical, but losing a fringe of the population to deprivation would be reasonable collateral damage. Today the most blaring example of the weakness of Capitalism is our Health Care System, which (for advanced economies) is the last for-profit Health Care System on the planet and yet the most inefficient and ineffective by a wide margin.
The fact of the matter is with 7 billion people now on this planet, 300 million in this country alone, the merging of Capitalism with social goals requires, like never before, an actively participating government to interact and even modify the direction of free economies. Historians and economists would point out that has always been the case, just never so dire - our last financial crisis case in point. When Ron Paul proclaims that things go wrong whenever Government injects itself into our economy, it resonates with many because it contains some truth. That’s especially true as special interests control legislation. However, his Libertarian conclusion (essentially shared by the Tea Party crowd) that the answer is to move to some kind of free rural economy that resembled those days when he was a lone doctor happily taking “chickens” for his labor and that gold is the answer to financial stability and growth, actually moves us toward chaos. It just isn’t the answer in a world of 7 billion. It makes no more sense than the vilification of business by the 99 percenters.
Government, which regardless what Republicans would have you believe is in fact the People, needs to impose its will to include a common good, not just to protect an individual good. That any politician calls any economic program or policy sacrosanct is reason enough to remove them from office, whether it be taxes or Social Security – throw the ideological bums out. Start with Eric Cantor. When folks roll to the center, one blanket works just fine.
There is a construction currently today in America which has built a national mattress with a big lump in the middle. It seems that when too many American’s get into bed they involuntarily roll to one side or the other. It also seems that too many are oblivious to how they got there. Their time is spent primarily on tugging the blankets with those who have rolled to the opposite side.
Once again I’m reminded of one of my conservative friends, retired from business and now a part-time Methodist minister. In political discussions I have had with him, when faced with the inability to answer a point, he falls back on a simple axiom: whatever government does it screws up. He never really expands on what “government” means – Federal, State, Local, homeowners association, or all of the above? Given his fundamental conclusions he finds comfortable consistency from the ravings of (such as) Glenn Beck, who he loves, and therefore is content to be on his side of the bed…although he probably doesn’t get much sleep.
The blanket that he perceives being pulled back and forth is (to him) clearly labeled Capitalism on his side and Socialism on the other. Conservative talk personalities have successfully been able to link as synonymous the terms Liberal and Socialist for their audience, inferring of course that Socialism is just an anagram of the term Communism. They present it as if it was a secret puzzle that is completely obvious for the pure of heart: those pesky liberals are just Communists in disguise. Whipping the blanket to one side goes well beyond practicality. It becomes a duty. Of course it ignores their inherent conclusion that presidents from Washington to Lincoln to Roosevelt to Kennedy to Clinton and even Eisenhower, to a great degree, were all closet Communists.
The radical Right wing Conservatives have been successful in attaching “ism” to the word “social”. In doing so they have made the necessity we all have of coexisting into an economic system that they proclaim is a direct competitor of Capitalism (or its friendly synonym: Free Enterprise).
Free Enterprise is not only the critical underpinning of the American economy, it has proven (to my satisfaction anyway) to be the underpinning of the World’s successful economies and has done so by clear testing – the most recent being the collapse of the Soviet Union’s economic structure. Freedom works, and I have never heard an American economist or politician of any persuasion state anything to the contrary.
However, Republicans would have you believe that our social organization (i.e. Government) is an obstacle to Capitalism. Therein lays my friend’s black and white political/economic philosophy: business good – government bad. Yet it is absurd to think of Capitalism in a utopian fashion. Slavery works just fine in a Capitalistic model, so does child labor, or 70 hour work weeks. The entire concept of a middle class (as we hear used by politicians like it was comprised of nothing but mothers and babies) is not necessary within a capitalistic model for it to be viewed as successful. Poverty generally works against Capitalism as consumption is critical, but losing a fringe of the population to deprivation would be reasonable collateral damage. Today the most blaring example of the weakness of Capitalism is our Health Care System, which (for advanced economies) is the last for-profit Health Care System on the planet and yet the most inefficient and ineffective by a wide margin.
The fact of the matter is with 7 billion people now on this planet, 300 million in this country alone, the merging of Capitalism with social goals requires, like never before, an actively participating government to interact and even modify the direction of free economies. Historians and economists would point out that has always been the case, just never so dire - our last financial crisis case in point. When Ron Paul proclaims that things go wrong whenever Government injects itself into our economy, it resonates with many because it contains some truth. That’s especially true as special interests control legislation. However, his Libertarian conclusion (essentially shared by the Tea Party crowd) that the answer is to move to some kind of free rural economy that resembled those days when he was a lone doctor happily taking “chickens” for his labor and that gold is the answer to financial stability and growth, actually moves us toward chaos. It just isn’t the answer in a world of 7 billion. It makes no more sense than the vilification of business by the 99 percenters.
Government, which regardless what Republicans would have you believe is in fact the People, needs to impose its will to include a common good, not just to protect an individual good. That any politician calls any economic program or policy sacrosanct is reason enough to remove them from office, whether it be taxes or Social Security – throw the ideological bums out. Start with Eric Cantor. When folks roll to the center, one blanket works just fine.
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