The Tea Party held the full faith and credit of the United States of America hostage, and the White House surrendered. Enjoy your victory now, but don’t expect a return to prosperity any time soon.
The GOP answer to every problem, since Regan, has been to cut taxes and decrease regulation. The GOP blindly follows this doctrine of deliberate blindness, even when the facts prove that it doesn’t’ work.
Under Bush the largest tax reduction in the history of the nation passed. Instead of it resulting in more jobs, we now have the highest unemployment rate this nation has seen since the great Depression. Under Bush and Cheney, who were both former oil and gas men, the oil and gas industry became the driving force behind all federal policies. They even tried to dismantle the EPA library so that all the dirty secrets of the industry would be buried. Even after the horrific spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the mantra of the GOP continues to be “deregulate”.
In the last election cycle, Americans were feeling the pain of high unemployment, and decided that they wanted divided government. What they didn’t see coming was a freshman class of Representatives who literally would fiddle while the nation burned. They are so determined to make government smaller that if Washington caught fire they would call it a win, and let it burn to the ground.
The deal struck by Obama will not improve a thing in our economy, other than making the suffering of ordinary Americans continue, and likely increase. The only bright spot I can see in the deal is that there won’t be any new debt ceiling fights until after the next election. That should make Wall Street investors less uncertain, and stop the free fall in the markets that we watched last week.
I’m confused by the dates in the deal. A bi-partisan super committee will decide on additional cuts by November. Congress hasn’t passed a budget for 2012, which begins October 1. So, a budget passed in September is going to be cut in November? And if congress can’t decide on the cuts to be made, there is a trigger that will cut every program until a specified dollar amount of cuts is reached. That removes all motivation to reach a budget deal by October 1, so we are looking at another stalemate in the budgeting process, and nothing has been gained.
Let’s look at some facts:
Unemployment is high. Cutting federal budgets, and by extension state budgets, is going to cause governments, who DO create jobs, to lay-off more people. During the last budget cuts locally, we were told that cuts had reached the point of lopping off limbs. The path that we have embarked upon contains no incentives for anyone, government or private sector, to create jobs.
Our debt level is unsustainable at current levels of unemployment. The fastest way to improve the debt picture is to do what American families do—get a second job. Economists tell us that there is no way that the national debt can be paid down without increases in revenue. But any discussion of increases in revenue results in hostage taking by the extreme right. They may get their wish and drown government. I wish I knew with what they plan to replace government. Anarchy isn’t very appealing to me.
Homework:
White House Fact Sheet About the Deal
Winners and Losers in the Deal
Bloomberg Describes the Lay of the Land
What is Happening and Expected to Continue Happening in States
Current Unemployment Rates
Government Analysis of Jobs Market
Historic Look at Trends in Private Public Sector Jobs
Public Sector Jobs Threaten Recovery
The GOP answer to every problem, since Regan, has been to cut taxes and decrease regulation. The GOP blindly follows this doctrine of deliberate blindness, even when the facts prove that it doesn’t’ work.
Under Bush the largest tax reduction in the history of the nation passed. Instead of it resulting in more jobs, we now have the highest unemployment rate this nation has seen since the great Depression. Under Bush and Cheney, who were both former oil and gas men, the oil and gas industry became the driving force behind all federal policies. They even tried to dismantle the EPA library so that all the dirty secrets of the industry would be buried. Even after the horrific spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the mantra of the GOP continues to be “deregulate”.
In the last election cycle, Americans were feeling the pain of high unemployment, and decided that they wanted divided government. What they didn’t see coming was a freshman class of Representatives who literally would fiddle while the nation burned. They are so determined to make government smaller that if Washington caught fire they would call it a win, and let it burn to the ground.
The deal struck by Obama will not improve a thing in our economy, other than making the suffering of ordinary Americans continue, and likely increase. The only bright spot I can see in the deal is that there won’t be any new debt ceiling fights until after the next election. That should make Wall Street investors less uncertain, and stop the free fall in the markets that we watched last week.
I’m confused by the dates in the deal. A bi-partisan super committee will decide on additional cuts by November. Congress hasn’t passed a budget for 2012, which begins October 1. So, a budget passed in September is going to be cut in November? And if congress can’t decide on the cuts to be made, there is a trigger that will cut every program until a specified dollar amount of cuts is reached. That removes all motivation to reach a budget deal by October 1, so we are looking at another stalemate in the budgeting process, and nothing has been gained.
Let’s look at some facts:
Unemployment is high. Cutting federal budgets, and by extension state budgets, is going to cause governments, who DO create jobs, to lay-off more people. During the last budget cuts locally, we were told that cuts had reached the point of lopping off limbs. The path that we have embarked upon contains no incentives for anyone, government or private sector, to create jobs.
Our debt level is unsustainable at current levels of unemployment. The fastest way to improve the debt picture is to do what American families do—get a second job. Economists tell us that there is no way that the national debt can be paid down without increases in revenue. But any discussion of increases in revenue results in hostage taking by the extreme right. They may get their wish and drown government. I wish I knew with what they plan to replace government. Anarchy isn’t very appealing to me.
Homework:
White House Fact Sheet About the Deal
Winners and Losers in the Deal
Bloomberg Describes the Lay of the Land
What is Happening and Expected to Continue Happening in States
Current Unemployment Rates
Government Analysis of Jobs Market
Historic Look at Trends in Private Public Sector Jobs
Public Sector Jobs Threaten Recovery
RSS Feed