Quote of the Day
Being defeated is often only a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.
Marilyn vos Savant
The Debt Ceiling Debacle:
McConnell Fallback Initiative: Thumbs UP!
We have an unconscionable game of chicken going on. First, I've made it clear that Obama is totally irresponsible. How many times has the Obama Administration, say, played Chicken Little with scaremongering tactics, but then Obama says he won't pass any short-term deal, he will only consider long-overdue Medicare reform if it comes with a class warfare tax hike: never mind the issue with Medicare has more to do with intrinsic sustainability and unfunded liabilities. You know, Obama is awfully particular for someone facing financial Armageddon. Never mind eating one's peas: Obama is more like a starving man whom decides he deserves better than day-old bread.
The latest scaremongering involves the deliberate attempt by a morally corrupt Barack Obama, utterly incompetent and unfit to serve as President, to stoke fears that social security beneficiaries will not be paid. In watching this debacle, e.g., on Fox News, I'm amazed nobody is making the most obvious point: In a budget with a 40% deficit or so, the social security program is for the most part self-sustaining, at least in the short-term from payroll taxes. We are modestly in short-term deficit and mostly because of fallen payroll tax receipts due to stagnating employment; we hold Treasury securities in reserve which could be sold to cover disbursement gaps.
The McConnell plan, which is opposed by many media conservatives in favor of short-term deals which Obama has ruled out, is a political masterstroke in the sense that Obama would be forced to take direct responsibilities for cuts (instead of demagogue against them) and national debt increases, allows the GOP to vote against the debt ceiling and put the Democratic legislators on the hook to also accept full responsibility for the debt increases, sidesteps any responsibilities of the game of chicken for disruptions in the financial markets because of defaults, and disallows Obama's attempts to use the crisis for extortion in a demand for class warfare tax hikes. Given the fact that the Democrats control the Senate and the White House, the ideologues like Bachmann are engaged in reckless and stupid public policy. The Democrats are deliberately manipulating this situation feeling that they are setting the House GOP up for losing control in next year's elections; budget cuts are politically very unpopular, and the risk of a default could cause chronic problems in the economy, which almost certainly would be attributed to the GOP, not the "Teflon President" (because he wants to escape responsibility for everything). The political risk-to-reward is unreasonably high with a more ideological approach.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
ELO, "Telephone Line"
