Deficit Rhetoric and Impoverishing America

[marmar]

from the WorkingLife blog:



Deficit Rhetoric and Impoverishing America

by Jonathan Tasini
Thursday 27 of May, 2010


If Democrats wonder why more than half the people in the country think that the party of FDR cares more about the concerns of big corporations, no need to look any further than this:

House leaders cut the cost of the package by roughly $44 billion, in part to address complaints from Blue Dog Democrats that the price-tag was too high. Some of the spending in the bill is offset with targeted tax increases on business, so the net amount the bill will add to the deficit over 10 years is $90.5 billion, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate released Wednesday night.

There are 54 members of the Blue Dog Coalition in the House. Blue Dog members said the group will not vote as a bloc, and some Blue Dog members may ultimately support the package in its current form

Rather than invest in a huge jobs program, which the people truly need, there is foolish handwringing over the deficit--which is not a problem. And, of course, every time someone suggests helping the people, the switch goes off in some fool's mind (I'm sorry to use such language) labeled "tax cuts".

And you wonder why we have a crisis in the country.


http://www.workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=14888

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. Who remembers ANY talk of a Deficit Commission during the primary or general election?

I sure don't and I think we would have paid attention if people were talking about a Commission to look at "reducing entitlements".

This was a stealth issue that has now been foisted on the American people as part of a larger subterranean agenda - sorry, that's my belief. The commission itself was not created by an act of Congress (where it DIDN'T pass) but by EXECUTIVE ORDER.

The participants are exactly the cast of characters that would populate such a commission in your WORST nightmares.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. I would like to proactively organize and proclaim that reducing the deficit

on the back of Medicare and Social Security is completely unacceptable and that anyone who votes for same will be reviled and thrown out on their collective political asses. Ironic that doing that (reducing the deficit by gutting the social safety net) will probably hasten a political Socialist victory since the critical mass of poverty, disease, hopelessness and homelessness will finally be achieved.

Hey! Why not let Medicare negotiate drug prices, you morons!

[MisterP]

3. "the party of FDR" is like "the party of Lincoln" after all the New Dealers were purged under

McCarthy and the Klan chased down Wallace's Progressive Party; the Dems moved to Adlai (liberalism, but also "women should stay at home and raise families against the godless Reds") to JFK-LBJ (Camelot and the Great Society, but also "liberal" crusading in Latin America and Vietnam) to Carter (tried hard, mixed record) to "reluctant" Contra aid to 90s-10s Central America-style privatization, drones, occupations, anti-environmental chauvinism, and impoverishment

loyalists will point out that it was Dems behind the New Deal, the Church Committee, opposition to Raygun--but that hasn't been true since like 1989: Eric Williams pointed out that groups (in his case, British West Indies mercantilist-capitalist sugar growers in the 1800s-20s) could demand support long after their usefulness had played out, based on their record of achivement half a century before

remember that, as conservatives, conservadems feel much more comfortable with a Palin or a Bachmann than with any Greens or muckraking liberal Dems or leftists; they've adored the National Security State since 1947

[Taitertots]

4. We are cutting off our nose to spite our face

If we spend the extra 44 billion on productive programs we can repay it and more.

If we don't go further into debt we risk being unable to repay what we already owe.

[Hannah Bell]

5. deficit reduction during a depression = more job losses & more depression.

[AllentownJake]

6. The Senate on the other hand views vacation more important than debating

jobless benefits. Our reps are traitors to the people, largely.

[Populist_Prole]

7. "Deficit" is just a RW euphemism

...for "spending money on someone other than me and mine".

[laughingliberal]

8. +1 nt