Shut Down Simple-Minded Tax Cut for Job Creators Rhetoric

The simple-minded arguments promoting tax cuts for so-called job creators are misleading, incorrect, and frankly very stale.   For the most part, they do not fit the current economic environment and reflect a level fiscal irresponsibility that is in large part a cause of our national budget mess.  Smart tax policy has been absent for too long and it is time for that to change.

No smart business owner is going to hire people simply because he has more money.  If you manufacture widgets and you have a warehouse full of unsold widgets, what incentive do you have to hire more people to make more widgets?  You don’t have any incentive to do so.  What will you do with the additional widgets and the added costs needed to produce them?

The anti-tax movement argues that we need to ensure that “job creators” have the resources – i.e., money – to hire workers.  This argument has justified decades of increasingly unbalanced tax policy which favors the so-called job creators.  It is the “trickle down” or supply-side model that is not working, especially in our current depressed economy.

If the trickle down model did indeed work, we should be awash in jobs now.  The wealthiest among us are doing well.  They have money to invest.  Why are they not investing those resources here to create jobs here?  Because there is no demand for the goods and services in which they might invest.  Corporations likewise are sitting on record cash reserves.  Again, they are not investing here because it is not justified by demand.

If we want to stimulate growth, we need policy that puts more money in consumer bank accounts.  Often by sheer necessity, they spend the cash they have which then pushes up the demand we need.  Misleading rhetoric about “makers” and “takers” is unfair and incorrect.  One can make the argument – especially in the current market environment – that the middle and working class are the job creators.  Without growth their spending stimulates, we will be locked in stagnate economic growth.

Of course there is some investment underway.  However when businesses do invest, it is increasingly likely that they are investing in cheaper labor markets in the global economy.  We have a systematic labor and demand problem in the United States.  Maintaining tax cuts, subsidies, and other financial incentives behind the argument that it will spur growth has been proven a failed policy in the status quo and does not address the decline of our comparative advantages in the world economy.  We are poorer, less educated, and most importantly lagging behind other countries in our infrastructure and research investments.

Our remaining global stronghold is our financial sector – and to some extend our nation’s monetary system and reserve, although Republicans are determined to undercut that – but this sector serves a very small number of Americans.  Even American workers investing in 401(k)s see less from the financial sector as they have less income to invest and suffer most from the current era’s boon and bust market cycles.

We cannot expect to compete in old manufacturing sectors where we can no longer compete on the labor market, unless we want to undercut the middle class prosperity that has been a part of the American way of life for generations (which in fact is happening now).  We should instead be investing in future economic opportunities, maintaining a secure and educated workforce, and investing in smart infrastructure to sustain future growth.  But we are not doing this.  We are giving tax cuts instead and expecting something magical to happen.

Unfortunately, nothing magical is happening.  That’s obvious to anyone paying attention to our country’s economic trends over the past couple decades.

My two cents.

Related articles

• We Do Not HAVE to Cut Entitlements (alittletourinyellow.wordpress.com)
• Taxes Aren’t Theft, Tax Cuts For The Wealthy Are Theft (seeingtheforest.com)
• Boehner Says Taxes Are Theft, Here Is An Answer (ourfuture.org)

 

We Do Not HAVE to Cut Entitlements

I am listening to Virginia Republican governor Bob McDonnell make the argument this morning on NPR that we have to cut entitlements to balance the budget.  No we don’t.  We don’t have to do anything of the sort.  It is a political decision.  What we choose to cut and what we choose to fund is a matter of priorities.  The GOP puts priorities behind corporate subsidies, “job creator” tax cuts, and tax loopholes before the investments we have made in social programs like Medicare and Social Security, neither of which is bankrupt nor insolvent.  These programs simply need proper management — which includes proper funding — and they will be fine.  The choice to do otherwise is a political one.

Moreover, McDonald repeats the GOP lie pinning the blame for our deficit on Obama’s reckless spending.  This, he says, only makes cuts to entitlements even more urgent.  The argument implies that we are spending ourselves more into a deeper hole because spending increases are out of control.

In fact, the Wall Street Journal‘s radical left-wing rag Market Watch attempted to debunk this myth long ago.  As have others.  And others.  And still others…

But the myth persists, and it persists in large part because GOP politicians cannot be straight with the facts.  Without any qualms whatsoever, the GOP repeats the same tired rhetoric.  On the one hand, insisting that we must cut entitlements is only true if you want to cut entitlements in the first place, which is exactly the advertised goal of conservative politics.  And then on the other is a blatant lie, one among many, attempting to both deflect responsibility and sabotage the efforts of a president for whom they have visceral dislike.

These positions are nothing less than petty politics.

Related articles

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• Chris Weigant: Blue Fairy Godmother Budget Cuts (huffingtonpost.com)
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• Thank Republicans for the Sequester Showdown (readersupportednews.org)

It is Anti-Intellectual

Conservatism Manifesto. (Photo credit: mmoneib)

Following up on an editorial about guns and politics published last week in the Star Tribune, I need to point out the absurdity of trying to be bipartisan about the strengths and weaknesses of today’s political arguments.  The editorial unnecessarily goes out of its way to call out liberals for criticizing conservatives as anti-intellectual.  Well, if it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, some times it is a duck.

(I’d compare today’s conservative talking heads with ducks, but that wouldn’t be fair to ducks.)

It simply isn’t true that left and right share equally in failure of intellect and doesn’t serve people seeking truthful guidance any good to foster inappropriate myths about intellectual parity in political arguments.  Sometimes and idiot is simply an idiot and today we have a lot of those idiots steering political discourse with disasterous results.  Very simply, not all ideas are equal before the facts

Republicans do not like facts and logic because facts and logic do not support their beliefs.  When, for example, a non-partisan agency like the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) backs up the benefits of government economic stimulus, conservatives disregard that assessment and appeal to emotion instead, drawing false analogies with family experience and business budgets.

Government is not a family and it is not a business.  Government, especially the United States government, can serve the people better.  In fact, the United States is uniquely positioned to use monetary policy like no other nation to manipulate economic trends in its favor.  Republicans oppose this because they the economy is secondary to their priorities.  Republicans strive to dismantle government as we have known it for generations.  Crisis serves that goal well.   Therefore economics is not a priority for the GOP, it is a tool.  And it only works if it is broken.

Even when the CBO seems to align with conservative policy, they cannot get the facts right.  A year ago, for example, the CBO released a report showing that Obama‘s 2013 budget proposal would hurt the economy in the long run.  Conservatives, even in an election year, remained surprisingly quiet about this.  Why?  Well, a large part of the problem relied on too little stimulus and too little revenue.  It was a milquetoast budget.  By proposing to maintain policy like the Bush tax cuts, for example, the Obama budget maintained a struggling status quo.  In essence, Obama was conceding policy to conservatives.  Still, the inherited economic crisis was and is Obama’s fault, not at all — and I mean not at all — the fault of anything any conservative has done.  They take no responsibility for mistakes at all.  None.

It isn’t paranoia to point out the weakness of an opposing argument, especially when the opposing arguments are easily dismantled by reason and fact.  On the contrary, one should take responsibility and call out the faults of misleading rhetoric.  What is the benefit of giving credit where credit is not due, especially in situations so dangerous to our future?

Liberals lose because they go out of their way to seek balance and compromise.  That is an approach to politics that doesn’t fit the current era, unfortunately.

Related articles

• The National Review Complains That Obama Was Too Hard On Nazis (addictinginfo.org)
• Maybe We Should Ask Republicans What They Mean When They Talk About Economic Growth (alittletourinyellow.wordpress.com)
• Hasn’t Paul Krugman Heard about the Magic of Tax Cuts and Supply-Side Economics? No, and for Good Reason… (economistsview.typepad.com)
• Republican Reveals Party Secretly Wants To Duck Entitlement Reform (huffingtonpost.com)
• Anti-intellectualism and Wine (fermentation.typepad.com)
• Breaking: David Brooks doesn’t know what he’s talking about (digbysblog.blogspot.com)
• Spending Cuts Signal Austere Future for Domestic Programs – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• GOP clears field for Steve King’s Senate run. Good luck with that. (dailykos.com)

Stop Voting for Republicans

My parents were good people, but they might have let sleep with used dry cleaning bags and eat lead paint.  I can’t say for sure.  But even a guy dropped on his head a few too many times can see that voting for Republicans is a bad idea.

Never mind that the GOP openly declares a war on America, pitting “makers” against “takers.”  (That’s you, Grandma, you miserable leech. And thanks for the cookies.)

I won’t name names, but I  hope no one has forgotten the GOP presidential debates already or the goofy things some people say about race, Muslims, pregnancy, and such.  Shut it down!

We are not shutting down this ignorance.  Just the opposite.  We are supporting it.  Tell me, since when is it a good idea to ignore fact and history to the point of wanting to restore a more desperate era 100 years in our past?

Give me a good reason — just one! — why we should follow Boehner, Cantor, McConnell et al down that rabbit hole.  Just one!  Please post it in the comments below.  (I am still waiting for a list of cool Republicans, too…chirp, chirp.)

Let’s look at the most recent GOP scandal:  The Sequester.

Here you have a situation forced upon the president by an entirely uncooperative GOP-controlled congress and they put the blame on the president.  This happens in school yards.  It shouldn’t happen among adults.  What’s worse about this is they get away with it!  Americans have to stop being so plainly stupid.

Republican leaders cannot be as stupid as the American voter.  They see that their policies are destroying opportunity in America, breaking down the American economy, and destroying generations of progress because that is precisely what they want to do.  They want to destroy the America that has done so much for so many and rework it into an “objectivist” utopia where men stand opposing each other at gun point from their tar paper compounds.

Where’s Bachmann’s Thought Police When You Need Them?

Read a newspaper, talk to your friends, go walk down the street…are things better or worse?  More than 30 years of less is more has not worked.  When you strive for less, you get less.  You don’t have to be the smartest guy in the room to see this.  More than smarts it takes courage, a person needs the guts to trust his own experience in the world.

Until someone can present intelligent conservative arguments — ideas organized around reason and facts — I have no more time for backwardness of the GOP.  Our decline is not a bi-partisan issue.

Let’s start by seeing how GOP policy has contributed anything positive in recent decades.  Anything?  Should be a simple enough assignment, but the answer is lost in the emptiness of GOP rhetoric.  There is none.

 

Related articles

• Senate GOP expected to filibuster Democratic plan to avoid sequester as House GOP twiddles thumbs (dailykos.com)
• Mitch McConnell Openly Filibusters Sequestration Replacement Bill (tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com)
• Americans hate Republicans as much as Daily Kos readers do (dailykos.com)
• No one hates Republicans more than we do. Except for other Republicans (dailykos.com)
• GOP rebranding effort hitting a few snags (dailykos.com)
• New Poll Shows Majority Of Americans Think The GOP Is ‘Out Of Touch’ And ‘Extreme’ (addictinginfo.org)
• Why do more and more Americans despise the GOP? It’s the hypocrisy (eclectablog.com)

A Point Opposing Gay Marriage

Minnesota State Capitol:  A beautiful building holding some ugly ideas.

A point opposing gay marriage and a reason to be concerned about those opposing it.

There are many ridiculous reasons why the frightened and confused oppose marriage rights for all, but then there are some that stand out for the simple stupidity of the argument.

In St. Paul, Minnesota, today, Rep. Glenn Gruenhagen, a Republican from Glencoe, made this thoughtful point:

“There is no gay gene. OK? So the concept that you’re born that way and it’s an immutable characteristic is an unscientific lie.”

Ok, Glenn…Sure, whatever you say.  There is no “gay gene”.  So what?   You know, I don’t want to sound jaded or appear not to care, but tell me, what is the big frigging deal?  Why do you care?  Let’s unpack that.

Another Minnesota state representative — who happens to be a pastor — said he would go to jail before presiding over a marriage ceremony for a gay couple.  My first thought is good, it sounds like “self-deportation” logic and in this case I like it, but who really thinks marriage rights threatens religious freedom?  You would think your lawmakers — people sworn to protect the Constitution — would be better informed than this.

Glenn Gruenhagen

The reality is they don’t really worry about genes or religious freedoms, they are bigots.  Yes, bigots.  Look it up.  Don’t like the word?  Don’t like what it means?  I don’t like it much either.  Nevertheless, it is what it is and these people let their irrational insecurity push them to bigotry.  Period.

Does a gene exist for love?  How about a gene that establishes a preference for brunettes over blondes?  And why should it matter one way or the other?

There are many socially respected and legally protected preferences and choices that have nothing to do with “genes.”  We could make a list if it were relevant.

But the point is it isn’t relevant.  We don’t need “scientific proof” to defend straight and gay and if we do it isn’t necessarily in the genes anyway.  Science is more than biology and biology is more than genetics.  Glenn Gruenhagen seems to know otherwise, but I don’t have much trust in his grasp of the subject anyway.  I doubt Glenn is back home thumbing  through back issues of Scientific American.

We take pride in living in a developed nation, but this is the twenty-first century and still we face stubborn bigotry and ignorance that costs good people their rights and freedoms.  Should pride rise from this kind of backwardness?

Tolerance is a key value to strong and free democracies.  Ironically, however, we cannot sustain a progressive society by tolerating oppressing ignorance.  If you truly believe in rights and freedom, respect the rights and freedoms of all people equally.

Related articles

• MN GOP Lawmakers Speak Out Against Gay Marriage (minnesota.cbslocal.com)
• NOM Warns Minnesota Republicans Not To Vote For Gay Marriage (ontopmag.com)
• Minnesota GOP Lawmakers Speak Out Against Gay Marriage (wjon.com)
• Bigots in disarray: National Organization for Marriage declares war on Republicans (dailykos.com)

Minnesota State Rep Steve Drazkowski … For Real?

My never-ending and completely unsuccessful search for an intelligent voice coming from the unraveling Republican Party came to a dead stop tonight when — wham! — stupidity struck like a bolt out of the blue!  Well, not really — we are talking GOP after all — but Minnesota State Rep Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) does seem to be…well, let’s be kind and say, a little simple.  He’s simple.

Draz — a nickname, I guess — suggested that Democrats supporting home health care workers who want to unionize was some kind of a political stunt.  Talking with Pat Kessler, political reporter for WCCO-TV, Draz could hardly contain himself.

“It is a rubber stamp!…it’s payback!”

Rubber stamp?  Payback?

Draz tells Kessler that Democrats are supporting home health care workers because home health care workers and their supporters voted for Democrats.  That, I guess, is payback.  I have no idea what the rubber stamp is supposed to be.

Well, rubber stamp this, Draz:  You’re an idiot!

It might come as news to a guy like Draz, but when voters elect you to office they expect you to represent their interests.  That’s what representatives do, unless they are GOPers, of course.  Then you represent…well, I don’t know what you represent.  The decline of America, I suppose, but that’s hardly anything to brag about.

Perhaps if GOPers like Draz understood that reps represent the interests of their constituents and not some failed ideology we might actually make progress again in this state.  But don’t hold your breath.  The GOP is not the seat of higher intellect and political sophistication.

Argue from facts, reason with logic.  Calling political support a “stunt” is far from convincing.  In fact, it is downright troubling.

For another example of GOP backwardness, look no further than…Steve Drazkowski!  Hey, there he is again!  (I had to dig a little further…)

Draz wrote a bill that would make it a felony to enforce federal gun laws in the the State of Minnesota (brilliant), and more specifically any “new” federal firearms law that would further restricts firearms rights.

First of all, Draz, is it proper to cherry pick legal protections and enforcement to fit political priorities?  Are you not trying to codify a political interpretation of the law?   You’re kind of evading the constitutional process of law and review that involves Congress and the Supreme Court, too, aren’t you?  State representatives still take an oath of office, right?

Secondly, in an issue of Constitutional rights, state law defers to federal law.   What other laws governed by the Constitution of the United States of America does a good Republican want to disregard?

Let’s go back to the home health care workers we’re rubber stamping, whatever that means.  What Democrats are doing, Draz, is responding to the interests of their constituency.  That’s what reps do.  You, on the other hand, are wasting our time with absurd legislation of questionable constitutionality.

I have a big rubber stamp for you, Draz.  ”Stupid”

Related articles

• Minnesota H.F. 419: Declaring federal laws restricting gun rights unenforceable (ppjg.me)
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Maybe We Should Ask Republicans What They Mean When They Talk About Economic Growth

Marco Rubio is the latest “rising star” in a dying party to espouse the empty and pointless rhetoric of American conservativism.  The text of his response to President Obama’s State of the Union speech is here.

Marco Rubio

Understanding what conservatives have in mind when they talk about America’s future and economic growth requires holding their rhetoric accountable to the facts.

The simple fact is we have lower taxes, fewer regulations, and more wealth in the hands of job creators than at any other time in recent history.  If GOP rhetoric were anywhere near the truth, we should be awash in new jobs and prosperity.  But we are not.

Rubio claims that large government and taxes that promise to help the middle class has “failed every time it has been tried.” Well, that is true if you forget mid-century America or turn a blind eye to the strength of European countries like the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Germany.

Republicans like to say President Obama is anti-private sector, but the Obama administration overall accommodates the private sector quite well.  Obama went out of his way to remind us that the private sector is the key to prosperity.  In today’s political wars, however, the messenger is more important than the message.  Again, perhaps it is time to look at facts, not rhetoric.

We currently have the tax cuts, less government, and fewer regulations.  The wealthiest — the job creators — have seen their wealth increase by over 60% in the last decade.  So…keep asking…where are the jobs?  Where is the prosperity?  Where is the answer to these questions?

A classic worth repeating…because it is so true.

Rubio also says our financial problems begin with a country that spends too much, spends a trillion more than it takes in.  While that certainly is a problem, it is hard to see why this isn’t a funding problem.  We cut taxes with the idea that wealth would trickle down.  The increased overall prosperity would bring in increased revenues, the argument went, and that would cover the lower tax rates.  But as we see, that does not happen.

Moreover, Republicans — by giving even more cuts and subsidies, adding Medicare prescriptions benefits, and a few ill-advised wars — added to our financial unmet financial burdens.  Let’s not forget doing absolutely nothing to address the core issues behind the banking crisis that put us here in the first place and thus added even more to our deficits.

Yes…it is all the fault of government too big, isn’t it?  Hardly.  It is a mismanaged government finance policy that erroneously puts the blame on government generally.  Simply put, if you manage government to fail, it will likely fail.  It can’t be any more plain than that.

However, when Rubio argued that annual GDP growth at 4% would be a big part of helping balancing our books…he was right!  That’s why notable experts like Paul Krugman make the case for government stimulus to push economic growth.  It will be much easier to pay down the cost of this stimulus — and more — if we have ten years of growth versus doing nothing, as we are doing now, and let things remain stagnate.

(But Krugman, and others like him, is an expert.  He’s intelligent and informed.  He has spent his career understanding economics.  So he must be wrong.)

Anyway…this is all so tiresome.  What is it that Republicans want that we don’t have right now?  Are they really concerned about jobs or just growth?  And who are they anyway?  Millions of people vote GOP in this country as if those votes serve their interests.  Why?

I ask this because we should ask what exactly do conservatives have in mind when they talk about growth and prosperity.  The rank and file Republican voter certainly doesn’t understand this question.  If it simply is growth, especially for the wealthiest, Republicans have that and lots of it.  If they are talking about middle class growth and prosperity then things are not so clear.

Rubio served up a rambling list of tired complaints and clichéd promises that simply do not fit the facts of conservative principles.  They are intentionally misleading the public and misrepresenting their true objectives.  It is hard to understand how an informed and intelligent person could see things otherwise.  Show us some progress on the conservative agenda first, then may you have an argument that the less-is-more approach is a winning one.

If Rubio is a rising star representing the future of the Republican Party, there isn’t much to excite people expecting a more moderate and sensible GOP.  We have heard all of this before.  (We haven’t forgotten the 2012 elections already, have we?)

Alas, this is looking more and more like class warfare to me.  The conservative elite are pushing for more by demanding that the rest live with less…and pay for the privilege.  Conservatives have focused on dismantling government for nearly 30 years now.  It is the “Starve the Beast” argument and, unfortunately, it is winning and most Americans are losing.

How do conservatives address this fact?  How does their rhetoric square with reality?  It is time to ask more about what does a prospering America really look like in the ideal GOP world.

Related articles

• Translating Obama’s State of the Union and Rubio’s Response (usnews.com)
• What Marco Rubio Doesn’t Understand About Debt And The Economy (thinkprogress.org)
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Thinking Out Loud: How is Government Like a Family?

While it isn’t doesn’t fit, politicians, especially conservative ones, like to make a false analogy comparing running government with running a business or, even worse, managing a family budget.  These things are quite different in purpose, scope, and process, but regardless of the flaws, let’s go with the analogy for moment.

Let’s use the family analogy.  Let’s pull up around the family kitchen table and talk some common sense.

First let’s ask what managing a family budget means.  What, for example, do keeping a safe and comfortable house, having a car, going on vacations, feeding your family, having a phone, wearing clothes, and all the many other things living the civilized life have in common?

All these things in one way or another cost money.  They also are things people do because they are necessary for survival as well as important for maintaining a comfortable and fruitful quality of life.  Yes, and happiness matters, too.  In terms of well-being happiness is right up there with security.  Hand in glove.

We might not like to spend money, perhaps, but we do these things because we recognize the value of these things.  It is even a matter of pride to do these things right.  Now if a comparison with government is germane, what happens to value and pride when we talk about supporting government?

I suppose we can debate about what it takes to live a safe, comfortable, and productive life, but in many ways we can see that government fails to provide the same level and quality of service toward these ends as it once did.

Instead of a house, car, food, phones, and so forth government provides for things like roads, courts, parks, education, public safety, clean food and water, regulated commerce, banking, and monetary systems, and on and on and on.  Literally, something for everyone, even the most remote misanthrope benefits directly and indirectly from a well-managed, large, and robust government.

At the fundamental level, our shared public investment in public assets supports strong economic growth, a healthy society, and security.  It has made the United States attractive to talent from around the world.

And the presumption that government is inherently bad — the problem, not the solution — is an argument which is completely silly, almost childish, and violates common sense.  It is absurd to the point of being funny if it were not so dangerous.  Government is only the problem when it is set up to fail.

If we do indeed apply the family analogy to government, would we be proud to let our family go to hell in a hand basket?  Probably not.  But we are letting our government go to hell.

Don’t people, rich and poor alike, do better in a secure society?  Don’t you want healthy, educated friends and neighbors?  Whatever happened to civic pride and shared accomplishment?  We all come with a range of talents and interests and a strong social structure enables each to pursue his or her interests best.

The family analogy of course doesn’t apply to government and it really isn’t intended to apply.  It is a misleading trope used to distract people from the real goal of renegade conservatives.  The anti-government people are not trying to save the economy, for example, for the benefit of your children’s future, they just want to gut government.

Certainly not everyone will use the public library, need economic assistance, or enroll in public schools, but you also don’t ride on all the roads in your state either, but most of us use the roads, even if indirectly.  Likewise,  everyone benefits, even if indirectly, from the higher quality of life that a safe, secure, and strong government.  This has value and it doesn’t come free.  We have to pay for it and as any family knows, you cannot cut your way to higher standard of living.

Taxes need to be justified and appropriate, but nothing says we cannot choose to reinvest in our collective future.  It is a choice to do so or not to do so.  It appears that we are making the wrong choices.

This Doesn’t Feel Quaint Anymore

Over thirty years of subsidizing and rewarding the most fortunate while asking the least fortunate to pay more and get by with less hasn’t working.  If all you need to do is ensure that “job creators” have money to invest and jobs will magically appear, we should be seeing job growth.  Instead money is out of service…resting, I suppose…in the enormous portfolios of the very wealthy, a group very skilled at getting benefits from government and evading taxes.

And taxes per se are not bad.  In business, for example, fair and consistent tax policy has little long-run effect on growth compared with tax policy that gives breaks and incentives inconsistently across industries, regions, revenues, and so it.  Taxes in that case can give one business, industry, or region a competitive advantage over another.  And some business types have other demand drivers that outweigh tax issues.  The state’s grocery stores will not all move to South Dakota, for example, if they feel bullied by taxes.  Other things happen…the cost of groceries go up, but grocery stores would compete on an even playing field and survive as long as people demand groceries.  When business cries foul, it usually a reflects a fear of unbalanced competitive advantages that fair tax policy should address.  Nevertheless, that does not mean taxes are necessarily bad and need to be cut.  The politics of anti-tax rhetoric has gone beyond the reality of tax policy outcomes.

In the end, we need to choose what kind of future we want and plan for it.  Part of that planning will include paying for it.  That doesn’t mean we willy-nilly triple tax rates and recklessly expand government.  However we will not restore valuable government services and facilities if we start from the premise that they are inherently bad and without social or economic value.

The one way that government is like a family is simple.  For it to work and thrive, you have to respect it, believe in it.  You have to be ready to support it, even occasionally sacrifice for it.  It is that simple.

Related articles

• Debt Ceiling and Fiscal Hostage Crisis: A better analogy (alittletourinyellow.wordpress.com)
• Starve the beast: Fiscal calamity is the GOP’s plan to shrink government (post-gazette.com)
• Why Eric Cantor Can’t Rescue the GOP’s “Lost” Message (ourfuture.org)
• Another Idea: Analogy Example (english.answers.com)

Case Study: Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal (R)

What’s wrong with conservative politics in the United States?  Don’t strain yourself looking. and don’t busy yourself with a list.  Time is precious and examples abound!  Conservatives, after all, make celebrities of their fools and bad ideas.  But even under a small rock you can find little ones with big bad ideas.

Let’s look at Kansas House Speaker Mike O’Neal, for an example.

Really, I have to admit, the point of this post is to promote a June 2012  Think Progress post from Marie Diamond.  I was simply going to plagiarize the thing.  Or tweet it.  It is particularly germane post today as the country struggles with the insanity of violence in our society.  And I am sure every day I could find another…and another…and another…

The post I want to promote speaks for itself and begs for criticism, much needed criticism.  We see this often enough, and yet ideas like these seem to fester with increasing toxicity.  Plus, of course, we’re exposed to more political bile through the service of the internet.

That is bad news, especially if you hope to restore credibility to conservative politics.  These off-the-rails comments expose the devolving, ignorant tenor of conservative political speech in the United States, and, as I suggest, it is speech that speaks with loud, self-evident clarity.

So why does the GOP trend farther and farther to the extreme fringes of the right?  Who stands up and opposes this?  My complaints mean little.  It has to start from within the party, especially from the ground up.

Take note, Mike O’Neal is a leader within the Republican Party, a party and ideology that enjoys support from tens of millions of Americans.  Aligning with leaders like this, with this sort of rhetoric and these values, creates a complicity with those values that need some accountability.  If you vote for these people, you have some explaining to do.

So, Republicans, explain yourself.  Defend your associations with people who take positions like those of Mike O’Neal.  Or maybe you agree?

Voters hold responsibility for giving these ideas a voice.  From conservatives making millions exploiting hatred as Rush Limbaugh does mocking school children to people pasting cheap hate-filled bumper stickers on cars, the message is equally dismal and dangerous and overwhelming garbage from the right.

Prove otherwise.  Or better yet, vote otherwise.

 

Debt Ceiling and Fiscal Hostage Crisis: A better analogy

During his press conference yesterday, President Barak Obama explained that Republican demands requiring a match in future spending cuts to cover an increase in the federal debt ceiling is like finishing a meal a restaurant and leave without paying.  This is an imperfect analogy.

“If we don’t cut the cookies next time, I’m not paying today.”

While it is true that people and businesses do indeed negotiate debts and payments after the fact — something many Republicans certainly would be familiar with, perhaps routinely in business for some — the United States government does not, or at least historically has not.  The Republican caucus — again making the mistake of thinking about government as if it were a big private business enterprise — seem to be willing to extend this practice to our fiscal policy.

Republicans are willing to do this not because it is smart practice, but because it helps them achieve their broader goal of cutting government.  Plain and simple.   That simply compounds the disaster the GOP is set on creating for the United States, indeed the world economy as a whole.

There is a somewhat better way to make the restaurant bill payment analogy, nonetheless.

What Republicans are doing is demanding lower future costs in consideration of current payments.  It is even more nuanced than that, however.  Republicans are not saying reduce the current bill or we are leaving and not paying, they are saying sell me less next time I dine at your restaurant or we are not paying.

Imagine you’re the restaurant owner.  You’d think:  Well, ok, order less next when you’re here next time and I’ll gladly serve and charge you less, but pay me now for what you just ordered.

In my previous post I explain why it makes sense for the GOP anti-government strategy to order big and then play games with paying.  It all has to do with tricks to cut government, a failing strategy that ultimately damages our immediate economic recovery.  (NB:  The economy is not the GOP concern nor is the deficit.  Less government is their goal.  Running up debts and deficits actually serves that goal.)

But, in essence, Barak Obama is absolutely correct.  Republicans want to renege on contracts and promises already made unless future contracts conform to their wishes.  Ok, fine…the GOP wants the future to be different, but rather than demand lower prices for what they already have ordered they can simply order something less expensive in the future.  If you look at the restaurant analogy, one has nothing to do with the other.

 

Related articles

• Starving the Beast or Foie Gras? The GOP Deficit Hostage Strategy (mbcalyn.com)
• Republican Senator: GOP Should Hold Debt Ceiling Hostage As Leverage For Medicare Cuts (thinkprogress.org)
• Krugman: Republicans Are Engaging In ‘Hostage Taking’ (huffingtonpost.com)