This is the kind of treatment that John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Mitch McConnell need to start receiving for their infinite wisdom (and ultimately non-caring) about what happens to the rest of us if their plans succeed). Shame! This also needs to be exposed as further indication that GOP candidates DID NOT get the message after the Ryan Plan debacle (having a highly Blue district vote out an incumbent who previously won in a landslide). Hey citizens, they didn’t get the message. They’re STILL after Medicare. They’re after it all. And they STILL want to give more to corporations, oil companies, and the richest people. Haven’t we had enough? Have they done ANYTHING to back off? They still don’t get it.
And the churches HAVE to wake up to taking a stand and educating their people re: the tendency of empires toward injustice and tilting the systems toward the top. It has reached levels that should be tipping us (not to mention that the church should always have a built in bias toward protecting the poor and speaking for them – to not only respond themselves in their immediate surroundings, but to make this known to the powers that the church’s allegiance is to another Kingdom.
Dude. Your "home finance" examples are apples and oranges. Families and small businesses don't have options and measures available to them like our government does. And no, jobs have to come first. How else is ANYTHING going to get going in this economy? I myself continue to borrow money to e able to do somehing now to enable me to build and do business.
And there is NOT a lack of capital . You missed the lessons in economic history that we saw when FDR created public works, which enabled the economy to grow. And guess what? When the Republicans and public pressure to be more concerned about spending slowed that program, the economy and GDP went down. So you seem to continue to carry some ideology with your economics that jst hasn't played out in actual history. Like taxing upper incomes destroys jobs, when the opposite has been the case for the last 30 years. Yes, the government CAN help. And yes, you do have to keep spending (if you're a government trying to get the economy back on its feet, and you are not an individual or small business with a whole lot less status than the actual engineers of the economy itself. It's simply not the same. And the comparisons trying to make it seem so are deceptive measures propagandized enough that enough people believe them. I tend to listen to leading economists on this, and this is what they are saying.
And it seems that like so many times before, you and I are not going to see eye to eye. But thanks for commenting.
Families and small businesses are the warp and woof of this nation, not the fed. or state govt. The fed. govt has run out of options. The current administration is at a loss as to how to make something of this good crisis.
The Great Depression was the result of many factors… not the least of which was a loss of confidence. America moved out of the Great Depression once industrial production picked up driven by war material purchases by foreign nations. The CCC, WPA, etc. were ineffective. Not surprisingly massive stimulus spending has failed to create jobs, stimulate produciton, etc. Underlying this failure is a widespread loss of confidence in the ability of the current administration to produce results. Given that the administration is not comprised of anyone who has ever built and run any significant business, this is not surprising.
The simple facts are that our nation's debt is approaching the tipping point. We simply do not have the option of putting off dealing with it. Our generation must find the backbone to face what earlier generations have created. We have to deal with it. There will have to be real cuts in real spending, both current and future. Defense spending can be easily cut by simply withdrawing all personnel and facilities from overseas. Bring them all back to the U.S. Surplus unneeded equipment, deploy personnel who are combat capable and process all other personnel into the civilian market. Some will not like this. The same sort of cuts will have to be made in social programs, some of which are narrowly targeted and some of which are broadly popular. These programs will have to be put on a paying basis. Some will not like this. That in itself would go a long way to addressing the debt crisis. Some sort of increase in taxes may be possible if there is some sort of iron clad provision that the taxes paid will go to debt reduction.
Ideology is an equal opportunity affliction found among persons of all sorts of political commitment. Many of the post-WWII era believed in the power of govt. to effect meaningful change. Those days are gone. There is not today a broad confidence in the ability of govt. to do anything well except waste money. The truth is, the is a place for govt., But those who think so will have to make the case. They will have to persuade taxpayers. Healthcare in the United States was nationalized over the broad opposition of a majority of Americans by politicians voting in the dead of night hoping they would not be held accountable. Then came Nov. 2010. The debt crisis will not be solved by a similar dead of night deal passed against the will of the majority of Americans. Nov. 2012 is coming. Politicians have not forgotten the last election cycle.
I appreciate your pov in this matter. Nothing will be accomplished until those who are concerned can come to and accord. The debt crisis can be solved. It will take character and statesmanship by all concerned. Career politicians are not likely to produce much of anything. If they could have, they already would have. The answers will likely come as they always have as people work together.
"Homework?" With respect, I majored in business and economics. Both my parents and my brothers ran small (less than 20 employees) businesses for 51 years and 26 years respectively. As long as the fed. govt. has the power to tax, the fed. govt. can finance spending. When it is not willing to do so by taxation, it must borrow if spending is to exceed current revenue. But that is not sustainable. Further borrowing to finance ongoing and future govt. spending is no different than using a credit card or bank loan to finance current and future spending in one's home and family. If spending continues to exceed income, then at some point it has to be reined in or one will go bankrupt. If a bank advances you an additional line of credit and you use it to continue a unsustainable pattern of spending, then you only put off having to get your financial house in order. Emotional outburst (as with the above referenced mob) will not bring about any kind of agreement about fed. debt. In addition, on a smaller scale many states are facing the exact same problems of increased debt and decreased tax revenues. As they cannot use deficit spending, they must balance their budgets by either cutting spending, increasing taxes or a combination of both. The discussions that are now taking place at the city/county and state level reflect the hard decisions that will have to be made at the fed. level.
The debt limit was once a formality because it was assumed repayment could be dealt with by someone else. We are the someone else to whom prior generations left this responsibility. If there are legitimate public infrastructure projects that can be funded, fine. But make work employment (i.e., as with the CCC, WPA, etc. of the FDR administration) are pointless. It is not unlike the "cash for clunkers" program that produced a unsustainable spike in buying followed by a decline after the credit rolled off.
"Cutting off spending" is not what has been stressed. What has been stressed is not to slow the increase of spending. What has been stressed is to cut spending in real dollars. That is not a pipe dream. That is a pressing economic reality that cannot now be left to a later generation to handle. It is our problem.
People get back to work when businesses hire them. At the present many business owners are not hiring for a variety of reasons… lack of demand, market uncertainty, lack of available capital to finance a project, etc. There really is not much the fed. govt. can do to free up capital when interest rates are already practically nil. At some point businesses will begin again to hire. Some will be able to return to their career field. Some will have to look elsewhere. Some will have to move to find employment. Some will find they must accept jobs that pay less than they previously earned. The best that we can do is to encourage and pray for one another and as we are able try to help one another.
You: "But, when it comes to govt. spending, the wallet is empty" Nonsense. Remember "debt ceiling"? What is that? We just RAISED it. There is money /credit to use, and in order to get jobs, we HAVE to have governmnt works projects, since the corps are CLEARLY not hiring. But there is NO recovery without getting people back to work. Cutting off all spending is just a pipe dream. And it is absolutely vital to get jobs back. You've bought into a bunch of bunk, my friend. An economist at Cornell suggested Public Works, which is MUCH cheaper than the cost of ongoing unemployment of those people who could fill those public works jobs. On the order of 10 times cheaper. Go do your homework, dude
Also, this was not the mainstream media in this video. It's a video uploaded by an individual, and it depicts exactly what is happpening where the most hubristic, brazen example of the radically insane agenda of the "austerity" folks is on display. This was at the Wisconsin State Fair. The people there are fed up, and about to recall senators next week. Also, those calling for austerity do so only for "out there", in the political world, and have no intention of undertaking any austerity themselves. Paul Ryan can spend multiple hundreds on wine in one sit down, and then call for cuts that affect the poorest folks. I find that despicable. People like this should not be making decisions that they themselves are not clueless about the conditions of folks who must bear the consequences of those proposed cuts. It is behavior and lack of connection at this level that must be shouted down and brought to light so that the American people can see the TWO AMERICAS these people are attempting to build.
Recall. More power to them. Wish them the best. But, when it comes to govt. spending, the wallet is empty. Tax payers across the nation have had enough of simply being told to pay more. Right or wrong, the perception is that federal govt. spending is exactly equivalent to ancient bread and circuses of Rome. Generations have grown up and lived with the idea that they can enjoy a tax and spend and borrow lifestyle with someone else being expected to bear the cost at a later date. Generations of children and grand children have been raised in a culture and cycle of dependency. To perpetuate such a lifestyle is brutality. It is furthered by those who have a vested interest in the continuance of that lifestyle. The current and ongoing debate about the national debt is a train that is coming down the tracks… sooner or later it will arrive at the station. Frustration and anger, regardless of if it is expressed by union activist or Tea Party Movement members or Democrats or Republicans, liberals or Conservatives will produce nothing meaningful. This debt debate will not be conducted exclusively in congress. It will not be conducted according to senate or house rules. The debt crisis has finally gotten the attention of the American tax payer. They will settle it at the ballot box.
Also, The Republicans ( I dont lump all Conservatives in with this GOP crop) are not talking about the real problems either. All they have is ideological stances that have been showing ZERO evidence of being correct over 30 years (like lowering taxes on the rich produces jobs. The exact opposite has occurred. If yo want to question that, then go consult the actual budget figures and get back to me.
Austerity? Hardly. Bring all U.S. forces and equipment in country. Strip overseas bases and surplus the equipment domestically. Eliminate all personnel who are not directly capable of boots on the ground combat service. Let these personnel take their excellent skills into the civilian market. Make proportionate cuts in social programs that do not directly produce self-sufficiency. Take those funds and underwrite science and math education in H.S. and College as well as producing engineers. Cut support for soft subjects, i.e., literature, history, etc. This will allow the U.S. to best compete in a world economy. Social Security is the most regressive tax in the inventory. At a minimum remove any cap on earnings and apply it to all income, not just wages, tips and salary but dividends, interest income, etc. That one step would completely eliminate any danger of S.S. failing due to lack of funding. At the present anyone who makes more than the cap receives a effective tax cut on all money they make above the cap.
Most economists would say that you can't go overboard on austerity meaures during a recession where widespread unemployment is still a problem. What you say makes sense on the surface, but it can't be solved either by simply insisting that we just have t o stop spending. There HAS to be something done to expand the economy, or we will not have an economy left.
Censorship by mobs or the msm will not silence Conservatives and Republicans. This debt crisis is not going to be fixed by just agreeing not to talk about it. The debt crisis facing this nation is the result of a congress that is addicted to spending borrowed money that our children and grandchildren will have to pay. If taxes are raised, the politicians will just spend more money. The only way to rein in spending and begin to deal with the debt is to cut spending… not simply slow down its growth. This will mean cutting defense spending and it will mean cutting entitlement spending. We can no longer let congress kick the debt can down the road. Had spending not been allowed to balloon for expansionist federal programs unsupported by the Constitution, we would not now be facing this debt crisis.