Coaches have to do things fans dislike to win games, or get fired anyway when they lose.
Joel Send a noteboard - 17/07/2011 04:11:38 PM
To say that American politics is little more than political theater is something of an undeserved compliment. It's more like a pro-am sport with a shot of lame reality TV thrown in to achieve the LCD. It's the red team versus the blue team in a never-ending game*, complete with rabid fans for both teams and a military band playing during the half-time show. Beer and crap food for a nominal amount; legs and jiggling boobs are on the house. The mindless crowd focuses on the score, the spectacle. The owners of the teams know which numbers really count.
* It will end in a decade or so - in national insolvency. It's pretty much inevitable.
* It will end in a decade or so - in national insolvency. It's pretty much inevitable.
It doesn't have to go down like that. The only reason the situation is so dire is that both parties so long indulged the fantasy that they could continue doing what caused the problem and the economy would magically grow fast enough to erase the debt. Ten years ago we had a balanced budget, falling debt and a trillion dollar surplus. Policy in place then projected a $2.5 trillion surplus now; instead, we gave away that surplus as tax cuts and began multi-trillion dollar wars in two countries, so we wound up here. In terms of pure math it would be a simple matter to return to those policies now, and "in a decade or so" our federal debt could be a little more than half what it is now. Unfortunately, politicians need political will and courage to do that, and House Republicans increasingly appear lacking in both. They embraced their lunatic fringe in the last election, swept to power on the crest of public dissatisfaction with Obamas inaction, and wound up with a House majority committed, in a very real sense, to the federal insolvency they claim to oppose.
Think about it; "starve the beast" makes good copy, but it's ultimately no more than a slogan popularizing the idea of collapsing the federal government by bankrupting it. For a large part of the Republican party, both in the stands and in the owners box, this has been the end game for decades: Repeatedly slash taxes until unfinanced government programs become unsustainable, forcing their repeal whatever the other consequences. However, the choice they present between federal bankruptcy or abolishing Medicare and Social Security is a dangerous false paradigm we would be foolish to accept. In the '90s Republicans forced realism on a Democratic Party that had let itself believe the fantasy we could indefinitely increase spending on entitlements and social engineering without bankruptcy; the result was a balanced budget and shrinking deficit. Now Democrats have to return the favor and convince Republicans they can't perpetually refuse taxes and epect to avoid federal bankruptcy. We need spending restraint and revenue generation, and anyone who insists on remaining in the way of either will be run over by the public, sooner or later. The only question is whether Republican leaders see reason in time to avert disaster, even if it costs them their jobs when they break promises they never should have made, or they force a default and economic collapse that could end with a Reign of Terror from which low taxes won't protect them.
That's not just rhetoric, whoever says otherwise; the parallels are disturbingly many. By 1789 the loans and economic machinations Necker had engineered in non-response to generations of Richilieu and Louis XIVs imperial wars could no longer conceal French bankruptcy, and the significant spending reduction in response could not prevent bankruptcy without taxes the nobility and merchants refused to pay. The chief excutive convened negotiations with the legislature to gain the needed revenue, and the aristocracy again shifted that responsibility to the poor, who discharged it by bringing down the curtain on the political theater, and bringing the guillotines blade down on the necks of the cast.
Again, it doesn't have to go down that way; modest but significant spending reductions and tax increases could make the deficit a thing of the past in relatively little time, just as they were doing in 2001 until we abandoned responsibility for tax cuts founded on fantasy.
Honorbound and honored to be Bonded to Mahtaliel Sedai
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!

LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
Debt Ceiling Debacle: Are Republican Leaders Spinelessly Selfish, or Cluelessly Selfish?
14/07/2011 04:57:30 PM
- 909 Views
funny how people only believe polls that say what they want to hear
14/07/2011 06:08:21 PM
- 451 Views
Actually, I believe the polls regularly showing Romney ahead of Obama now.
14/07/2011 09:30:01 PM
- 634 Views
watch out you almost made rational argument there
15/07/2011 02:47:02 PM
- 498 Views
Watch out, you completely ignored my arguments there.
15/07/2011 04:20:44 PM
- 613 Views
Didn't Obama sign the tax cuts we are operating under now? He deserves some credit for that
15/07/2011 07:16:14 PM
- 595 Views
Actually, I agree; granting the Republicans demands does make him partly culpable.
15/07/2011 09:33:50 PM
- 512 Views
I have yet to hear anything about any actual proposal
14/07/2011 06:23:16 PM
- 459 Views
I think you have to be there to get a detailed spreadsheet, but the general terms are known.
14/07/2011 08:36:39 PM
- 691 Views
Your entire response is lacking actual answers.
15/07/2011 03:42:04 AM
- 646 Views
There were answers, just very general ones; the specifics aren't being publicly released.
15/07/2011 04:19:47 AM
- 585 Views
That kind of headline doesn't really help, you know?
14/07/2011 06:33:43 PM
- 547 Views
I second this. Definitely need less antagonism *NM*
14/07/2011 07:36:54 PM
- 195 Views
I admit I too readily meet antagonism with antagonism these days.
14/07/2011 09:56:45 PM
- 401 Views
"I have no idea what we're talking about, but my opinion is important anyway!"
14/07/2011 09:03:10 PM
- 555 Views
just because you believe the silly rhetoric doens't mean it isn't rhetoric *NM*
14/07/2011 09:27:08 PM
- 168 Views
I can't think of anything else to call it.
14/07/2011 09:17:42 PM
- 591 Views
I just think that you could have said all that in a much more less antagonistic way.
14/07/2011 10:16:49 PM
- 567 Views
I do see your point, but it often takes a shock for people to question reflexive views.
14/07/2011 10:53:07 PM
- 537 Views
it is selfish to demand tax increases to allow needed spending reductions *NM*
15/07/2011 02:48:11 PM
- 319 Views
It's shamefully selfish to demand others sacrifice their existence for your luxury.
15/07/2011 04:14:04 PM
- 425 Views
that woulkd be shameful thank god it isnothing but rhetoric *NM*
15/07/2011 07:17:44 PM
- 200 Views
It's the simple sad truth.
15/07/2011 09:36:34 PM
- 360 Views
so if it was your family you'd only cut expenses and not find a way to make extra income?
15/07/2011 07:45:21 PM
- 460 Views
if you think silly comparison to family budget are valid then you need to ask yourself that question *NM*
17/07/2011 06:51:06 PM
- 183 Views
And you haven't even gotten into the cries for a "balanced budget amendment."
14/07/2011 09:17:04 PM
- 403 Views
I think they're doing exactly what the people who paid to put them into office are expecting them to
14/07/2011 09:23:45 PM
- 440 Views
Sadly, that's so, I just keep expecting them to put the countrys survival ahead of greed.
14/07/2011 09:38:14 PM
- 631 Views
You know, if I pretended like I didn't have a family to support, I'd say, "Fuck it. Default."
15/07/2011 03:50:30 AM
- 413 Views
Maybe you can't be that cavalier, but the House majority clearly can.
15/07/2011 04:56:03 AM
- 610 Views
these are the same tax increases that were extended by the dems
15/07/2011 02:49:35 PM
- 453 Views
EDIT: Wait, I get it now; you're just trolling me.
15/07/2011 04:14:00 PM
- 695 Views

no I am just pointing out simple facts but your partisan blinders refuse to allow you to see them
15/07/2011 07:22:03 PM
- 491 Views
Republicans didn't just "support" tax cuts: They demanded them then and won't relinquish them now.
15/07/2011 09:58:37 PM
- 626 Views
Did the Mitch McConnel thing remind anyone else of Jar Jar Binks appearing before the Senate...
15/07/2011 07:38:52 AM
- 509 Views
It probably would have if I didn't do everything I could to avoid thinking of Jar Jar Binks *NM*
15/07/2011 11:20:09 AM
- 212 Views
Clueless only in the sense that they aren't heeding the signals of their owners.
17/07/2011 06:46:42 AM
- 659 Views
Coaches have to do things fans dislike to win games, or get fired anyway when they lose.
17/07/2011 04:11:38 PM
- 655 Views