Daily Agitator
Federal Deficit Series
I have had about enough of the bullsh*t! As we all know the deficit is choking our nation to death….and the Dems and Repubs will meet in some half-assed way to find an answer to solving the problem….you can bet your butt that it will mean the people will pay through the nose, while Washington continues its runaway spending….
Well Obama has a plan:
The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility held its inaugural hearing on Tuesday, launching the process through which the Obama administration plans to introduce drastic attacks on social spending and living standards to make the working class pay for the crisis of American capitalism.
The commission, consisting of 10 Democrats and 8 Republicans, is charged with discussing ways of slashing trillions of dollars from future federal budget deficits and making recommendations to the White House and Congress six months from now.
Now we have yet another commission to find answers to the problem of an ever expanding deficit……the bi-partisan commission will look at ALL avenues for savings, at least that is what they would have us believe but the real truth lies in what they do not say…..
Obama sounded the theme of “equal sacrifice” in his own remarks to the commission, in which he blamed the crisis, in the final analysis, on the American people, citing “the reality familiar to every single American—it’s a lot easier to spend a dollar than to save one. That’s what, at root, led to these exploding deficits. And that is what will lead to a day of reckoning.” (thanx to wsws.org for the excerpts)
“Everything on the table” is another Washington code phrase, meaning that cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the major entitlement programs, will be among the measures to be considered and proposed.
That basically means ….YOU will pay for the bailout of the country….YOU will be asked to sacrifice while your do-nothing reps sit on their butts and collect their salaries…..
Hoyer was compelled to admit in his Wall Street Journal column that the rapid increase in the US national debt is the product of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (launched by Bush and continued by Obama), the bailout of Wall Street (begun by Bush and continued by Obama), and the ongoing recession (which began under Bush and continues under Obama). In other words, corporate America, not the working people, is responsible for this crisis.
That aside……YOU will still pay the bill……with taxes and loss of benefits……..It will be “shared sacrifices” but it will be shared by the working people of the country while the game remains the same in Washington…..keep supporting wars of intervention, keep supporting corporate communism, keep quiet and watch YOUR family go hungry……I hope you can live with yourself……
Sorry, this is a long one – nothing new there then… 😆
Of course you’re right – on some levels at least and particularly about the wasteful practices that already go on, but isn’t that the point in many ways? Isn’t Obama in fact right that this HAS to be shared? No more than it’s fair for the rich and powerful to suffer some of the agony (as you point out), isn’t it just as fair that the less well off do too? If you’re poor and got nothing, that probably DOES mean you and your family may go hungry at times.
It may be the decent thing to do at times and we’re all members of our societies to which we DO have a general responsibility, but I don’t see that ANYONE owes ANYONE else anything beyond that responsibility, if they don’t want to give it.
What GOVERNMENT (on the other hand) owes ALL of its citizens (rich and poor alike) is to create a successful, unbiased environment and a healthy economy that allows everyone a reasonable opportunity to care for themselves and their own families and perhaps improve their lot in life. If citizens fail to take and use that opportunity, then that is THEIR problem – IF the government has done ITS bit, which it clearly has NOT, in both our countries.
Accordingly, apart from those citizens who have a disability that seriously prevents them taking such opportunities as there are, welfare systems under a capitalist system do NOT overcome the shortcomings of their society, they shore up and mask the UTTER FAILURES of government to do its job! To put it another way, governments take the attitude that, if they’ve failed to provide a healthy and successful environment for its citizens (including a good and realistic education), they can just pass yet another useless bit of legislation that will push the responsibility back onto some section or other of society. Well it’s about time society stopped accepting that responsibility on behalf of government and insisted they do the job f*cking they’re elected and paid to do!
Just like in the UK, US citizens have been encouraged by politicians, greedy corporations, the media (members of which are possibly often the greediest of all the corporations) and just about everyone else, to believe that they can “have it all” without worrying about who pays the bill or when. Well, guess what, the when is right NOW and the payer is all of us and that pisses me off because I’ve always been responsible for MY welfare and mistakes, so why should I be stuck with the cost of that for others?
I agree that the better off should always pay something to help the poorer members of society, but the fact is that NO ONE should EVER be encouraged or even allowed to think that they can demand or expect something THEY cannot afford and are not prepared to pay for themselves – even with some assistance where appropriate.
THAT is frequently what ails the UK and you in America appear to me to suffer from exactly the same syndrome. Too many citizens in our cultures have lived in some kind of utopian dream world of “live now, pay later”, “it’ll be all right – somehow” and “some other jerk will pick up the tab”
Well the real world isn’t like that and, whether you are an individual (rich, poor, or in between – like most of us), a corporation, a State, a small country, a medium one, or a giant economy like the US, the fact is that, over time, you HAVE to live within your means.
The only alternative to that is out and out communism, which is fine if that’s what you believe in, but THEN you have to be prepared to go where you’re told, work at what your told for as long as you’re told and receive only such goods and services as the state decides it wants to give you – which in anything other than a TOTALLY communist world will often STILL depend largely on what that state can afford.
There’s nothing for nothing in this world and why should there be? When will the voters start realising that fact and stop taking notice of all the shit lies they’re fed by greedy, power hungry people just because they make them feel better?
AS usual I will agree with a couple points…..but here the rich do not pay their fair share after about $75,000 and second the cuts that they are talking about with SS means that people that have been paying for years could get screwed all for the benefit of those that make NO chances to their own status or benefits…..the commission will name only the programs that people pay into not anything that should be considered…..like contracts, wars or defense……the people will suffer.
The people always suffer, but then, if you spend more than you can afford, the only people who will suffer are those that can afford to leave…
I hope for your sake that you have a few dollars saved offshore somewhere to help you when you go 😆
But the people suffer because the country spends more than it makes……I know but what would I bitch about…lol
the only people who will NOT suffer are those that can afford to leave, that should be – duh!
Yeah, I know… 😆
Here it is more like “live now and let the peasants pick up the bill”…….
I agree that they will cut all the wrong things, but then that’s what always happens when you have such a crap governmental system as REPRESENTATIVE democracy!
Like I’ve said before, I understand all your points and I agree, but you’re trying to fix the unfixable – it’s broken junk!