So I have been a bit busy the last couple months. I finally worked a FT job for a couple months, became a father, and went back to work at my PT job. So posts have been rather sparse. But I have been dying to comment on the whole debt ceiling debate. I hope there are many people out there paying attention, because it has been a real pleasure to watch the Republicans absolutely look like the purely political hacks they are. If after following this debate you still think they have the best interest of the country in mind, and care about anything other than keeping corporate and upperclass tax burdens as low as possible then you are not paying attention. Here are my quick thoughts on how this has progressed and how ridiculous the Republicans look.
1. This is a manufactured crisis. There is no crisis. Just raise the debt limit like congress has done so many times before. It was done 7 times during the Bush presidency. SEVEN TIMES! There was no crisis then, it just got done. No one likes this vote, but it has to be done.
2. Congress has already passed bills authorizing the spending, the debt limit is just an artificial accounting number. Why does it even exist? It is like voting on spending twice. When I order something online, I only have to approve my spending once, I don't press order and then have to go to my bank and authorize the spending again. You would think the party that claims to be the party of "family values" would see the honor in paying your debts, and following through on your word, rather than passing bills calling for spending only to change your mind and decide our debts can be ignored.
3. It's unconstitutional. Section 4 of the 14th amendment clearly says, "The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law,. . . shall not be questioned." This portion of the amendment was added after the civil war for the explicit reason so that the debt of the country would not be subject to politics. And yet that is exactly what Republicans, the party that claims to defend the constitution, is doing, playing politics with the nation's debt.
4. Republicans are just not reasonable. It is their way or the highway. Our system was designed to work on compromise. Without compromise the system breaks down and we are unable to solve the very serious problems that face our country. President Obama, has up to this point in his presidency, negotiated with Republicans to a degree where many Democrats have questioned his liberal roots. (remember the "deal" over letting the Bush tax cuts expire, where Republicans got everything they wanted) The president currently is proposing a 3 to 1 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases, and Republicans who claim tackling the debt is their #1 issue after the mid-terms are balking at this deal. The president is attempting to make real long-term progress on our deficit, and Republicans are balking at the idea because he wants to close corporate tax loopholes and tax high earners. They are just not reasonable, they cannot govern, and are so ideologically driven that they are willing to put the full credit of the US government at risk.
5. Social Security should not be part of the grand plan to reduce the deficit. It is not in trouble. It is fully funded until 2037, making it perhaps the most well funded program in the federal budget. The best way to fix SS is to simply increase the cap on wages that are taxed. Doing this would ensure every person pays the same percentage of tax toward SS and would shore up its funding for a very long time. Medicare, on the other hand is another story, and one much more involved. The issue of Medicare is tied much more to our healthcare system overall, and really needs to be dealt with via a single payer system, but I will leave that for another time.
If you have watched this so called crisis you have seen Republicans say the debt limit doesn't matter, say there are not enough spending cuts in the proposed deal, say the deal doesn't go far enough, walk out of a meeting because the president proposed closing loopholes on oil companies and corporate jets, say that even a single increase in revenue is too much, and then inexplicable say that they are punting on the whole debt limit increase and just putting it in the presidents hands. What? You could've done that two months ago. Oh, wait never mind, they won't actually do that. They'll continue to hold the country hostage for as long as possible, and will refuse to do what is best for the country. No compromise, No retreat. This seems to be their motto, and it will kill the country.
For once republicans seem to be the ones misreading the political climate, finally they have allowed themselves to be seen for what they are. Partisan hacks, who only care about the upper class.
