America’s New Chinese Torture Politics
“May you live in interesting times,” reputedly an ancient Chinese curse, comes to mind in the aftermath of this week’s fiasco as all signs point to hostage-taking as the new political norm rather than an aberration.
“The debt ceiling should not be…used as a gun against the heads of the American people,” the President says, but Mitch McConnell sees it differently.
“Never again,” the Senate GOP leader warns before untying the economy from the railroad tracks, “will any president, from either party, be allowed to raise the debt ceiling without being held accountable for it by the American people and without having to engage in the kind of debate we’ve just come through.”
This news comes as his junior partner Mike Lee, who upset long-time Utah conservative Robert Bennett in 2010, forms a new Tea Party fundraising committee to “find and support candidates for federal office who share my view that federal government has become too big and too expensive.”
Hatch and Lee have cooked up a proposed balanced budget amendment to limit spending to 18 percent of Gross Domestic Product and require Congressional supermajorities to raise taxes, which has Democratic incumbents scrambling to devise a less toxic alternative.
MORE.
6 Responses to “America’s New Chinese Torture Politics”
I am so waiting for that moment when the people realize how cutting federal spending has hurt their lives
– when mom & dad see their retirement income shrink, either through direct cuts or through the new, horrible inflation model, and begin eating Kal-Kan & rice, or forgo their medications when the various programs to help that are cut, or move back in with them because they’ve sold everything just to stay alive.
– when they lose their job and realize job retraining programs are cut and unemployment lasts three months
– when more bridges collapse into the Mississippi River
– when more airplanes have “maintenance issues” or simply drop out of thy sky when airlines cut safety because they won’t be discovered by inspectors
– when the poor begin rioting in the streets like Watts or Athens
– when their houses drop even more in value because all the new homeowner programs dry up
– when their water becomes unsafe to drink and their air becomes unsafe to breathe because the EPA is eliminated
– when they go on vacation to “Yosemite — brought to you by Facebook”
– when the stores are chock-full of melamine-laced food stuffs courtesy of China, all un-inspected by the unfunded FDA
– when banks hold so much sway over the lives of people it makes Mr. Potter look like Charlie Tuna, thanks to the defunding of the bank regulatory agencies and the GOP refusal to start up the consumer protection agency.
– when the Cuyahoga River bursts into flames
– when those dastardly Mexicans cross the border willy-nilly (unless shot by the Arizona Militia, the only group acting as border patrol in a defunded world)
– when people by the thousands leave high-paying jobs in the defense industry
– when the Internet is full of even MORE identity-stealing thieves
– when justice is gone thanks to a defunded court system, AG office, FBI, etc.
– when our kids become ever-increasingly ignorant thanks to ever-failing school systems
– when states, counties, and municipalities can again infringe on the rights of minorities without fear of punishment
Even Teabaggers can’t stay ignorant on the fact that some functions of a healthy, civilized society simply cannot be accomplished by the private sector, and that a government is not only capable of interfering liberty but of preserving liberty. Especially when that fact bites them in the ass.
Somehow, Barky, I don’t think going from 1.5 Trillion deficits to 1.5 Trillion deficits (no cuts until 2013, you know) means that we’re heading into anarchy just yet.
That hasn’t stopped Obama from being a demagogue and appealing to the emotions of the easily swayed and stupid. It’s campaign time again!
The spending addicts (part of our problem, spending) are pathetic.
Meanwhile: Are we not now at debt over 100 per cent of GNP?
And — Prof, did you see this story yesterday?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/03/us/politics/03spend.html
Barky,
You really don’t get it, do you?
Most tea-baggers would consider most of the outcomes you have described as good, and in the few cases where they got hurt by their policies as long as minorities got hurt more, they would be fine with it.
You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.
PS. Destroying the Federal Government so that local governments can discriminate is one of the goals. Why do you think people without a pot to piss in become tea-baggers?
@QF
The fact that you can deal only with the cartoon characterization of those you disagree with, says a lot.