Supercommittee in the Sandbox
Democrats offer a $3 trillion debt reduction of tax increases and spending cuts, including as much as $500 billion in savings from Medicare, Medicaid and other social programs to revive the Obama-Boehner Grand Bargain on the debt ceiling that Eric Cantor and his Tea Party House cohorts torpedoed last summer.
The proposal would include as much as $300 billion to stimulate the economy, but this would require Republicans to stop acting like spoiled Baby Boomers in a sandbox, clutching their favorite toys and refusing to share anything with anybody.
For someone of an older generation, such behavior recalls an early childhood memory in the Great Depression. Walking down the street, my mother grips one hand and in the other is some small object. I ask for something but she refuses. In a wailing rage, I fling what I am holding to the ground and, as my mother keeps pulling me along, I see another child pick it up. Now I want it back with all my heart. I learn that, if you ask for too much, you can lose what you have.
In post-World War II affluence, later generations grew up never having to realize that you can’t have everything, and their overblown sense of entitlement has now hardened into an adamant refusal to face the reality of not enough to go around.
All this is perfectly captured in an Esquire blog post by Charles Pierce, quoting a recent Paul Ryan speech:
“We’re coming close to a tipping point in America where we might have a net majority of takers versus makers in society and that could become very dangerous if it sets in as a permanent condition. Because what we will end up doing is we will convert our safety net system…to help people who are down on their luck get back onto their feet into a hammock that ends up lulling people into lives of dependency and complacency which drains them of their incentive and the will to make the most of their lives.”
Pierce calls this “pure Ayn Rand. ‘Makers vs. takers.’ Moochers and leeches. You and Them. But especially Them. But not in a divisive way. Oh, no. The Congressman doesn’t believe in divisive class rhetoric. He said so…”
5 Responses to “Supercommittee in the Sandbox”
We cannot balance this budget on cuts alone. It just can’t be done. The mathematics and economics just don’t work. It is intellectually dishonest to believe otherwise.
Yes of course the Republicans are selfish, self-centered jackasses. And it is the Republican party in its entirety not just a portion of it! We’ve gone from Democrat budget surpluses to Republican budget deficits and waste, but Republicans would have you believe it was the other way around, and for what purpose? So that their rich handlers don’t have to give back what they have stolen from the people. So that YOU suffer THEIR greed and waste.
Do not demonize entire groups. It is the demonization of groups that causes the ‘us vs. them’ attitude in the first place. Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and others are leading the charge on trying to get billionaires to give back to the community.
Meanwhile, it might help if the 99% realize that they can get ANYTHING through the government if they will just agree on what they want.
I have suggested multiple times that all publicly owned, multi-state (or multi-national) corporations should be regulated by the Federal Government (according to the Constitution they MUST be). Compensation for those in such corporations could be linked to performance and others in the corporation.
Briefly: set a 10:1 or 20:1 requirement of top earners vs. bottom earners except for 1) those who immediately add revenue (sales of actual goods–not long term financial products. Entertainers, athletes, et. al.) and 2) stock options offered–BUT at the price of the stock when issued or when the person got the job (whichever is higher). The stock options would not be redeemable for at least 3 years.
I know too many people who are working their asses off just to make ends meet to ever take that Randian crap seriously. My guess is that republican congressmen and senators who espouse that nonsense get in far more hammock time than do the Americans they look down on.
In the world of Paul Ryan and his fellow Randians there is no such thing as the working poor. There is no recognition that not everyone can work their way up simply because there are a smaller number of positions every step of the way up. In addition the modern version doesn’t recognize what offshoring, automation and productivity improving technology has done to jobs in this country.