Once again Ed Stein has good commentary to go along with his comic:
Well, it’s come to this. The forces of evil, in the name of ideological purity, are threatening to destroy what’s left of the nation’s economy. The good guys are powerless in the face of the unrelenting assault on sanity. There will be no compromise. Only one person can save us now. Unfortunately, Harry Potter is fictional, and magic doesn’t work in the Muggle world of Washington. Come to think of it, nothing works in Washington. The only thing left, apparently, is a cowardly scheme concocted by Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, in which the legislature gives Obama the unilateral power to raise the debt ceiling against a promise of future budget cuts. The GOP leadership understands (even if their members don’t) that failure to raise the debt ceiling is not an option, and that they will be blamed if the nation defaults, but rather than force their members to do the right thing, they correctly calculate that Obama, the only adult in the room, will make the hard choice, even if it costs him politically. Republicans get to wash their hands of the entire mess and blame Obama for whatever he ends up doing. The world’s economy will temporarily be saved, and the GOP will get to stay pure on taxes and have a field day running against Obama on his failure to cut the deficit sufficiently. Only in the insanity that is today’s Washington can refusing to do the job you were elected to do be seen as the winning strategy in the next election.
UPDATE: See also this comic.
10 Comments
If push comes to shove can’t Obama give orders to simply print the money instead of borrow it?
As crazy as the tea partiers are, they are kind of right, we can’t have it both ways. We can’t afford social security and medicare and not tax the wealthy.
I think we really really need to raise taxes in a big way. Or give up and disassemble the social spending programs.
The Tea Partiers, unfortunately, don’t agree to any tax increases which is why there is no deal. I was a registered Republican from 1978 to 1998 (I left the party because I say what was happening to it) and any of us would have LEAPED at the opportunity to get the Democrats to agree to $4 in spending cuts including cuts in welfare and Medicare in exchange for every $1 in tax increases, targeted at the richest that can afford them.
The budget can be balanced without massive tax increases or disassembling the social spending programs, if a balanced approach (including cuts to defense) can be executed AND the economy recovers. But, as IK says, since Obama is the only adult in the room, with the Republicans ever see it? Or will they continue down the road of ideological purity at the expense of reason while the middle class burns to ashes around them, ultimately dooming America’s total economy?
“the middle class burns to ashes around them, ultimately dooming America’s total economy . . . ”
The current Democratic party most closely reflects the old Republican party of the 1950’s according to many observers.
Arthanyel, your comments rang a bell for me. Your last statement made me realize that the CURRENT Republican party is still stuck in “Manifest Destiny” mode. It is of little concern to them that a middle class remain in this society, they can always move to another continent and have their way there!
I have thought recently that a lot more of us will be experiencing a figurative “Slaughter of the Buffalo” in this country. I can’t help but wonder if it is “Instant Karma!”
I just watched “inside job” about the economic meltdown. Comments? Orif you haven’t seen it, I suggest it to everyone. Made me wish Spitzer was still our governor.
EbDoug: Link, if you have one?
Thought Dancer: DVD from Netflix.http://movies.netflix.com/WiSearch?v1=Inside Job&oq=Inside job&ac_posn=1 (not yet streaming) or Amazon, I just ordered four for my family:http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Job-Matt-Damon/dp/B0041KKYBA/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1311004815&sr=1-1
Ah, not free. Pity. We’re watching pennies here, in hopes of moving to a state that isn’t on the bottom of the economic pile.
Thanks anyway.
They have it at our public library. Maybe your’s can do an ILL.
Starluna. I do keep forgetting the public library: the collections in ours are pretty bad, but that might just be sufficiently interesting to enough people that they decided to spend money on it. (The public library system in this area is still hurting: closings, firing librarians, etc.)
We just recently rediscovered the fact that the library has DVDs. The local Blockbuster closed and I went to look for a book on CD to listen to for a road trip and found stacks of DVDs. Including old black and whites that Blockbuster had not been stocking anyway. And international films. Summer is the only time we have for DVDs and we’ve been definitely getting our fill. Including a very funny movie that you can watch online, Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and some woman called Felicia Day. You can’t go wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apEZpYnN_1g