Budget

Health care is only one of the large and difficult problems America needs to deal with, ranging from infrastructure to climate change, all of which demand that we engage in a lot of hard thinking. Yet what we have instead is a political culture in which one side sneers at knowledge and exalts ignorance, while the other side hunkers down and pretends to halfway agree. Paul Krugman, New York Times 3/11/2011

Balanced Budget Amendment is a Terrible Idea, Bruce Bartlett (11/15/2011)

The Federal budget is probably the strongest statement of US priorities that we have. In a democracy, It should reflect the wishes of the people, but, according to polls, it doesn't. Much better results would result from the People's Budget, which has been endorsed by Paul Krugman, Dean Baker, Jeffrey Sachs and even Forbes magazine.

Republicans, in their misguided austerity, are determined to make it smaller while benefiting their corporate backers. They intend to gut those programs that they do not like anyway: Health Care reform, Public Broadcasting, the EPA, Planned Parenthood, and, going against overwhelming public opinion, Social Security, and Medicare. They object to new spending for infrastructure...which we need to stay safe and competitive. They oppose net neutrality. They seem determined also to lay off public employees, and they are openly hostile to unions. (The right to join a union is one promised by the UN declaration of Human Rights.) So will layoffs, cuts to public programs, union busting, improve the number of available jobs, or the well-being of people ? No, it will punish the vulunerable, weaken the economy but, arguably, enhance election prospects for Republicans.

The deficit that we now have is in large part due to Bush's two wars that were off the books and large tax cuts for the wealthy. So is austerity a good idea ? Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, Joe Stiglitz and 300 other economists signed a petition opposing budget cuts just now. Because the Republican cuts are unwise and are accompanied by tax cuts for the very comfortable, there will be little deficit reduction. Cheney famously said deficits don't matter, and Republicans aren't really trying to reduce them. Country club Republicans favorite sport is dodging taxes... even if it costs us our civilization.

Since Reagan, working families have been sinking: wages flat, pensions disappeared, healthcare (when they could get it) unaffordable. They don't take vacations, and they often have no sick time. They need two incomes, two cars, expensive child care, and the cost of higher education is skyrocketing. They are in debt with little or no savings. (1) During the same time corporations reaped the benefit of higher productivity, and they got the rewards that formerly might have gone to workers. A large percentage of corporations paid no taxes, or even got refunds. Republicans deregulated, rolled back new deal financial stabilizers. The financial sector went out of control and the market crashed.

We have come to a new gilded age. The vast majority are just scraping by, but the one vibrant part of the economy is for luxury items. Since most people are maxed out, there is no broad based demand. There will be little job creation. We are back to the condition of the great depression.

So what are Republicans doing about this ? They are ready to cut Social Security, Healthcare, head start, higher education funding, and remove the right to collective bargaining. If private employees have lost benefits, then, according to Republican logic, so should public employees. In short, they want to kick them while they're down. They insist on tax cuts for the rich. The US has a host of new problems associated with income inequality. Welcome to the plantation. (2)

We might have repaired some of our decrepit infrastructure and, at the same time, put some of the many unemployed back to work, but Republicans said no. Republican governors refused money for improved transportation. Instead, knowing that it will kill jobs, they insist on budget cuts.

Republicans, in their push for States rights, held hearings so troubled States can declare bankruptcy, the better to renege on pensions and other obligations that they have dodged for a long time. They are keen to avoid new taxes, because they are deadbeats unwilling to pay the bills. They are all about the money, not the real condition of the country. The cuts being considered now will produce even more expensive side effects down the road: crumbling bridges, unaffordable education and healthcare, and social unrest.

Republicans like Paul Ryan are fully ready to spend for a new generation of nuclear weapons though.

There is the looming possibility of a Government shutdown, particularly if there is no agreement to raise the debt limit. That can cause a financial meltdown, especially if the bond market decides that Federal and State governments are no longer credit worthy.

Our 'two-party' system has thrown a wrench into our formerly functioning government. (It would help a lot if we had range-voting to mitigate the problem, but that is not going to happen because the two-party duopoly is determined to wreck us before they give up their ideologies.) Republican Federal and State budget cuts, as envisioned now, will doom the economic recovery. A failed US could win elections for Republicans. That seems to be their plan.

Officially, the National Security budget is around twenty percent of the total, but that is but a fig leaf for the real number. In a lead editorial about the federal budget, the Day pointed out that the amount allocated for national security is about 20 percent. That could be the official number, but it is more like a third of the actual amount: upward of $1.2 trillion. Republicans took that part of the budget off the table.

We cannot have excellent infrastructure, top-notch education, and a strong social safety net because we continue to squander our now almost exhausted resources on the world's largest military and a failed attempt at a world-wide empire. In a real democracy, with a fully-disclosed budget that reflects our values, we would reverse the importance of military spending and spending for the well-being of our people.

The Republican agenda will shred the social contract, punish the vulnerable, kill jobs, increase poverty, reward the wealthy, contribute to economic instability, kill net neutrality, neglect crumbling infrastructure, ignore environmental degradation, perpetuate the world's largest military, deeply cut foreign assistance, and not reduce the deficit as much as simply staying the course: letting the Bush tax cuts expire.

Republicans don't care if they crash the economy because their one clear goal is to remove President Obama. If they shut down the Federal government, people should call for a Constitutional Convention. (3)

How are Republicans like Jim Jones ?

P S Thank W again.

The Shadow Budget (Matt Taibbi)

US Uncut

Austerity For Whom ? (pdf)

American Poll on the Budget

Lawrence Lessig at NCMR 2011