Every couple of years, some Republican dickhead suddenly leapfrogs to the head of the Stupid Parade and begins wildly gesturing, like a sociopathic drum majorette. And the media marches right along behind, providing the horn section. This year, it's Congressman Paul Ryan (Wisconsin, and what a great year that state has been having). His budget has been treated by the media as if it were an Actually Reasonable plan put together by someone who passed macroeconomics in college. In fact, of course, it is a Willfully Insane plan put together by someone who blames liberal professors for his mediocre grades in college.
The media should--but rarely does--show what proportion of government spending these proposed cuts are. $38 billion is simply not very much money relative to the overall size of the federal budget--and Republicans know that. They also know that $38 billion dollars is an almost unthinkable amount of money to people who are making $28,000 a year (the median income in the United States).
The Obamanos are up to their usual tricks, if by 'tricks' you mean 'Frantic bullshitting.' As David Stockman points out in his editorial in the Times, both parties are playing a game of kick-the-can (wouldn't 'kick-the-hobos' be a much more fun phrase?). The money quote from the editorial is this one: 'A quasi-bankrupt nation saddled with rampant casino capitalism on Wall Street and a disemboweled, offshored economy on Main Street requires practical and equitable ways to pay its bills.'
So true...Wait, bills actually have to be paid? Can't we just run our little Ponzi scheme indefinitely? We should ask the expert. You know Madoff's not doing anything right now--let's get him on this, chop chop.
Here's the thing. People don't like taxes because most people don't think they get anything for the taxes they do pay. Part of this is our rampant sense of entitlement, since roads, firefighters, schools, the police seem to be regarded as Gifts from God--and God doesn't need to be paid back, obviously. But part of it is that Americans are on the hook for some big ticket items--little details like college tuition, the annual 20% hike in health insurance costs, maybe even keeping all your teeth--that in other, mythical lands are paid for by taxes. When everyone gets something from a system, it's hard(er) to bitch about it. Which is what I said about the Obama health care plan a hundred years ago: it provided no tangible, immediate benefits to anyone, and would therefore cost the Democrats the midterm election.
What's phenomenal to me is that even that bullshit, half-assed plan is likely to be stripped down by the Republicans. But the Democrats made that a political possibility by writing and passing such a bullshit, half-assed bill that no one really supports it or even really gives a shit about it. So we continue down our fantastical Road to Imbecility.
