The day of doom (if there is a day of doom), is about ten days away. We are just in the posturing stage. The serious discussions are perhaps a week away.
In the mean time, Columnist E J Dionne seemed a bit over the top with his OpEd in The Sun this week.♠
The House Republican strategy to link a normally routine increase in the nation's debt limit with a crusade to slash spending already has had a high cost, threatening the nation's credit rating and making the United States look dysfunctional and incompetent to the rest of the world.One would think that Mr Dionne, seasoned veteran that he is, would understand that the Democrats in the Senate have not been willing to cut a deal with those Republicans and the only way the Republicans can get a discussion started is to create a situation where folks might be willing to talk. If the Republicans agree to the debt ceiling increase and agree to not cut any programs sacred to the Democrats, then there will be no discussion. What if the Democrats want to raise taxes to help cover the debt? Would Mr Dionne say the Republicans needed to go along so as to not make "the United States look dysfunctional and incompetent to the rest of the world"? What if it makes us look like Greece? Is that OK?
But that's not the most awful thing about it.
What's even worse is this entirely artificial, politician-created crisis has kept government from doing what taxpayers expect it to do, which is to solve problems that citizens care about.
And, don't you think the Quants have already factored into their formulas the possible outcomes and hedged their funds in all directions? In fact, Federal (and State) regulation of markets and businesses have become so complicated that only the Quants know what is really going on and they live in the folds of the epidermis of those bloated regulations, taking advantage of them to reap extreme profits. How else do we explain GE paying no taxes last year?
Regards — Cliff
♠ Remember, articles in The Sun go away after a while, to a different place. I will not be updating their links unless I am bedridden and have read every book in the house. And, besides, the Editor tells me the links cost money after a few weeks. It is the new business model. So, here is an alternative link to the E J Dionne OpEd.
3 comments:
I wonder if the Editor would be willing to compare the cost of links, which are actually useful, to the cost of running the worthless thrice-a-week drivel from the Loco-Emotive?
It's way to early to panic if you follow the President's track record of conceding most every thing to the Republicans, except of course for the fact that we should all be panicing if the Republican's get their way and all those "job creators" keep their tax windfall and we slash the safety net instead.
For Lance, I think the best way to grow jobs in the US would be for the Government to start reducing the size of your Brother's band-aid covered golf ball.
Earlier today someone asserted that "The U.S. Constitution mentions three federal crimes by citizens: treason, piracy and counterfeiting. By the turn of the 20th century, the number of criminal statutes numbered in the dozens. Today, there are an estimated 4,500 crimes in federal statutes, according to a 2008 study by retired Louisiana State University law professor John Baker." And, we know that with regard to laws impacting jobs and job creation things just grow. When Massachusetts folks working to help the homeless are talking about how to size projects to avoid Davis-Bacon you know there is trouble in River City. And Davis-Bacon is Republican Legislation.
Regards — Cliff
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