| The Washington Post reported, on August 6, 2011, that John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and the "Young Guns," their Republican comrades in the House of Representatives, PLANNED as far back as January, 2009 to use the debt ceiling to create a political crisis. It seems to have worked. The Republicans held fast, Obama and the Democrats blinked. The rating agency Standard & Poors, S&P, downgraded their rating of the credit-worthiness of the United States of America, President Obama's core supporters seem to be abandoning him. And the stock markets are plummeting - the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1000 points in 3 days. |
| Allowing US debt to be downgraded - forcing it to be downgraded - will cause a rise in interest rates, an increase in unemployment and bankruptcies. Altho a rise in interest rates will benefit bondholders. This is not the fiscal policy I expect from the party that claims to be fiscal conservatives. Altho, as noted, it does benefit bondholders. It is the fiscal policy I would expect from a propertied class that considers itself akin the the "Nobles" of Tzarist Russia, and Medieval France.
The government should be creating jobs. Our elected representatives should be guiding the ship of state to a prosperous and sustainable future, not selling it short.
The NY Times reported that S&P's downgrade will spur the Republicans to demand more cuts in government spending, which will put more people out of work, further erode the economy.
Republican principles resulted in firing 500,000 government employees. These are American citizens, citizens now collecting unemployment and facing bankruptcy and foreclosure. And what's Obama to do? If his economic policies create 400,000 jobs and the policies of Boehner, Cantor, Ryan, Bachmann, etc. destroy 500,000 we are down 100,000 jobs.
Paul Ryan now says if the President agrees to $4 of new cuts, then he will agree to $1 of new taxes, on the middle class, no doubt. Noble of him, noble like Marie Antoinette saying "Let them eat cake" (here) or the French nobles resisting reforms that led to the French Revolution (here).
It is as if with the defeat of the Soviet Union, the Republicans have waged a new cold war, but this one is on the 140 million or so American who get up every morning, get dressed, and go to work, for lower wages, higher health care costs, higher energy costs, and yes, higher taxes.
They are not Socialists, these Republican Young Guns. In United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Western Europe, Democratic Socialists and Christian Democrats have created systems of democratic socialism and democratic and responsible capitalism. Taxes fund education thru college. Taxes fund health care. People get 6 or 8 weeks vacation per year. If wanting health care, an education, and 6 or 8 weeks vacation makes me a Socialist, then I am a Socialist, albeit one with retirement funds in the common stocks of companies like Apple, Boeing, and IBM.
But while Bachmann, Boehner, Cantor, Ryan, and their Republican comrades may not be Socialists, they sure act like Lenin, Josef Stalin, and the Bolsheviks. Personally, I'd rather live under Democratic Socialism than any form of Stalinism.
- Originally posted by me at Popular Logistics |
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