I need to laugh about this so I can keep going. Jon Stewart chides the Tea-GOP for being sore winners:
You control less than half of one chamber of Congress, and yet have somehow convinced everybody they’ve got to slash trillions in spending because of the “deficit crisis,” when Republicans supported the largest contributing piece of it — the Bush tax cuts! TAKE THE WIN. What are you still angry about? Yes, government still exists. We still have traffic lights. We’re sorry. Not everybody defines freedom as the ability to not pay taxes. Government isn’t perfect, but some people wish it was better, not GONE. This whole process has been like, you’re in a bank, it’s a negotiation where you’ve got some hostages, and after getting everything you wanted, you’re still going, ‘Oh, and one last demand: I still get to kill the hostages, right?’ This is the part where they all come after you and they go, ‘You won the debate, what are you going to do now?’ And you go, ‘We’re going to Disney… Colonial Williamsburg.’
I can’t get over the horror of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) showing up at last on the House floor… and voting to screw the American middle class. We’ve done nothing to her. We were on her side!
UPDATE: Welcome to the Tea Party’s Austerity Recession
UPDATE: Matt Taibbi: Debt Ceiling Deal: The Democrats Take a Dive
Now, Barack Obama has surrendered control of the budget to the Tea Party, whose operatives in congress used the same suicide-bomber tactic, threatening a catastrophic default unless the Democrats committed to a regime of steep spending cuts without any tax increases on the wealthy…
The Democrats aren’t failing to stand up to Republicans and failing to enact sensible reforms that benefit the middle class because they genuinely believe there’s political hay to be made moving to the right. They’re doing it because they do not represent any actual voters. I know I’ve said this before, but they are not a progressive political party, not even secretly, deep inside. They just play one on television.
For evidence, all you have to do is look at this latest fiasco.
UPDATE: The Age of Austerity is Here. Final Senate vote: Aye 74, Nay 26.
UPDATE: The White House says that President Obama has signed the bill into law.
#1 by Cliff Lyon on August 2, 2011 - 8:28 am
The events of the past several weeks convinces me, the Hobbits actually, truly, for real; want to blow up government assisted by the old Hobbits who would like to see the economy on its knees (more bad) come Nov 2012.
#2 by brewski on August 2, 2011 - 8:42 am
How was the American middle class screwed? Can you list for me one program which was eliminated? What middle class tax break was closed? Who is going to suffer?
#3 by Richard Warnick on August 2, 2011 - 8:50 am
We in the American middle class like having “jobs.” When we are employed, you understand, we have “income.” This means we have money to spend on things like food and housing, that enable us to survive.
I’m short of time, so I’ll let Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) explain it.
Cutting federal spending during a down economy is actually deflationary, and will directly lead to significant unemployment, threatening to overturn the economic recovery and lead to a double-dip recession.
#4 by Richard Warnick on August 2, 2011 - 9:26 am
John S. Irons, Economic Policy Institute:
It is safe to assume that this Congress is not going to extend the payroll tax holiday or unemployment insurance, either. Irons estimates even bigger job losses as a result.
#5 by brewski on August 2, 2011 - 10:12 am
Nothing was “cut”. Show me what was “cut”.
#6 by Richard Warnick on August 2, 2011 - 10:24 am
Student loans were cut. The bill eliminates interest subsidies on loans for graduate students and professional students, beginning on July 1, 2012. There are no other specific cuts in the deal, but of course the specifics will be coming soon enough.
Most budget cuts in the debt deal were back-loaded, in an attempt to hide the damage. Remember there were no congressional hearings, and we barely know the outlines of this yet.
The Age of Austerity means economic recovery is over, and we’re on the way to another recession. Some federal agencies have already quietly implemented hiring freezes. State governments are still cutting back, due to lack of federal aid. GDP growth for Q2 was a piddling 1.3 percent. The stock market is a leading indicator of the economy, and it’s headed down.
The economic consequences will be bad enough, but the “cut” that hurts the most affects what’s left of our representative democracy. Now we have a SuperCongress that answers to nobody.
#7 by brewski on August 2, 2011 - 11:26 am
$8 trillion in new deficit spending doesn’t sound like austerity. It sounds like Greece.
#8 by brewski on August 2, 2011 - 11:30 am
Increase in discretionary spending by $830 billion.
#9 by Ronald D. Hunt on August 2, 2011 - 11:48 am
I get that big numbers sound scary and can be used to push an agenda Brewski, but that is all they are if you don’t post how it is that you came up with them!
#10 by Richard Warnick on August 2, 2011 - 1:04 pm
These were the Tea-GOP demands, according to Brian Beutler on TPM:
President Obama and the Dems gave in to every single demand. So, if brewski has a problem with the deal he ought to take it up with the Republicans.
#11 by cav on August 2, 2011 - 1:30 pm
The next time President Obama walks into a “negotiation” session with the brownshirts, I sincerely hope he understands that everyone in the room was making jokes about him up until the moment he turned the doorknob.
#12 by Richard Warnick on August 2, 2011 - 1:39 pm
Speaker Boehner:
We had to start our country on a slide towards a new recession, but hey, whatever it takes to make Republicans happy.
#13 by brewski on August 2, 2011 - 2:21 pm
So no spending at all was cut until July 2012 and you think that will cause a slide into a new recession?
#14 by brewski on August 2, 2011 - 2:27 pm
So that means that stocks are sliding not becuse of the bill, but despite the bill.
#15 by Richard Warnick on August 2, 2011 - 2:39 pm
Budget cuts at the state and federal level are already happening, along with layoffs and hiring freezes. The FY 2011 budget did that. Oh, and the House left town without funding the FAA.
Are you assuming that the unspecified cuts to non-defense programs in the debt deal won’t take place? Don’t bet on it. Education in particular will be hit hard.
Wall Street knows the debt deal won’t help the economy, and is likely to hurt. No one actually believes that trickle-down economics works, it’s just a slogan.
#16 by Larry Bergan on August 2, 2011 - 3:04 pm
The good news is that The Grand Charade of all time is finally over!
What’s that rumbling noise?
Hope it’s the people.
#17 by Martel on August 2, 2011 - 3:25 pm
The real story is how progressives and republicans haven’t a clue about our fiscal reality, and how the Tea Party has only begun to put a finger on what has to be done. This read will line it out for anyone still convinced that all this cutting isn’t necessary. There will be no more revenue increases unless the economy recovers, and that is entirely contingent on the government and its stopping of its profligacy.
http://www.examiner.com/civil-rights-in-jersey-city/economics-professor-us-has-to-cut-20-trillion-or-face-financial-collapse
#18 by Martel on August 2, 2011 - 3:46 pm
Can’t help but say Cliff, things really are going progressives way under the “African Prince”. Any point in time when you start looking for a real progressive candidate?
#19 by Richard Warnick on August 2, 2011 - 4:19 pm
Glenn–
Your argument is awesome in its circularity. Without federal spending, there won’t be an economic recovery. Instead, we’ll have another recession. If you wait until the economy comes back before letting the tax rates revert to what they were under Clinton, then you’ll wait forever as long as spending is capped.
#20 by Martel on August 2, 2011 - 5:16 pm
It’s not an argument Richard, it’s what is happening and will continue to do so. Did you read the linked article?
“Without federal spending, there won’t be an economic recovery”.
Says who? In fact we are simply going deeper and deeper into debt and guaranteeing future hyper-inflation, not to mention the deep seated hatred of the rest of the world that is sick and tired of trading with an armed bully that cheats every deal made with its continuous money creation.
Do you not see the correlation of money creation and the military force used to back it up every time someone weak enough complains about the deal? We make the world “an offer it cannot refuse”.
No Richard, as sickening as this continual path has become, we are far better off collapsing and then starting over from a more virtuous beginning. Let the chips fall as they may..beats borrowing from your children and grandchildren like some drug addled alcoholic and burdening them with your inability to come to focus with the world’s reality.
The government is addicted to money and its creation. Let’s hope this last deficit ceiling rise is the Winehouse overdose moment.
#21 by Richard Warnick on August 2, 2011 - 6:48 pm
Stay classy, Glenn. I don’t think your analogy holds up, because dead people don’t “start over.” And you don’t recover the economy by wiping out 1.8 million jobs.
#22 by Martel on August 2, 2011 - 7:14 pm
Tell it to the destroyed nations in every era of history that came back after all manner of devastation. Everybody dies, but not all nations survive, less so those that become dependent on thin air and hope. The time has come, and we now only hope it not too late. If it is history dictates that warfare is what the cornered economies tend to gravitate to if they cannot accept their collapse.
As much as we can say Iraq “recovered” after we bombed the hell out of them…life goes on, and it will after the government is brought to live within our means.
Wiping out 1.8 million jobs would be a breath of fresh air for the people paying out for them. Essential services kept but the rest buh bye, it won’t be long now. It isn’t that I want this, it just is the reality and consequence of decades of pudding headed thinking. Natural law is now taking over what was a contrivance.
Well do you Richard, are those the values you impart?
#23 by Richard Warnick on August 2, 2011 - 9:33 pm
The goal of the Tea-GOP is to destroy the American middle class. I lived in the Philippines for a year, where there are rich people and poor people and nobody in between. It’s not a happy place. You wouldn’t even want to live there as one of the wealthy ones.
#24 by Martel on August 2, 2011 - 9:40 pm
What has destroyed the middle class is an increasingly bloated governance which has winnowed opportunity down to the point that participation in it is too costly, or too risky for the underfunded to engage in. If you wish blame anyone, it is government and its broad scope that has killed off the middle class.
It is time for it to go. Don’t be scared Richard, it is not going to turn out the way you think. We are not the Phillippines. As soon as government is in decline, the private sector will take off. The only thing in the way is that monster spendthrift, it has made America bereft. We can always go with the spend us to oblivion plan if it doesn’t work out.
I think someone’s meal ticket might be getting punched.
#25 by Richard Warnick on August 2, 2011 - 9:56 pm
We are more like the Philippines than you think.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it: “trickle-down economics” is a slogan, not actual economics. Nobody really believes it works. Without customers, businesses don’t need to hire any new employees. Jobless people don’t go shopping much. It’s a downward spiral.
#26 by Martel on August 3, 2011 - 7:17 am
Whatever, GDP in the Phillippines is 3925 dollars, at 113 rank worldwide. The US is 7th at 47,284.
Your hyperbole is not going to convince anyone. With a rectifying of the waste of American governance, we can do better, and will.
You cannot call the “stimulus” anything other than trickle down economics from a transfer payment perspective, you are right such transfer payments don’t work, and then leave the broken citizenry with the debt and interest payments. This is why they are going to be eliminated leaving whatever survives the economics of the time intact, the rest goes away. It is better that way, those who have made the bad economic and political choices should suffer them, not some future generation.
Our children should not be slaves to our weakness and stupidity. It has to end now.
#27 by Richard Warnick on August 3, 2011 - 8:55 am
Glenn–
You just echoed Michael Moore, without knowing it.
It’s the inequality. Look at the Gini Index:
Philippines = 45.8
USA = 45
And guess what, our Gini is going up while other countries are becoming more equal. There are 45.8 million Americans (obviously an all time record) living on foodstamps.
#28 by Larry Bergan on August 3, 2011 - 9:58 am
We are not really a nation of idiots; they unjustly define US using “polls” and “elections”.
Danger presides.
#29 by cav on August 3, 2011 - 10:10 am
There are also a record number of congress critters tipping $350.00 bottles of wine.
#30 by Richard Warnick on August 3, 2011 - 1:46 pm
Planned Layoffs At U.S. Firms Surges To Sixteen-Month High In July
#31 by brewski on August 3, 2011 - 7:02 pm
Then ask yourself, “why”?
“Why?” would you hire someone in the US when the government taxes you on their salaries, then they mandate that you provide them with a richer health benefit plan than is covered by the Canadian single payer plan, then the employee might sue you for not offering them with a culturally sensitive workplace with the support of the Tort Bar/Democratic Party. And at the incremental level (this is important) we tax the profits at a higher rate than any other industrialized country. So why on earth would you hire someone in the US. We make it clear that we don’t want you to.
#32 by cav on August 3, 2011 - 7:58 pm
Perhaps our independent, free spirits would just as soon remain so, by not succumbing to the corporate regime – parasitic, money-hungry, denial of human and planetary empathy.
No, that couldn’t be.
All free thinkers ought to incorporate, and start taking advantage of the perks. We could even promote unionization!
#33 by cav on August 4, 2011 - 7:37 am
William Blum:
“We’ll keep going around in crisis circles forever until the large financial institutions are nationalized or otherwise placed under democratic control. We hear a lot about “austerity.” Well, austerity has to, finally, visit the super-rich. There are millions [sic] of millionaires and billionaires in the United States and Europe. As governments go bust, the trillions of dollars of these people must be heavily taxed or confiscated to end the unending suffering of the other 95 percent of humanity.”