Thursday, September 08, 2011

Okay I admit it, I have a burr under my saddle, a hair across................I guess I have just about had it with the Right blaming our current economic woes on Obama. First of all I have a fundamental problem blaming any one person, political group, or a specific alignment of the stars for the mess we got ourselves into. This economy is a group grope and the only ones we should be blaming are those who now waste time placing blame instead of coming up with ideas on how to solve it. Republicans are so busy saying they are not interested in hearing Obama's ideas on job creation, yet do I hear anything but the same old tired solutions that have not worked yet come out of their mouths? No, they seem stuck on the idea that lowering taxes and cutting spending is somehow going to magically turn this floundering economy around.........Right. It seems odd that after all these years since the implementation of the Bush Tax Cuts, our economy has been nose diving steadily ever since. And somehow more cuts are going to right the ship? .............Right.

I agree we should actively look to cut spending and taxes where feasible, but to do so without looking at the long range effects right now is flat out stupid. Trickle down economics has never worked. Why we keep thinking the rich and famous are going to give up more money if we give them back more money is foolish. The lords of the private sector want to make money at both ends. That is their economic model.

But since the Right is so Hell bent on fixing blame, let's just put some perspective on it. 8 Trillion dollars of the 14 Trillion dollar debt was run up under Republican, read Right side of the aisle, administrations. Based on their own blame the guy at the top tendency, they should be placing blame on the doorstep at their own leadership. But as it is with whiners and complainers, it is always someone else's fault. Or in matters with political stinkery wrapped up in them, it is always the Left's fault. A lot of things are the Left's fault, but they do not own all the blame or even as much blame as the Republicans for this economy. But they both share blame for why it is getting worse instead of better.

Let's use Gov Rick Perry's new Texas model as our example of what a new Republican economic policy might look like. The recent ongoing wildfires there are a perfect example. Prior to these wildfires, the great state of Texas cut state funding for voluntary fire response by 75%. They saved a sizable bundle of cash on some ledger somewhere and made the books look better. Now that their fire response capabilities have been cut back rather dramatically, Gov. Perry is whining about the slow response of the Feds in bailing his tax cutting stupid ass out. Rather than admit that maybe cutting their own fire fighting appropriations may have contributed to the less than timely response to fighting the fires early on, Perry wants to blame Obama. And If I am not mistaken Obama has made sure he got the Fed response moving as fast as possible. He certainly responded much faster than Bush did when Katrina hit. Classic Right Wing logic. Look out the window for someone to blame instead of first looking in the mirror in front of them.

See, this is what happens when I let the political bile build up to dangerous levels. I lash out. But I did see a great bumper sticker the other day on a thrashed mid 1990's Ford pick up - "I'm Too Poor to Vote Republican."

That about covers it for me.

Later........................................

3 comments:

The Blog Fodder said...

Aaaalll right. Now we are rockin'. I was beginning to fear you had mellowed out. The American "Left" isn't at all Left and the Repugnantcans talking about the government budget as a "Family Budget" remind me of a father with a horrendous gambling habit trying to solve the family financial problems by taking the kids lunch money.

Kulkuri said...

What The Blog Fodder said!!

Where I fault the "Left" is they are enablers. They keep telling the abusers of the Never-Right, "That's OK. The country made you trash it and try to destroy it."

With all the tax cuts(which magically create jobs) we've had in the last 30yrs, we should have such a job boom that we have to import workers. I forgot, we are importing workers (legally and illegally), but only because they'll work cheaper than the 'Murikans!!

El Cerdo Ignatius said...

Suggestion: check US federal revenue levels and then try to tell me that they suffered because of tax cuts.

They didn't. (Haven't checked Perry's/Texas' yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if Texas revenue levels stayed stable or increased.)

The American economy is in the tank because of 1) huge public and private debt levels and 2) a dysfunctional public policy on mortgage lending for a decade and 3) artificially cheap credit for the same decade and 4) silly decisions by the NYSEC regarding margin requirements and derivatives trading and 5) too much regulation.

I agree that the tax burden issue is mostly a red herring, but it would be really nice to see someone, anyone on the left talking about how to increase the size of the pie instead of fretting over real and imagined disagreements over how big everyone's slice should be.

I said it in 2008, and it's just as true today: Barack Obama is clueless on economic issues. I'm not blaming him for starting the fire - that was truly a bipartisan effort, involving politicians from both parties more worried about protecting their own turf and power centers than making good decisions - but the current prez was and is wholly unqualified to be sent to the scene to try to extinguish it.