The problem is not the deficit
It’s a sad commentary on the state of the nation that some liberals are almost wetting themselves with relief that our Democratic president announced that he would not allow Medicare to be completely gutted. Oh thank you jesus! All spending is negotiable, says Obama, and we will “reform” these programs, but he’s not going to (insert some maudlin meaningless rhetoric about old people and children dying in the streets). Chalk it up as a win!
Oh, horseshit. All Obama did was say that the Ryan plan was bad. But he totally accepted the basic Republican framing: the country has a deficit problem and spending must be cut. Which is wrong.
The country does not have a deficit problem. We have an unemployment problem.
I know Paul Krugman has been banging this drum for a couple of years now, but I am continually amazed by the way the economic lessons of the past century have seemingly been flushed down the memory hole by politicians all over the world. Christ, people. When your economy is a shrunken head and you have high unemployment, you need to fire up the factories, put the people to work, and juice the fucking joint. That’s what government spending is for! Start a WPA, create a guaranteed jobs program—a job for every American aged 18 or over—and soak up all this excess capacity. I can think of quite a few things that need doing, can’t you? Result: tax revenues rise, consumer spending skyrockets, the money multiplies, and at the same time we get some shit done.
I would give my right arm to hear the president (any president) announce that the deficit is not the problem. Our current debt ratio is nowhere near what it was in World War II, when we ran the highest relative deficit in our history. Which, not coincidentally, was followed by the biggest economic expansion in our history, including (thanks to the socialist policies instituted by FDR) an enormous expansion of the middle class. The whole 1950s dream that conservatives are so nostalgic about was created by government spending and socialism. You fucking twits.
Obama is a goddamn Republican. He’s a goddamn fucking Republican.
12 Responses to “The problem is not the deficit”
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djmm says:
Beautifully said. And yes, he is a Republican.
djmm
April 13th, 2011 at 10:18 pm EST -
Unree says:
It’s all about crushing those below. The rhetoric makes no sense otherwise. Everything written and spoken in the mass media about the deficit never says why a budget deficit is intolerable.
So, the only possible explanation: any government that gets rid of austerity noise has to deal with domestic spending proposals on their merits, rather than just wave them away with the claim that we can’t afford them.
Obama’s diggin’ it.
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anna says:
We could fix our crumbling infrastructure, for a start.
“The whole 1950s dream that conservatives are so nostalgic about was created by government spending and socialism.” Nah, they’re not nostalgic for the economy. They’re nostalgic for the sexist, racist, heterosexist etc oppression.
Man, can you believe how horribly conservative our country is now? Even the Democrats (a few bright spots like Anthony Weiner notwithstanding) are more Republican than the Republicans used to be.
Can you imagine a Democrat, let alone a Republican, saying what the Republican president Eisenhower said: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children….This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from an iron cross.”
If only I was President. Vote for me (I have as much chance of winning as any third party candidate.) I’ll bring us single-payer health care, restore habeus corpus, end and illegalize indefinite detention of/killing of suspected terrorists and extraordinary rendition. Plus finally ratify the ERA and CEDAW and pass FOCA of course. Pass ENDA and legalize same-sex marriage; in short, act like a real liberal.
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Dawn Coyote says:
“It’s a Wall Street government.” Inside Job
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votermom says:
Brava! ITA on jobs!
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Violet Socks says:
We could fix our crumbling infrastructure, for a start.
That, and a bunch of other things. We need R&D programs to work on new forms of energy, new drugs, new technologies of all kinds. We need teachers. We need help for the homeless and the destitute.
All you have to do is look at something like WWII to see how, when the will is there, every single unemployed and underutilized person in the country can be put to work, whether it’s as a research scientist or an unskilled laborer.
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anna says:
“Feminists” are still sniffing around in Sarah Palin’s panties, in case you were wondering. I’m trying to knock some sense into them (posting under Anna) but I could use your help, Violet.
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anna says:
Oops, forgot the link: http://www.feministe.us/blog/a.....ent-359579
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Violet Socks says:
I just read the thread. Eh. The post itself seems fine and most of the commenters seem to have their heads on straight. Rationalist is a misogynist troll, but it’s up to Feministe to handle that (or not).
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The Deficit Is NOT The Freaking Problem! | Thurman's Notebook says:
[...] Socks, the Reclusive Leftist, gets it absolutely, 100% positively correct when she says: The country does not have a deficit [...]
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Connie says:
I just want to say that I love you Violet Socks. Thanks for being a voice of reason in a world which is sorely lacking reason.
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roofingbird says:
We also have a war problem.
