Today the US House of Representatives voted not to raise the debt ceiling for the country. This bill had no riders or adjustments requiring that such and such happen. It was clean. And it got voted down by all the Republicans and a good number of Democrats.
This vote meant nothing, really. It was political in nature so Republicans can campaign on the raising of the debt ceiling in 2012. Fine. It's gotcha politics and Democrats did it with Paul Ryan's medicare killing budget by making the Republicans vote for it.
The thing that I find irksome is the fact that the debt ceiling has to be raised and everyone knows it but they are willing to play games with the economy. Not just the US economy, but the world economy. Republicans want spending cuts or they won't vote for anything, and it can't raise taxes. Are they fucking kidding me? Who taught them math?
OK. Here's a small demonstration of economics as I understand them.
Say hypothetically my bills are $3000 a month to live. Rent, food, car, everything. I make $2000 a month. Every month I am $1000 short of my obligations. With Republican thinking I need to cut spending. Ok. So I am able to cut spending $500 a month, but that is it. More than that and I don't eat. That makes me now $500 short every month. I could live with being in the hole $500 a month, but that is a bad thing. Wouldn't the smart thing to do be to raise revenue? Get a second job to cover the $500 a month I need to live? Yup.
Second Republican scenario, same numbers. $3000 a month expenses, $2000 a month income. Working the same cost cutting, we get down to $2500 a month expenses. But in the cost cutting, you also get less revenue because you gave tax breaks to the wealthiest 1%. So less revenue. It would be like cutting spending to $2500, and cutting revenue (income) to $1750.
Who taught the Republicans math? You may need to cut spending, but you also need to generate income. i.e. TAXES. It's a simple fact. If you think ideology will save you, you are a fool. Numbers don't care about ideology. And the Republicans were fools for signing a pledge to never raise taxes or eliminate loopholes that would be considered a raising of taxes. Sometimes you need to raise taxes. To fight back at the one man who had them sign such a silly pledge they should all rise up as a group and do what is right for the economy, the country and the people who hired them. The voters. Funny thing, though. When Bush was in the White House, the Republicans raised the debt ceiling 19 times. 19.
Too bad voters will fight against what is good for them because they believe one side of the equation without ever looking at the other side. But it's human nature to talk and listen to the side of the argument you like...
2 comments:
This, Brad, is EXACTLY why I'm in such a state of overwhelm these days. A small pack of people are affecting the lives of THE ENTIRE WORLD, and we can't do a damn thing about it. They know exactly what they are doing and "they" are convinced that its in their right to do it. Fuck the hungry people for whom a real paper dollar actually equals food or shelter.
ANd one more thing (I'm steaming now . . . . ) I would have no problem paying higher taxes if I had some say in what those taxes were used to fund. I wish I could organize a million people to go on a tax strike. "I wont pay another cent in taxes until you adopt a REAL universal healthcare system on par with Canada.
I still pay the same astronomical property taxes that were supposed to support our school, but the school has been stripped down to a skeleton. We never got to vote on that. Our social services have been gutted but we didn't get to vote on those choices.
grrrrr
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