Liberals, Conservatives, and the Public Need To Face Reality
Here we are in the Age of Austerity and quite frankly, it's been coming for a long time. Bad choices made by liberal and conservative politicians as well as the American people have finally come home to roost. Yes, you heard me correctly when I laid the blame with John Q. Public, as well as the politicians. After all, we elect them. Therefore, we get the government we deserve. Not that it hasn't also been happening in countries like Greece, Spain, Ireland, and Portugal. You see, when spending exceeds revenues taken in by a government they have to either borrow money and run up a deficit, print more money and increase inflation, or get some kind of debt relief from an outside source. All of which make investors nervous. And soon, it's going to be our turn. Grim summary here:
The US needs to take urgent action to cut its debt in order to prevent the next financial crisis, which may start in Washington, Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposits Insurance Corp. (FDIC) wrote in an editorial in the Washington Post.
Wait. It gets worse.
The federal debt has doubled over the past seven years, to almost $14 trillion, and the growth is a result of both the financial crisis and the government's "unwillingness over many years to make the hard choices necessary to rein in our long-term structural deficit," Bair wrote.
At this point, any partisan wingnuts reading this will immediately start blaming the other side of the aisle, unwilling to shoulder an iota of blame as usual.
Retiring baby boomers will impact government spending heavily and this year, combined spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are expected to make up 45 percent of primary federal spending, compared with 27 percent in 1975, she explained.
Here, liberal moonbats reading this will start their hand-wringing that their beloved social spending is unfeasible in its present state. Shocked? I'm not.
"Defense spending is similarly unsustainable, and our tax code is riddled with special-interest provisions that have little to do with our broader economic prosperity," Bair wrote. "Overly generous tax subsidies for housing and health care have contributed to rising costs and misallocation of resources."
Note that defense spending...a beloved trope of conservatives...also takes a hit. Watch the Palinite Tea Baggers foam at the mouth.
If no action is taken, US federal debt held by the public could rise from 62 percent of gross domestic product this year to 185 percent in 2035, she warned.
"Eventually, this relentless federal borrowing will directly threaten our financial stability by undermining the confidence that investors have in U.S. government obligations," Bair said.
"With more than 70 percent of US Treasury obligations held by private investors scheduled to mature in the next five years, an erosion of investor confidence would lead to sharp increases in government and private borrowing costs," she added.
Just checking: Are you frightened yet? If you're an American and you're not scared by this...then I am certainly scared of you.
There needs to be "a bipartisan national commitment" for an austerity package of both spending cuts and tax increases over many years in order to solve the problem, according to Bair.
A "Bipartisan commitment"? Yeah, like that will happen. And even if it does, it'll be like pulling teeth. Both liberal and conservative politicians here in the USA are a bunch of spineless little girly-men more concerned with re-election than the good of the nation. It isn't entirely their fault but I'll get to the root problem soon enough.
"Most of the needed changes will be unpopular, and they are likely to affect every interest group in some way," she said.
Okay. Interest groups and advocacy groups(no matter their leanings on the left-right axis) are a definite problem. But they're not the root problem either.
Ultimately, the problem lies just as much with the American voting public. I'm talking about liberals. I'm talking about conservatives. I'm even talking about many of my fellow independents. In short, I am talking about any American voter who hates making hard choices. Right now, Congress is at its lowest approval rating since the 1970s and it probably won't go up anytime soon. Now, I'm not here to defend politicians. Feeling sorry for a politician is a lot like feeling sorry for the oil companies. However, part of what they do is based on what they think the American public wants. And what it wants is unsustainable. But these spineless politicians haven't dared to tell an equally spineless electorate this. Most Americans have become spoiled crybabies. And who can say I'm wrong? These are the people that buy everything on credit cards. Even shit they don't need. You know those suburban assholes who buy a boat, use it once, and then leave it in their driveway for the next ten years? Most likely they bought the boat on credit. These people vote and respond to opinion polls.
We are in a position where we have to start paying off our National Debt to a level that is at least manageable, i.e. taxes need to be raised. Cue up Tea Party whining. Also, cue up whining by liberals when tax increases start hitting other groups after the rich take their hit.
We also have to pick and choose what spend our money on. For you conservative voters, this means we can't go being the world's policeman quite as much as we have been in recent years. We need to cut military expenditures and bring some troops home. No more John Wayne armchair general bullshit for you. For you liberal voters, I am very sorry to tell you this but some of your precious social spending has got to get the axe. Some programs may even have to be cut entirely. No more throwing billions of dollars at a problem and hope that makes it disappear.
Americans need to man up and quit being such a bunch of pussies who think they can have it all with one caveat: The other side of the aisle has to be the only one to rein in the free-for-all. Grow the fuck up and get a clue, will ya'? Making tough choices is the mark of a real man. Dreaming of castles in the air and sugarplum fairies who grant your every wish is the mark of a child. And don't bother whining to me about how I need to "think positively" either.
And me? I've been making tough choices at home for a long time in preparation for the storm brewing. Do you know that I have never applied for a credit card in my entire life because I hate the thought of being beholden to people for anything? Do you know that I chose not to raise a Porche 911 because I thought that raising a secure family was more important? Do you know that I often squeeze the living shit out of a dime rather than engage in impulse shopping? Do you know anything at all?
The only debt I have currently is on my house and taking on said debt was a calculated move. I made sure that we had a decent shot of paying it off in the future. If only people had been thinking like this about government expenditures when voting and answering opinion polls for the last several decades.
And so it goes.
The US needs to take urgent action to cut its debt in order to prevent the next financial crisis, which may start in Washington, Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposits Insurance Corp. (FDIC) wrote in an editorial in the Washington Post.
Wait. It gets worse.
The federal debt has doubled over the past seven years, to almost $14 trillion, and the growth is a result of both the financial crisis and the government's "unwillingness over many years to make the hard choices necessary to rein in our long-term structural deficit," Bair wrote.
At this point, any partisan wingnuts reading this will immediately start blaming the other side of the aisle, unwilling to shoulder an iota of blame as usual.
Retiring baby boomers will impact government spending heavily and this year, combined spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are expected to make up 45 percent of primary federal spending, compared with 27 percent in 1975, she explained.
Here, liberal moonbats reading this will start their hand-wringing that their beloved social spending is unfeasible in its present state. Shocked? I'm not.
"Defense spending is similarly unsustainable, and our tax code is riddled with special-interest provisions that have little to do with our broader economic prosperity," Bair wrote. "Overly generous tax subsidies for housing and health care have contributed to rising costs and misallocation of resources."
Note that defense spending...a beloved trope of conservatives...also takes a hit. Watch the Palinite Tea Baggers foam at the mouth.
If no action is taken, US federal debt held by the public could rise from 62 percent of gross domestic product this year to 185 percent in 2035, she warned.
"Eventually, this relentless federal borrowing will directly threaten our financial stability by undermining the confidence that investors have in U.S. government obligations," Bair said.
"With more than 70 percent of US Treasury obligations held by private investors scheduled to mature in the next five years, an erosion of investor confidence would lead to sharp increases in government and private borrowing costs," she added.
Just checking: Are you frightened yet? If you're an American and you're not scared by this...then I am certainly scared of you.
There needs to be "a bipartisan national commitment" for an austerity package of both spending cuts and tax increases over many years in order to solve the problem, according to Bair.
A "Bipartisan commitment"? Yeah, like that will happen. And even if it does, it'll be like pulling teeth. Both liberal and conservative politicians here in the USA are a bunch of spineless little girly-men more concerned with re-election than the good of the nation. It isn't entirely their fault but I'll get to the root problem soon enough.
"Most of the needed changes will be unpopular, and they are likely to affect every interest group in some way," she said.
Okay. Interest groups and advocacy groups(no matter their leanings on the left-right axis) are a definite problem. But they're not the root problem either.
Ultimately, the problem lies just as much with the American voting public. I'm talking about liberals. I'm talking about conservatives. I'm even talking about many of my fellow independents. In short, I am talking about any American voter who hates making hard choices. Right now, Congress is at its lowest approval rating since the 1970s and it probably won't go up anytime soon. Now, I'm not here to defend politicians. Feeling sorry for a politician is a lot like feeling sorry for the oil companies. However, part of what they do is based on what they think the American public wants. And what it wants is unsustainable. But these spineless politicians haven't dared to tell an equally spineless electorate this. Most Americans have become spoiled crybabies. And who can say I'm wrong? These are the people that buy everything on credit cards. Even shit they don't need. You know those suburban assholes who buy a boat, use it once, and then leave it in their driveway for the next ten years? Most likely they bought the boat on credit. These people vote and respond to opinion polls.
We are in a position where we have to start paying off our National Debt to a level that is at least manageable, i.e. taxes need to be raised. Cue up Tea Party whining. Also, cue up whining by liberals when tax increases start hitting other groups after the rich take their hit.
We also have to pick and choose what spend our money on. For you conservative voters, this means we can't go being the world's policeman quite as much as we have been in recent years. We need to cut military expenditures and bring some troops home. No more John Wayne armchair general bullshit for you. For you liberal voters, I am very sorry to tell you this but some of your precious social spending has got to get the axe. Some programs may even have to be cut entirely. No more throwing billions of dollars at a problem and hope that makes it disappear.
Americans need to man up and quit being such a bunch of pussies who think they can have it all with one caveat: The other side of the aisle has to be the only one to rein in the free-for-all. Grow the fuck up and get a clue, will ya'? Making tough choices is the mark of a real man. Dreaming of castles in the air and sugarplum fairies who grant your every wish is the mark of a child. And don't bother whining to me about how I need to "think positively" either.
And me? I've been making tough choices at home for a long time in preparation for the storm brewing. Do you know that I have never applied for a credit card in my entire life because I hate the thought of being beholden to people for anything? Do you know that I chose not to raise a Porche 911 because I thought that raising a secure family was more important? Do you know that I often squeeze the living shit out of a dime rather than engage in impulse shopping? Do you know anything at all?
The only debt I have currently is on my house and taking on said debt was a calculated move. I made sure that we had a decent shot of paying it off in the future. If only people had been thinking like this about government expenditures when voting and answering opinion polls for the last several decades.
And so it goes.