I'm getting whiplash trying to follow all the twists and turns in the debt ceiling/budget showdown as each day brings a new lurch in policy.
A big plan...a grand bargain! -- a small plan... clean McConnell (i.e., Mitch McConnell's "you're on your own, Mr. President")... dirty McConnell (not a pleasant image, I know... read on).
To get organized regarding what's transpired over the past few weeks along one dimension -- the share of revenues and spending cuts in the various deals -- I made the graphic below.
Here's what stands out to me:
His 2/3, 1/3 got whittled down to the point where conservative columnist David Brooks called this "the deal of the century" for the Republicans: "trillions of dollars in spending cuts in exchange for a few hundred billion dollars of revenue increases."
And still they would not budge.
Now, rumor has it, he's offered a new deal: drop your dollar-for-dollar demand that deficit savings equate to the dollar increase in the ceiling, and I'll lose the revenues (this is "dirty McConnell" -- under the clean version, the R's get to keep their fingerprints (i.e., votes) off of the debt ceiling increase, but the spending cuts are non-binding... under this version, they're binding).
And still they would not budge.
As I've said from the very beginning, there is no negotiation here. One side is bending over backwards... too much so, if that last bar is correct... to avoid default and make a dent in the deficit. The other side is checked out.
Those who've read my work know that I deeply fear the wholly and easily avoided consequences of failing to raise the debt ceiling. I've not even entertained the possibility because I can't believe it could happen -- that elected officials could so dramatically abrogate their responsibilities. And I still don't think we'll default.
But let's get real here. You cannot negotiate with people who refuse to do so. In that case, with the stakes this high, you have to call them out and, as the president allegedly said, "take the case to the American people."
Take it to us, sir. We're all ears.
This post originally appeared at Jared Bernstein's On The Economy blog.
FACT. Taxes in the US are currently at record low levels, The lowest in the past 60 years. http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/are-taxes-in-the-u-s-high-or-low/
FACT. The highest tax rate in US history was during WW2....94%
The average tax rate paid by those in the US making over 1 million a year today?...............16.8%
FACT. The biggest determining factor in deficit spending has historically been war. In 1944 we hit our all time high deficit spending mark of 24% of GDP, compared to 13% today.
FACT. The war in Afghanistan is now the longest running war in US history.
The facts are plain for anyone to see, for those that care to look. Historically low taxes (especially on the top end) and THREE wars over oil, that didn't need to be.
The solution is equally obvious, cuts where needed (ill advised military involvement over oil) and addressing the tax code to make it simpler, easier, and more fair and equitable to all.
Why not? Because our two party system no longer functions. Both work for those that pay for their campaigns.........not us, and not the United States of America.
Make no mistake, America is in borderline depression status as it is.
Get ready for The Great Depression II. Get ready to kick these billionaire apologists out of office.
If the republicans are so hot to clear the deficit, they should donate back 25% of their salaries. I haven't heard any of them talking about that. They are a big waste of money anyway. We pay them to go to DC and represent us, but they go there and court the lobbyists, collecting money for their reelection so they can lie to us and do it again.
Besides, they regularly vote themselves raises, even though our economy is flat and wages are about the same as they were in 1980.
They have great healthcare and we get arguments about medicare and medicaid or turndowns from our self-serving insurance companies who are trying to get every penny they can from us.
We have no protection and are at their mercy and have to wait until 2012 to do anything about it. Then we can vote in another bunch who will do the same thing.
Maybe I sound cynical, but after 70 years I have the right to be. I learned the hard way.
You DO sound cynical. And accurate.
Get ready for The Great Depression II.
There is a single reason why the US continues to go deeper and deeper in debt, regardless of who is President or who is in congress. The reason for the continued debt is the Federal Reserve. All money in the US comes from the Fed, a private institution. All money created by the Fed is created out of thin air, and incurs a debt. All money paid back to the Fed is this original debt money, plus interest. Since all money is created out of the original debt, there is no extra money to pay back the interest, so the government incurs new debt to pay the interest. In other words, the system is rigged so that the Federal Reserve loans more and more money, with larger and larger interest payments.
We need to audit the Fed.
(BTW I am perfectly aware that my answers are as silly as yours are).
Guts medicare, while, at the same time, adding more tax cuts for the rich
Adds $6 TRILLION to the debt over the next ten years, and could not pass a balanced budget amendment, if we had one.
Requires raising the debt limit, more than once.
These are the same folks who seem dead set on driving the US/Global economy off a cliff, over a debt limit they already agreed to pass, when it was required for a budget that one of them wrote. But NOW, the debt ceiling can't be touched, to teach the Federal gov't. to live within it's means? Really???
not arguments in the old context
WE CAN DO IT
hope this president can
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc3sKwwAaCU