The CBO Report: Six Things You Can’t Talk About in Washington, DC

[KoKo]

The CBO Report: Six Things You Can’t Talk About in Washington, DC

By Richard (RJ) Eskow



Whom the gods would destroy, the old saying says, they first make mad. And there’s no quicker way to become completely untethered than to read economic reports, including the latest one from the Congressional Budget Office, and then watch the political debate go on as if reality didn’t even exist.

The short version of the CBO’s report is: Spending’s going down, but we desperately need jobs. So how did the president and Congress respond? They kept arguing about who’s got the better plan for making spending go down some more.

If you want to be taken seriously in Washington, you’re going to have to learn: There are some things you just don’t talk about.

1. Don’t Talk About Jobs

The CBO report predicts that the Federal deficit this year will be under $1 trillion, if the “sequester” or other cuts of similar magnitude go into effect, for the first time in five years.

The CBO doesn’t expect the Gross Domestic Product to fully recover from the Wall Street recession for another four years, until 2017. The problem is the “output gap” between the goods and services we could and should be producing, and what we’re actually producing. That, too, is the result of the 2008 crisis. This gap results in lost prosperity for the great majority of Americans, excluding only the wealthiest among us

Much More at.......

http://www.nationofchange.org/print/36251

[Demo_Chris]

1. Exceptionally well written article! I would add one thing more:

7. Don't talk about poverty. Don't even use the word "poor." The people at the bottom, the folks working for our largest employers and earning as close to minimum age with no benefits as those companies can get away with, are no longer poor. In President Obama's new language, they aren't poor, they are: "Struggling to reach middle class."

Middle Class, in Washington's world view, is apparently those who earn less than $399,000 a year. These are the people desperately in need of government assistance in the form of permanent tax cuts. The good people working at Walmart earning $17,000 a year are just out of luck. In the minds of the people in Washington they are ALMOST exactly the same, one is middle class and the other is almost there. Just a little more bootstrapping and they'll be set.

[KoKo]

2. Yep...the "POOR" they shall be "unmentioned." After all we Take Care of Them

with FOOD STAMPS/WELFARE...if they can even meet the criteria...and we sneer at them in th grocery lines and we yell...Get Off Your Butt and get a FUCKING JOB you Losers.

We don't dig deep into who they are or what circumstances caused them to have to go on some subsistance living. We join with the RW and think they need TRAINING...to go work for MICROSOFT, ETC...because...after all they shouldahknown...they needed to get with the PROGRAM and that they are now "UNSKILLED WORKERS" in a "GLOBAL ECONOMY!" Its their fault for not getting their SKILLS UP TO DATE!

[Demo_Chris]

4. Yep. Nicely said! :)

[WillyT]

3. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!