General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy fuck with people for the *Appearance* of Deficit Reduction?
Not just SS... this applies to the whole stinking ball of wax.
The deficit is not driven by things like fuel oil assistance for the needy any more than it is driven by foreign aid or the NEA.
Only RW idiots think that stuff.
Our huge current deficit exists because the economy collapsed, and no amount of penny-here-penny-there "thrift" changes anything.
So instances of "thrift" that hurt needy people are theater. Even if somebody thought, for some insane reason, that the deficit should be cut when we have 7-8% unemployment, these petty cruelties do not have much effect on the deficit.
The whole thing is CRUELTY THEATER.
It is not about fixing the deficit, or even pretending to fix the deficit.
It is about being pointlessly cruel, which some degenerates equate with being a grown up.
Will these measures work? That is to say, will these pointless cruelties convince the American people to give greater power to the Democratic Party?
Don't know.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,516 posts)I kind of doubt that this will give us any greater power. It is pointlessly cruel, for sure.
The Link
(757 posts)Either is not good.
MotherPetrie
(3,145 posts)magellan
(13,257 posts)...because the Progressive Caucus Budget For All makes a lot of sense to everyone I've shared it with.
More than anything we need jobs that provide a living wage. Lots of them. Or...we can continue as we have been doing for the last thirty-odd years, with everyone but the wealthiest losing ground.
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)I mean, he's not full on plutocratic he doesn't see the bizarreness of the move, and he's not that naive that by playing nice to the GOP they'll finally want to be friends with him. Gotta be some evil undercurrent. Gotta be.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)It's FOR the corporatization of Social Security.
The appearance of deficit reduction is just one of the fig leaves.
PDJane
(10,103 posts)We aren't. And if it can be combined with secrecy, as it is here in Canada, so much the better.
Neither country, the US or Canada, for instance, has the specialized units to track down white-collar crime, for instance. That crime takes more out of the economy than all the 'welfare cheats' there are in both countries. However, 'welfare cheats' are far easier to point a finger at.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Don't tell anybody.
http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43697