The Bankruptcy Boys

[mgc1961]

O.K., the beast is starving. Now what? That’s the question confronting Republicans. But they’re refusing to answer, or even to engage in any serious discussion about what to do.

<snip>

Why are Republicans reluctant to sit down and talk? Because they would then be forced to put up or shut up. Since they’re adamantly opposed to reducing the deficit with tax increases, they would have to explain what spending they want to cut. And guess what? After three decades of preparing the ground for this moment, they’re still not willing to do that.

Read the whole article at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/opinion/22krugman.html?hp

[rasputin1952]

1. I was just coming to post this...

excellent piece on the GOP meltdown...:D

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. I am one of many readers who posted a comment asking why the "defense" budget

is apparently untouchable.

[mgc1961]

4. Military spending is the sacred cow of patriotism.

What's a super patriot conservative to do with the prospect of fewer weapons?

On the other side of the ledger are office holders who are afraid to face the unemployment created by substantial cuts in military spending. If we had a growing alternative jobs industry in say, renewable energy, people displaced by layoffs in gun manufacturing could be employed in the making of solar panels and the like.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. Wouldn't even need green jobs

We could put the demobilized military personnel to work in whatever was closest to their specialty. For example, all the combat medics could be sent for nurse-practitioner training and then dispatched to free clinics around the country. (I bet this would cost less than keeping them in Iraq.)

I'm sure there are analogous situations for other specialties. Even the troops who were just sent to be cannon fodder could serve as the muscle for new infrastructure projects.

[mgc1961]

6. That's a good point.

The military does train people for a variety of occupations that don't directly involve violent action. My father, for example, was the equivalent of a domestic military air traffic controller during his 20 year career in the USAF.

[DirkGently]

3. Krugman

has their number. The mind boggles at the illogic the GOP gets away with. "Look, the federal government is incompetent and in debt. And we made it that way!" The Big Lie lives on.