Tuesday, July 26, 2011

What a Waste!

The debt ceiling will be raised. There's no doubt about it. Like the TARP deal, however, it's going to take some major signs of collapse, such as a market nosedive, to get the players back to the table to hash out a "deal." Only there won't actually be a deal, because the Republican hard-liners realize they don't need to give our President a single thing. His idea of compromise is to offer more and more until the other side has exactly what it was demanding in the first place. And if they then hesitate (since by now they realize this guy is the perfect mark), he'll be happy to offer even more than what they originally wanted. His pathetic gaffe, "call my bluff," says it all. He thinks he's negotiating while it's obvious to everyone else that he's simply being had.

So yes the ceiling will be raised. And what then? After the dust clears we'll all look around us and wonder what the HELL has been accomplished after all these months of pointless and destructive dickering. For what? Why was it so important to raise the debt ceiling in the first place? So the Republicans could humiliate Obama and trash the social contract? And what did the rest of us get in return. What did the Democrats get? What did Obama get?

Lemme guess: preservation of the "status quo." It's a bit tarnished, you gotta admit. The Republicans will have taken huge chunks out of it. But after the dust settles the fundamental illusion will still be there, the fantasy of the "free market."

Wake up, folks. The "free market" collapsed back in 2008. Or, more accurately, it revealed itself as the delusion it always was. The notion that we can somehow reverse history and return to a "status quo" that was never anything more than a mirage is wishful thinking at its most destructive. So when the dust clears where will we be? Back where we started, with a series of intractable and seemingly insoluble problems, both economic and social. The only good thing about all the huge budget cuts emerging from this unholy "deal" in the making is that it will make things so much worse that it will no longer be possible for the majority of our citizens (I prefer this term to "taxpayers" or "consumers") to dream on as though nothing had really happened.

But failure to raise the debt limit would be infinitely better in this regard, a healthy bucket of ice cold water poured over the heads of a bunch of lazy dreamers: "do we really have to get up and go to school? Can't we just lie here all day?"

5 comments:

  1. And too, its all part of the smoke and mirrors that they use to draw the attention of John Q Public away from the really pressing issues of the day that actually affect his life. Its the economy, stupid! Right now Obama could be orchestrating all sorts of wonderful public works projects as they did in the depression but as long as they keep him busy putting out these little fires he will be too busy to do anything for the people. I'm sure thats part of the plan. And how they love to divert the publics attention away form reality ...so easy what with the nation of zombies we have become. I have been continually amazed at how little attention Amerikuns have been paying to the Rupert Murdoch shenanigans being revealed daily. During the K C Anthony trial these same folks were riveted to their TV sets. Now when something is going on that so directly affects their lives (ie the propaganda that they are steeped in on a daily basis) right under their noses they are blissfully unaware. Shakespere said "people get the government they deserve" and never was it truer.
    I'm just banking on the "Shift" that is supposed to occur in 2012 according to the Mayan calendar. Supposedly, in addition to the earth actually shifting on its axis, there is supposed to be a sudden evolutionary shift in the consciousness of a large group of the worlds population. Let's hold that thought. Kat

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  2. Kat, what you say about Murdoch is all too true. The Murdoch case goes way beyond the influence of "the media." It's really about the influence of big money on government, aka: corruption! People like Murdoch are more than just ambitious and obnoxious zillionaires, they are becoming more and more like what, in a country like Afghanistan, would be called "warlords."

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  3. "Pathetic, gullible morons...not only the masses
    but the Pretenders who comment as erudites...
    academic assholes without a HOPE to whom CHANGE
    might derange the American Fantasy ...!"

    madderonthehill.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

 
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