FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEWhat this Kabuki, puppet-show, manufactured crisis comes down to is political posturing. It's about taxation, and how things are spun by Politico and Drudge and Little Davy Brooks in a media that only the Potomac elite pay attention to.
The White House
July 9, 2011
Statement from White House Communications Director
Dan Pfeiffer on Budget Negotiations
The President believes that solving our fiscal problems is an economic imperative. But in order to do that, we cannot ask the middle-class and seniors to bear all the burden of higher costs and budget cuts. We need a balanced approach that asks the very wealthiest and special interests to pay their fair share as well, and we believe the American people agree.
"Both parties have made real progress thus far, and to back off now will not only fail to solve our fiscal challenge, it will confirm the cynicism people have about politics in Washington. The President believes that now is the moment to rise above that cynicism and show the American people that we can still do big things.
And so tomorrow, he will make the case to congressional leaders that we must reject the politics of least resistance and take on this critical challenge.
Both sides have publicly agreed that reducing the deficit and the National Debt are extreme priorities. They also agree (and have said so) that a default on the financial obligations by the United States government resulting from a failure to raise the nation's debt ceiling won't be allowed to happen.
What this is actually about is who will pay for reducing the National Debt over the next ten years. Will it be Corporations (multinationals, mostly, who don't give a toss about America or any other single country)? Will it be the Owner Class, who will have to make do with only two vacation homes, and smaller boats, and can't do whatever they want -- quite so often?
Or will it be Oma and Opa, who may have to eat cat food four times a week, rather than two? And kids with more melanin than President Boner and President Yertle The Turtle, who suddenly have no community center (Well, Boner thought they'd just join gangs anyway)?
This is about taxation -- that's the difference between Obama's $4 Trillon-dollar, 10-year plan, and the Rethug's $2 Trillion-dollar ten-year plan. And the Thugs have said the Owners are untouchable, and that they, and Corporations, can't be expected to pay for filthy liberal spending programs that only benefit a bunch of whining peasants anyway. This is where both sides stand.
However, both sides apparently already agree that Social Security and Medicare are going under the bus -- it's only a matter of to what degree the programs will be cut, and which age cohort will be asked to sacrifice. And, spending programs will have to be cut.
So it seems the only People being asked to sacrifice in any real way are... the People. Not the Owners, or Corporations -- you, and me.
For the good of the nation. Just like the financial sector bailout, the lender-friendly HAMP program, and three wars. Because Obama and his team of crack experts can't be bothered to fight for The People. They have an election in 2012 to win, and that takes money and support -- which is in the hands of the Owners, and Business.
All of it -- the greed and stupidity leading to a real estate bubble and financial crisis that could have been avoided; the strutting, arrogant mendacity of the Right, and the weak, parsimonious flailing of the Left -- all of it, disgusting, and with no end in sight, no real leadership on the horizon, either. Between arrogant greed and impotent empty promises, the game seems fixed.
Später: That was pretty relentlessly depressing, wasn't it? Well, here's a picture of a cute animal to take your mind off what's coming:
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