Broken Wind

If I hear one more whine about socialism or how our government is "turning us into Europe", I'm going to beat myself in the head with a hammer until I reach the IQ of those whining. There are several chickens that have come home to roost here, folks, and the sooner we reconcile with that, the better.

First: while it is exceedingly politically expedient to propose more services / military expenditures while lowering taxes, it doesn't exactly take an Keynesian scholar to figure out the tenuousness of that program. So what? Your taxes (and those on the company you work for) will have to go up eventually, or we will sink into a economically untenable position in the world. When we drain the coffers to the point that we can no longer expect to borrow from other countries (or service the debt we already have), we will lose foreign investment and the ability to sustain our lifestyle as we know it. Canada and Mexico will become our largest trade partners, and - last time I checked - their appetite for Levis, Fords and corn isn't quite that of the EEU. So, we have to pony up.

Second: there was little alternative to bailing out the financial system in 2009. It cost a lot of money. Almost as much as the Iraq war (but not Afghanistan, and that's only counting up until 2008). So we are spending in a deficit. Our decidedly free-market financial sector policies allowed the market to implode upon itself, and we're all eating a big poop sandwich. To paraphrase Barney Frank: Deficit spending (like the jobs crisis, the wars, and the health care system) was not initiated on January 21, 2009, but it's a reality of our world. So the current administration can either try to lay a path for tomorrow and accept the politically suicidal method of actually PAYING for programs and projects, or stand by and watch Rome burn.

Third: our health care, education and infrastructure systems are dragging this once world-class country to an economic quagmire. We can't afford 50 million people getting there antibiotics at the emergency room, slapping another plastic patch on a suspension bridge, or the trend of dropping 2 places downward per year in level of education among industrialized nations. And fixing that (get ready for it) costs money.

Again, the problem is our churn-and-burn media cycle. Politicians, while ostensibly charged with and technically employed to forward the greater good of our country, enjoy their jobs (and the rewards thereof) as much as anyone. It is easier to grab poll points by calling someone a socialist (or a Washington insider) than explaining the rationale for an omnibus spending bill amendment for grain quotas. Since pundits and polls (as opposed to news) are the new staple of political "journalism", in order to keep one's job, one must massage the polls. In order to move them effectively, one must throw out inflammatory, simple messages that are strictly adversarial, and ignore the ramifications on the aforementioned job description. Hence: all spending (by Democrats) is socialism.

You can define redistribution of wealth as socialism, or you could call it a tax to support vital programs. It's semantically correct either way, but definitively less divisive with the latter nomenclature. I'm not assuming everything happening in Washington is being done correctly or to the most perfect outcome, but whining about the cost of bandages (and calling the doctor applying them a butcher) while you bleed to death just doesn't seem wise. And the choral chanting of Fox News' flatulent demagoguery is, well, just boring. Let's try to be adults, shall we? Wait, I mean...If you don't agree with me, you're a terrorist.