On Cutting The Government

Over the past 6-9 months I've been thinking a lot about the changes that are happening in politics as some people get more agitated about the size and scope of federal and state governments. The biggest development is the rise in influence of all the "Tea Party" conservatives who are hell bent on reducing the size of government by cutting spending, eliminating "non-essential" services, and trying to "right-size" the government. 

As I've listened to all the rhetoric, I don't think it's all such a bad idea at it's core. The government should be run like a business. Like any business, you have revenue (taxes) and you have costs (services). If these two components get out of line for too long, it becomes an unsustainable situation. Somebody has to pay somewhere (or you just print more money -- but that's a different story). 

However, while I'm all for getting rid of "waste" in government, I don't think that some people really understand what happens when you cut "waste". Because when you cut parts of the government, you are cutting jobs. When you cut jobs, people get pissed. And when people get pissed, they change their votes. So while some might contend that the 2010 election was a indictment against President Obama for all of his "budget busting" bills -- I think the more realistic answer was that everyone was pissed because they didn't have a job. In his campaign he talked about changing healthcare -- it's not like weren't expecting changes in this area.

Back to people being pissed -- when you cut the government, you are cutting jobs. Right now the unemployment rate stands at 9.1%, while the "real" unemployment rate stands to be much higher -- at some something like 15%-20% after you factor in all the people who have quit searching for work and those who are underemployed.  Let's say you get the chopping block out and start cutting programs (jobs) -- where do you think that unemployment number is heading?? It's certainly not going to be a good number. 

The other way to "right-size" the government is to reduce the benefits that it gives to people. Everyone loves to say they want to cut government spending, but when you actually give them some options, they won't touch any program that will have an effect on them. And that's the problem -- Medicare and Social Security are the biggest drivers of the future budget, but no one has the desire to make a real change to them, because they affect so many people. In the end, you have everyone cursing any potential tax increase, but nobody wants to pay. It's not a good combination.

I think people need to be realistic and pragmatic about how to reduce the deficit. The bi-partisan group in Obama's fiscal commission recommended spending cuts and tax increases that draws ire from both sides of the aisle.

Will someone finally listen to them?

In The Mirror -- Poem

Originally written in 4/2010

New Republicans in the House

They're all so conservative

Off that George Bush shit

Stickin' to what Palin says

Palin's on Fox

Yeah that's the hot news

Got up and left her state

Right out of the blue

Hit the book tour with the one she didn't even write

Ghostwritten by others who haven't lived her life

Soaking up the spotlight, living in the fame

Going rogue

Sparking movements

Charging people money that's insane

On to the Tea Partiers, who hate on Obama

Putting 'staches on his face

Sparking up the drama

One jab, two jabs, they think he's going down

Little do they know that they're just a bunch of clowns

Throwin' him under the bus

Callin' him socialist

When you say those words

Dude you're so ignorant

They're led by GB

Yeah I'm talking Glenn Beck

Callin' Obama all the names

Just to get the ratings check

All day it's Maoist, Socialist, Marxist, Progressive

All Barack is doing is helping the most oppressed men

Yeah he's on the left, but not way in left field

Look at the fighting in his party on the healthcare deal

Public option's out. Abortion restrictions tightened.

This was a centrist bill, whether or not you like it

Back to Glenn Beck, no I'm not done yet.

Always putting progressives down from his TV set

What's wrong with the prospect of a better place?

Clean water, clean Earth, let's clean up this place

Somehow that makes me a Maoist controlling everyone

Let me turn the tables on this one troubled man

He tells me man is fallen

Points to the Holy Book

He says all of our laws come from these ideals

If you don't believe in them

You're an enemy of the people

How is that any different from a theocracy?

Imprinting on minds how life's gotta be

That's not the nation that I grew up in

Read the Founders words

It's in plain text man

On Capitalism

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the status of our economy and world. How did we get into this mess? How are we going to get out of it?

Barack Obama has been accused (by various media outlets and commentators including Fox News of course) of implementing "socialist" programs that are going to weaken our country in the long-run. "We can't have universal health care, because it's going to cost too much." "Why should we (the rich) have to pay for that?" However, there is a an inherent flawed assumption in any argument that says the US in becoming a socialist state. The assumption is that you can only have either capitalism or socialism -- nothing in between. It completely ignores the FACT that economies/governments lie on a spectrum or even a grid among different ideologies.

Enacting new government programs does not make us automatically a socialist society over night. Sure, maybe it's a step in that direction, but the way people talk about it these days, we will be like Cuba in no time. Therefore, calling the US "socialist" is irresponsible and ignorant at best. Secondly, let's address another inherently flawed assumption, that the US is a purely capitalist state. It's just not true. Purely capitalist states wouldn't have governing bodies over our markets (Securities and Exchange Commission), libraries so anyone can read (buy your own damn books), the public school system (why should I be paying for your kid to go to school), etc. In a capitalist state, everyone would fend for themselves. However, let's just get it out there....capitalism FAILS in the end. The market is not perfect....only in your economics classes. If markets were rational, then we wouldn't be in the financial mess that we're in. Markets cannot regulate themselves. So if you say that markets can fix themselves, ask yourself why someone would buy a house for $500,000 that is now worth $350,000. Sure, now the person has a $150,000 loss and that's their problem. But, if the market was actually efficient and rational, they wouldn't be in the situation in the first place. The market doesn't know everything.

Another thing -- people who think that capitalism is the be all, end all solution, apparently haven't looked around the world. They haven't looked at all the countries that have been looted for their resources, they haven't looked at all the people starving and hungry, they haven't taken a step outside of anything that they know. So while they drive their Hummers, drinking their fancy wine, and living in the McMansions, please just tell them to give one thought to the other people who didn't have the same opportunity. "Oh, but those people are just lazy" -- this is the classic line from the capitalist pig. People don't have opportunity around the world, they can't get credit, and most importantly, they dont have a good EDUCATION.

Education is the most important thing a person can acquire. But a comprehensive, (non-biased) education is not widely available around the world. Hell, in such an advanced nation such as ours, we still have people being influenced by wackos who tell us that condoms don't prevent AIDS and evolution is a myth. Former President Bush's Every Child Left Behind Act crippled our country for eight years. So while his friends at Exxon Mobil and Halliburton had windfall profits at taxpayer expense, the future of America was slapped in the face with a substantial level of education.

Coming back around, Obama is magically becoming a socialist in the eyes of the loony conservatives because he wants people to actually have a good education and have healthcare. A successful nation needs these two things to be successful in the long-run. Why is that hard to understand. More on the socialism at another time....