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MUST READ. Spoiled brats and elections.
Eugene Robinson can read my mind.
MUST READ. Spoiled brats and elections.
Eugene Robinson can read my mind.
In the punditry business, it's considered bad form to question the essential wisdom of the American people. But at this point, it's impossible to ignore the obvious: The American people are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats.
…
The nation demands the impossible: quick, painless solutions to long-term, structural problems. While they're running for office, politicians of both parties encourage this kind of magical thinking. When they get into office, they're forced to try to explain that things aren't quite so simple -- that restructuring our economy, renewing the nation's increasingly rickety infrastructure, reforming an unsustainable system of entitlements, redefining America's position in the world and all the other massive challenges that face the country are going to require years of effort. But the American people don't want to hear any of this. They want somebody to make it all better. Now.
President Obama can point to any number of occasions on which he has told Americans that getting our nation back on track is a long-range project. But his campaign stump speech ended with the exhortation, "Let's go change the world" -- not, "Let's go change the world slowly and incrementally, waiting years before we see the fruits of our labor."
And one thing he really hasn't done is frame the hard work that lies ahead as a national crusade that will require a degree of sacrifice from every one of us. It's obvious, for example, that the solution to our economic woes is not just to reinflate the housing bubble. New foundations have to be laid for a 21st-century economy, starting with weaning the nation off of its dependence on fossil fuels, which means there will have to be an increase in the price of oil. I don't want to pay more to fill my gas tank, but I know that it would be good for the nation if I did.
The richest Americans need to pay higher taxes -- not because they're bad people who deserve to be punished but because they earn a much bigger share of the nation's income, and hold a bigger share of its overall wealth. If they don't pay more, there won't be enough revenue to maintain, much less improve, the kind of infrastructure that fosters economic growth. Think of what the interstate highway system has meant to this country. Now imagine trying to build it today.
i disagree Jeff. american people want solutions, and it's not so much that they want the solutions to be painless (though obviously, the absence of pain is preferable to pain), it's that they don't want the solution to entail ordinary people being fucked up the ass until they're bleeding to death (figuratively speakig of course). so far, what the american people have seen is banks getting bailed out under two presidents, with rates near 0%, while ordinary people have to pay exorbitant rates. we saw a bill called "the patient protection and affordability act" pass (and I might add, without the public option a majority supported, because the pres had made a secret deal with the pharma and insurance industries that there wouldn't be) that mandates that we all have to purchase insurance or face a substantial IRS penalty. today we woke up to learn our rates are going up about 14%. have you checked out the insurance exchange calculators? I don't know about you, but even with a subsidy, i can't afford to participate. And you know, it probably would have been easier to just expand medicaid to everyone, like Alan Grayson's been pushing, but that wouldn't have provided blue cross and well point with captive consumers. it's been like this with everything: health care reform became health insurance reform. The president has not led on DADT, when he could issue a stop-loss order. The administration's role in marriage equality is disgraceful and well-known. he has not led on immigration (although he gets credit for the suit against arizona and against Arpaio the racist dick). "yes we can" has very quickly morphed into "well, except for that. and except for that. and except for that." and then of course there is that pesky 10% unemployment number, which the adminsitration said in january 2009 would be below 7% at this time, without stimulus. OOOPS. And we both know that if the official rate is 10%, it's probably closer to 15%, maybe more than that. And let's not forget the deficit commission stacked with people who want to cut social security based on duplicitous reasoning. americans, I submit, are not spoiled brats (tea party nutbags excluded). what they are is sick: sick of being told that the bowl of shit they have been presented is actually the beef stew they ordered.
[...] MUST READ. Spoiled brats and elections.Philadelphia Citypaper (blog)… or face a substantial IRS penalty. today we woke up to learn our rates are going up about 14%. have you checked out the insurance exchange calculators? …and more » [...]
That "bowl of shit they have been presented" includes the federal government forcing law abiding citizens to incentivize and subsidize illegal behavior. A Pew Research Center report recently came up with startling results..."The report, based on Pew's analysis of the Census Bureau's March 2009 Current Population Survey, also found that the lion's share, or 79%, of the 5.1 million children of illegal immigrants residing in the U.S. in 2009 were born in the country and are therefore citizens." Taken one step further, 79% of 5.1 million is 4 million babies born here in the US to illegals in 2009. 4 million times $10,000 (average hospital cost per birth) is $40 BILLION, just for births, per year, paid for mostly by Medicaid (YOU AND ME). Factor in all the other annual "free" emergency room health care visits per year and it can easily be $100-$150 BILLION PER YEAR, over ten years equals $1-1.5 TRILLION, or the ENTIRE current federal budget deficit. The "bowl of shit they have been presented" is a socialistic redistributionist class envy attack the producers bowl of shit that says tax increases and government debt are harmless because people haven't been paying their fair share anyway; it includes an assumption that people that have worked hard and played by the rules to acquire wealth are actually evil tax dodgers and they are the ones that must pay for other people's bad decision making. The bowl of shit says bankruptcy is hurtful, the American people must pay for other people's mistakes. The bowl of shit says you can produce all the children you possibly can because it is the government that should pay to support them. The "bowl of shit they have been presented" includes a mentality that says you are an intolerant racist bigot if you want people to enter our country legally, and if you believe that if one is an illegal immigrant to America their simple act of having a child on U.S. soil should not grant automatic citizenship to that child, nor should the birth be paid for by the U.S. taxpayer. I submit, this Tea Party Nutbag is not a spoiled brat. I am not dependent on government, nor do I make every decision based on how much government money I think I am entitled to. I believe in a government safety net, I believe in government as referee. I am sick - sick of slimy redistributionist spin city government...sick of this bowl of shit we have been presented.
If you have ever had food poisoning, you know that your body essentially wrings itself out until it gets back to normal. The American people were fed what they told was a fresh wonderful bowl of "yes we can" "TARP" "Stimulus" "subprime loan" and "we have to pass it to find out what's in it" salad. The salad looked pretty good, and tasted good too. But as it started being digested, the severe indigestion & food poisoning started ---- and hasn't even come close to finishing yet. A Republican/Tea Party revolution will be a nice dose of Pepto-Bismol, but that will only be the first part of lengthy prescription to nurse this country back to health.
Here is a great cartoon --- says it all! http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/PhotoPopup.aspx?id=546001
Republican/Tea Party Pepto Bismol? Sounds like part of the problem - it's not the party that's the problem, it's how quickly they walk away from the table and run to the press about how rigid the other party member is. Partisan politics and intolerance is the main "virus". A lengthy prescription has nothing to do with political parties, and everything to do with actually hammering out compromise. The bitching and finger pointing only adds to the problem and wastes time. If we spent half as much time finding solutions as we do bickering, something might actually get done. Everyone has to give a bit, and both parties are guilty for continuing to walk away when it's not 100% to their liking.
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