My shoulders ache. They get that way when I forget to breathe. I forget to breathe when I think too much. I think too much when I’m frustrated. I get frustrated when I talk to people about politics and logic becomes irrelevant in their arguments.
Most of the arguments I hear from the anti-Obama voters centers around spending and entitlement programs. I call them “anti-Obama” voters rather than “Republicans” or “conservatives” because those labels have become white noise and I am sensing that my arguments are being summarily dismissed by the people I would like to listen to them.
Hardly a day goes by when I don’t hear someone talk about the monstrous debt and two things, in particular, that they believe are driving the debt out of control. They are the Affordable Health Care Act and Welfare Programs.
The anti-Obama voters are angered into rage because of what they call “Obamacare” and the alleged expense of it and they HATE liberals because they believe welfare is the undoing of American greatness and the combined costs of social spending is what is bankrupting our country.
Their hatred is multiplied by the fact that what they view as harmful and unnecessary expenses are coming out of their pockets. Money that they say they would be putting back into the system to create jobs and grow the economy.
Okay. Let’s say they’re right.
Well…I can’t go that far just yet, without pointing some things out—
1) The immensity of the National Debt was created by two wars that were entered into after lowering taxes that primarily benefitted the Upper Class. It was created by poorly conceived programs like Bush’s Drug Prescription program and “No Child Left Behind.” It was created by Troubled Asset Relief Program and stimulus spending that began under President Bush and continued under President Obama because we were spiraling into a deep recession that could have led to a deep depression. MOST of the debt is a result of the continued programs of President Bush (primarily the war budget and continued tax cuts).
2) Deficit Spending is essentially an irrelevant political platitude. What is relevant is the Debt to Gross National Product ratio. The argument and solutions should be focused on PRODUCTION and not debt, debt ceilings and deficit spending (just ask any Republican before it became the attack angle against Democrats).
Now, let’s say they’re right…Let’s say that the Affordable Health Care Act is a catastrophe that costs us more than it saves, and let’s say that welfare programs only create dependence on Federal handouts and let’s say that most welfare recipients are bilking the system because they don’t want to work (even though statistics show that this is not true at all, and, in fact, most people get off of assistance and contribute to the tax base), and let’s say that Obama’s stimulus spending was all a waste—-LET’S SAY ALL OF THAT IS TRUE!
IT STILL DIDN’T CAUSE THE RECESSION- and it’s not why it has been prolonged! What caused the recession, from which we have been buried, and for which so many people are angry, frightened and hateful was caused by decades of neoliberal economics (the work of neo-con politics) that has systematically transferred wealth from the Middle Class to a small percentage of the wealthiest Americans.
Call it Trickle Down, Reaganomics or Neoliberalism, it is the belief that no class but the affluent will spend enough money to support and grow the system. It believes that the market will police itself (even Alan Greenspan has admitted that was wrong), and that regulations have to be removed so that the investment class is unfettered in their quest to grow wealth. It successfully consumed wealth from the consumer classes over 3 decades to the point where the wealthiest Americans have increased their holdings by 250%!
What caused the recession was policy from Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush that loosened restrictions on investments and borrowing capital so that more people could buy houses, cars and toys (and cyclically we saw economic bouyancy), but also allowed the biggest winners to become even bigger winners, and eventually the well went dry.
Tax breaks and loopholes were created for the wealthiest and taken from the rest; instead of re-investing (as they were supposed to do) the wealthy increased their personal holdings while we went into debt. Deregulation allowed for derivatives of derivatives (of derivatives) to infect the market, thereby creating a house of cards; when loans came due, the values were toxic.
Wall Street knew that the bottom would fall out, but no one wanted to blow the whistle because some people were getting rich beyond measure. In fact, when Brooksley Born of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, did blow the whistle, she was quickly removed.
This was in the making for decades, but the walls started caving in from 2007-2009 before Barack Obama took office. The catastrophic collapse was of such a magnitude that NO policy could reverse the trends before things got worse. Obama’s stimulus spending, health care reform or continued welfare programs have not deepened the well, and, in fact, they are more likely to be helping to get us out.
Unemployment numbers, while still high, have been coming down, people applying for assistance is coming down and for many people health insurance is now something they can attain.
Now this is why my shoulder’s hurt….The anti-Obama voters want to go back to the way things were! They want to remove regulations on Wall Street that could keep derivatives in check, they want to continue (or reduce further) tax breaks for the wealthiest (and therefore most powerful) among us, they want insurance companies to go back to commoditizing our health and controlling the market, and they want those among us with the least power to be held more accountable for the circumstances created by that paradigm.
It isn’t logical!
