The recent Budget battle only starts the the real war against the simplistic “ideals” of the Tea Party. The dream of a return to better times through smaller government and lower taxes is beginning to fade. The problem is that a movement that gained strength with the impending peril of the great recession, is now loosing popularity in the face of continued recovery.
It’s not that we don’t have to get the country’s deficit under control, we do. It’s just we don’t and shouldn’t employ the draconian measures that seem to comprise the heart of the Tea party’s plans for the nation. Very damaging to the chants of “Were broke!” is the failing examples of England and Ireland who determined that attacking their debts while their economies were still early in recovery was the best strategy. As it turns out cutting services further depressed the economy and the private firms that were supposed to fill-in the jobs that were cut from government were reticent to jump at the chance.
Both countries are now projecting even larger deficits and an incensed citizenry. They both hurt their tax roles and increased their unemployment, but I suppose it was worth a try, if for nothing else to prove the problem is not so simple as reducing spending.
Out of this first battle, President Obama ended up looking very much like the only person in Washington willing to do what was necessary and the outliers on both sides are back to beating their drums against him. But the bigger fights are still to come and I wonder if he will fare as well for those? I do have hope now that we will be at least OK when the smoke clears. Cooler heads did prevail and although we suffered through a lot of “stunts” the government found a way to go on.
Of course the President only did what he thought we wanted, most of us anyway. That’s the trick to being a successful politician, do what most of the people want, and at least enough of it to continue being a politician. You don’t get to do anything if you don’t stay in office.
The President correctly came to the conclusion that his own party and the all-powerful independent vote were not for cutting things like Planned Parenthood, Pell grants and yes, even NPR. Even with all the Republican focus on the supposed economics of the cuts, most percieved a “social agenda” or thought they did. They definitely saw that these cuts were trivial and not worth stopping the government for. Most of all the President has sensed a country that wants it’s government to stop feuding and get to work.
Not a good day for the Tea Party though, looks like being part of the Republican team is not working out they way they expected. Too many Washington insiders. Too many “old hands” who know how the game is played. Too many simple phrase-worthy answers for horrendously complex problems.
If it’s not too late they may want to split off, although with declining fortunes maybe its better to be a small fish in the big pond than take ranks with the likes of the Green party or the Libertarians. It’s not over for those brave and strident souls, but only being able to amass a demonstration of less than 300 for the big spending battle told us all the tables are tipping.
And while that may not be good for the Tea Party, it does mean that things are turning more hopeful. That is very nice. The markets continue to climb, jobs are starting to return or be created again. It even looks like housing may make a comeback sometime in the distant future. That’s still quite a ways off though.
Next we get to the main events. The first will be raising the debt limit, which will happen. There will be fireworks, and agonized charting of future “death by debt” but it will happen. It will happen for the simple reason that neither party wants to be the first in history to have the US default on it’s debts. I predict the Bush tax cuts will die as well, bringing in another 380 billion in revenue. There is nothing quite like making more money to cure a debt problem.
As we press on into what is going to be a very hot summer, the temperature of the rhetoric will rise and fall and I suspect that the fatal realization that may of us here on SWI will encounter will change the tide battle on things like social security and medicare. After all when it comes down to it, someone who has paid in faithfully for 30 years does not want to hear “we’re broke” when it comes time to pay up. That’s when the baseball bats start to come out.
Copyright Prentiss Gray 2011
Prentiss Gray is a writer and columnist and currently writes the Domesti-Tech Blog for Gannett. He can be reached through his website at www.prentissgray.com
Prentiss Gray
Prentiss Gray is a writer/columnist/blogger from New Jersey. After 27 years as a Information Systems consultant and the death of his wife of 21 years, he returned to his roots as a writer, creating the national column Adventures of the Lone Dad/ Daddy chronicles. He now Blogs for Gannet on domestic technology, and writes feature pieces and stories for general publication. He is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and contributes to Bloomberg News, Daily Record, Gannett and the Tribune Syndicate.
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If Obama, Reid Pelosi and the Democratic voters and rank and file are your idea of wise leadership, you are lost.
Did you want the government to shut down?
First of all you dodged the point of the incompetency of Obama and his cronies which is evident to anyone with common sense. Since you asked, I want it dissolved or brought back to earth and reality. Government is out of control and Soros and the Obamanation are bent on devaluing the dollar, which undermines retirement savings, artificially raising oil to all time highs even though we have more oil than Saudi Arabia and bribing unions to stay in power. As a Brit at heart I can understand your need for a nanny government, but mature Americans know government love is selective and breeds dependency.
Obama is a complete fraud in every sense of the word, the greatest political hoax
of all time.
Just to answer your questions:
I didn’t dodge the “point of the incompetency of Obama and his cronies” there is no incompetency, so nothing to dodge. As for the rest of the ranting, how was this fraud pulled off? By the same masters of the universe that pulled off the moon landing, the 911 hoax, and the fraud of the holocaust? The same basic questions defeat all of these conspiracies, why? Who? and How? Not to mention how it is that the many thousands required to keep secrets of this size somehow do.
By the way even the most pessimistic view of the Saudi oil reserves places them at either the number 1 or 2 position for oil reserve size in the world. The US comes in around 12th to 14th. Get more than one source, it’s called the Internet.
The fraud was committed by deception by Obama, a complicit media, billions (yes billions) in fund raising for opinion shaping, voting fraud in places like Chicago and New York, both of whom are the pioneers of this great national tradition. And the internet research I have seen substantiates that North America has more oil than Saudi Arabia.
No incompetency? That says it all.
Hey david send a link to that info, always interested in another opinion.
You were right about the oil, I misread it. Which proves a blind squirrel finds a acorn now and then.
Happens to the best of us
David, do you have any realistic advice to share with we, the easily-hoaxed American citizens? I infer from your comments that you know a great deal about the “need for a nanny government”, yet I fail to understand how your position could in any way resolve the issues and problems Prentiss outlined in his post. Government hatred is also selective, and is bred FROM dependency.
I have lived through 8 Presidencies. I have heard the term “hoax” and “incompetency” applied to every one of them. I have never seen this point of view produce anything of value to the American public, excepting perhaps, the resignation of Nixon.
I did not believe in “the dream” and I saw perfectly clear the “audacity of hope” preceding the election of Obama. I also understand the entrenched position of the partisan followers of the GOP. I see the Democratic governance as one side of a single coin.
As American ‘interests’ and Presidential doctrines have largely guided the general course of our political history,
no single president has ever truly held the power or influence to truly perform in a genuinely independant fashion. The questions that I feel beg to be answered are as thus:
1. If America has the preponderance of oil, why DO we depend on Arabic countries and the mandates of OPEC?
2. Which president throughout American history has not had the responsibility and duty to “clean up” what his predecessor has left?
3. What are the real interests of the American people vs. the interests of the American government?
4. How can solidarity among the parties be considered “un-American”?
There are surely more questions than answers, as our government, like all, are veiled and clandestine in their motives and actions. However, it is, I feel, imperative that we lend some support to whichever president has been elected, lest we find our entire government dead-locked and knotted, thus unable to help in any way the very people of which it is presumably comprised.
If I see a problem I try prescribing solutions. If this country is lead by such trickery, may we maneuver through the melee to discover concrete solutions that might help overcome the perpetual hardships that the American populace
endures?
One might believe it is possible, and succeed. Another may not and will surely fail.
Well we are the Saudi Arabia of coal with about 30% of the recoverable reserves; worth a thought. As to oil, there is a bit of fallacy in the figures. There is much more oil than is stated. The Head of the Saudi Aramco said with little notice: “We are looking at more than four and a half trillion barrels of potentially recoverable oil. That number translates into 140 years of oil at current rates of consumption, or to put it another way, the world has only consumed about 18 percent of its conventional oil potential. That fact alone should discredit the argument that peak oil is imminent and put our minds at ease concerning future petrol supplies.”
Also,I think it is our strategy to suck the rest of the worlds oil dry, and sit on our own reserves until then. Very smart as a long-term strategy. According to USGS, Saudi has 25% of the identified reserves, but less than 18% of the recoverable reserves. This is where we shine…We have more oil than we’re telling, and the oil producers are perfectly willing to lie about the rarity of oil, as this raises the price. Sort of like diamonds, which aren’t so rare at all. Their production is just controlled.
As to the budget battle, the Republicans played the game and won. The discussion before the last election was definitely not cutting the budget. It was increasing it. The Planned Parenthood and NPR stuff was a bargaining chip to get what was gotten. It will return again and again as long as it works. This is the same as the Democrats using the “elderly people eating dog food” and “killing women and children” arguments they use. They don’t believe it really, but it makes good politics. The politicians are at least discussing controlling the budget, a real win for the “tea party” folks.
Now Prentiss, your feature was well written, but let me take issue with the notion:
There is nothing quite like making more money to cure a debt problem.
Change the word making to taking, and you have it about right. Now we would agree that maybe GE should pay their share of taxes, and this would be a good start. So would cutting spending. We spend too much for too many things, many of which benefit the few; that is a problem.
But here is where the bigger problem lies…both sides are playing BS politics rather than really solving the genuine issues… I say vote them all out and start over with a new bunch; we could hardly do worse…
Two things. First I believe we are in complete agreement, get every dime owed in fair revenue and then strart spending it more wisely. We probably differvon justvwhat those two points mean though.
As for voting everyone out, what a waste of talent. Make them do their jobs instead.
I yield the field on future political posts and debates. I am seventy-three and have never seen a worse, more inept and dishonest president than Obama. Nixon had very good international skills but lacked character, so to me he trumps Obama. The voters are going to have to represent my views in the future.
If I write another piece about politics please, somebody shoot me and put me out of my misery.
Really sorry to hear that David. I believe politics for the average person doesn’t involve specific numbers or stats as much as it does ideals and principles. That little boo boo on the oil might have been a bit deflating but certainly not a deal breaker. A lot of us share a dream for America, we don’t always agree on how we will get there.
Prentiss, as for the economy starting to recover. Thats what happens when something hits bottom, happens everytime regardless of who is in charge. I don’t believe the conspiracy mentioned above is an overt thing that requires hush hush secretism as much as it is a melding of the ideas that certain individuals are known to champion.
I keep hearing talk of modifying medicare and medicaid but the idea of doing something to control spiraling health care costs is never even brought up. What am I missing?
I hope I write as well as you do when I’m 73. What about another short story David?
SteveG – I think you’re missing a political action group bigger than the Insurance industry’s. I heard an interesting view point the other day. This economist mentioned that “choice” and Interstate sales of insurance may not be the cure-all we hope. That’s because we always assume that we, the insured, are the ones with the choices. As it turns out doctors and hospitals would get more choices as well, and no doubt they would choose the insurance companies that paid the most for services. I don’t know about you but I’m locked in battles with health insurers all the time, and that’s just to get what they promised in the first place.
Services like medicare and medicaid won’t be affordable until there is only a set amount of money available, as in a single payer system.
Just my opinion, but the three least effective Presidents in my lifetime are Carter, Obama and Johnson. I’m not sure what order to pu them in. So by any objective measure, Obama has not so far proved to be up to the job. Not much of what he has done has been successful, in the arena of foreign or domestic. He comes across like he is weak as a dishrag. And you can’t blame everything on Bush, especially going on 3 years in. Like Mr. Farina said, every President blames the former for the “mess” they left. However, the interests of the government and the people are vastly different these days, a major problem! Also agree that we have a bunch more oil that we admit.
Just as a side note:
In aggregate, the United States has the worlds largest reserves of “fossil fuels” which of course factors in natural gas and coal et al…
With the vast amounts of coal we have and storage battery tecnology at a point where it is viable for passenger cars we could be energy self sufficient with zero imports in less than 10 years if we pushed. The infrastructure and production facilities needed to support the electric motors would spur the economy in a way we haven’t seen for many decades. The momentum from this would likely put us right back where we need to be. If we insist on borrowing this is what I would do with the money I borrowed.
I would be totally for that, especially if you could really clean up coal burning and had a solid plan to transition to something else. Coal is bad news, both in digging it out of the ground and in burning it. An improved electric infrastructure would be worth it though. Hey there there might even be jobs for writers!