Ignorant citizens elect ignorant leaders; it's as simple as that. ~ George Carlin
Is the debt deal OK? In a word, No. This myopic measure, the Budget Control Act of 2011 that passed the Congress and was signed by the President Tuesday, has set the bar so low for expectations of realistic recovery (both political and economic) that perhaps we should follow Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré's apt suggestion. He wants every elected representative and senator to be forced to attend boot camp until they remember both their responsibility to the American people and what they were elected to do – honor and promote the public interest. [I'd add that they should attend fiscal, not just physical, boot camp to pound some sense into them about the scary, beyond-the-beltway economic realities they've seemingly forgotten (or never knew).[1]]
It's too early to tell whether the popular revulsion now being expressed in the media regarding the passage of this Act is truly widespread or not. How many citizens will remain upset enough for long enough (say, 15 months) for Congress' malfeasance to have a political impact? Not that many as memories are short. As Willie Nelson said this week, most people understandably care far more about their home's ceilings, not the national debt ceiling – an abstract concept they probably don't really comprehend anyway.
And if the distress is felt by more than just the Taliban Republicans (TRs) and liberal-progressive Democrats, will it make any difference beyond this week? Hard to say. But for the life of me, I can't understand why any TR could be as upset as they purport to be – didn't they just disproportionately dictate a huge swing to the right for this sorry piece of legislation? Didn't President Obama exercise his all too usual flawed tactic of before-the-fact capitulation in the name of "getting something/anything done?" Yes indeed.
Sure, the debt limit was finally increased some, but at the likely expense of casting high unemployment in stone for a long time to come and seriously lessening the already anemic growth of the domestic economy. It does nothing to solve our fundamental, structural economic imbalances.
But wait, isn't this the real, unstated goal of the Republicans – to elongate the Great Recession as much as possible, hopefully to Nov 6th, 2012? I think so. The Republicans remain cynically willing to sacrifice the economic well being of millions of Americans so they can hope to win the next presidential election, when numskull voters will blame President Obama for their economic plight, not the true perpetrators – plutocratic Republicans John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, et al. – who do this with sardonic, self-righteous smiles. The real, remaining question now is how much lower will the TRs go? Because they've just successfully kidnapped the nation (and representing only 1/8 of 1/3 of the federal government's elected decision-making institutions; a chilling example of the tyranny of the minority), I fear for the very worst.
[1] Here's but one measure of the everyday, scary reality facing Main Street: one (1) out of five (5) Americans older than 20yrs is now on food stamps; 45.7 million folks.
