So for the last weeks the newest argument in Washington has been over the budget. The newly elected Republicans in Congress wanted to cut some billions out of our budget, the Democrats wanted to cut less billions, and soon enough no budget was ready at all. While both sides went forward posturing, the livelihoods of over a million government employees hung in the balance. I guess for those of you who enjoy the drama of political nonsense like this, Friday's budget crisis was a great bit of entertainment. I'm sure watching millionaires argue over a couple billion here and there while the scale of the deficit problem actually lies somewhere in the trillions can be great fun if you can forget for a moment that this insane bickering is supposedly the principles our country are based upon. If you're a complete sadist, you could definitely find it especially funny how the Republicans are willing to lose the deficit issue as just an excuse to get rid of programs they don't care for.
Naturally our political discussion has become so horribly divided lately that a compromise is completely impossible unless an arbitrary time limit is put at the end. We can't even have a reasonable discussion without a time limit that could shut the government down (which sounds a lot more dramatic than it actually is). Only in American can the budget crisis somehow come down to the abortion debate. So who won? The Republicans? The Democrats? Do we actually want either of these groups to win anymore? This entire debate was for a tiny, largely insignificant fraction of the nation's economic issues, none of which I actually see being solved yet. More importantly, this circus is what our government is doing right now when we're stuck in a miserable recession and the Libyan war is dead stalemate.
I hate being cynical about these things. But there are a few points that I'd like to point out to the Congressmen who made this deal, especially the Republicans:
- If you guys hadn't continued the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 1% of Americans, you would have made a much more significant impact to the deficit than with cutting education and other social programs. One can clearly see this current crisis as a scrambling attempt by our government to pay for these reduced taxes. Let's not forget that corporate tax loopholes allow some corporations to pay far fewer taxes than they should, General Electric being the most prominent scandal. GE pays fewer income taxes to the federal government than I do - zero dollars and zero cents. Essentially the US government is increasingly pushing welfare support away from the poor and towards corporations.
- Why in God's name were anybody thinking of cutting funding from National Public Radio? NPR, sadly, seems to be one of the only media outlets that actually bother to attempt to report facts anymore. Its at least the only source I trust without reservation. At the moment in the New York City area, there are three major news radio outlets. NPR is saddled between the station with Glenn Beck and the station with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. If more people listened to NPR, we probably wouldn't be in this crisis right now.
- If you want to cut something, cut aircraft carriers. Right now the Nimitz Class Supercarriers are by the most advanced pieces of naval hardware on the seas. Who the Hell do we think we're ever going to need Aircraft Carriers to fight? The other great powers, such as China have no economic or military incentive to fight us. Are going to war with Great Britain at any time soon? The idea is laughable. Not only is the Nimitz by far overpowered for a naval role, we're moving into a whole new class, the Gerald R. Ford class. At five billion a pop, these things will never see naval combat and are completely worthless to 21st century warfare. Hey, I like aircraft carriers as much as the next guy, they're awesome, but who are we kidding with this?
- Talk of repealing the health care bill is entirely premature and moronic. For one, the health care actually lowers the deficit.
- I'm still not clear how the abortion issue got tied up with the budget crisis. I'm a little embarrassed to even talk of it. Moving on.
- At this point we might as well end NASA. Obama killed the programs that would have gotten us to the Moon and Mars, leaving NASA with absolutely no future in terms of continuing exploring the space frontier. Unless we're actually going to be serious with this agency, let's save some extra cash. I still want to go to Mars more than any other person out there, but what the Hell are we doing here?
- Closing the government doesn't mean America has a nation ceases to exist. Non-essential personnel all are out of the job, but everybody else, soldiers, border patrol, air traffic control, military, still are up and working. Sadly soldier will still have to fight but they won't get paid for it. So not only is this political posturing worthless and shameless, its also unjust and terrible. Also the last thing our economy needs is another million people out of work, even for a week.
- Considering the recessions and the War on Terror, is the debt crisis really the most important thing on our government's plate anyway? I'm glad to see debt under control on some level, but I'd be more glad to see a plan to bring democracy to the Middle East or a real answer to saving the economy.
- As I mentioned before, this crisis doesn't actually solve much of anything. So in the next few months, we'll have the real debates. For one, we have to decide by May if we're actually going to pay off our debts or default on them. Then next year the Republicans are talking of trillions in cuts. I don't even want to imagine from where. If it can be done, bravo, but otherwise, Jesus Christ.
I must, say, I'm a little worried about all the shit going on in American politics at the moment. One day, I hope to get a job in one your genetic engineering firms, but the current political atmosphere really isn't favourable for science. forst there's NASA going under, and then I read somewhere that the Republicans have started this thing where the public gets to descide where science funding goes. That's really dangerous, because it then it becomes so easy for controversial areas, such as genetic engineering, to come under fire and then get wiped out. Who knows? Hopefully the situation would have sorted itself out by the time I get my PhD.
ReplyDeleteI hate politicians. I mean I REALLY hate politicians.
ReplyDeleteI suggest that we go into Congress and punch each individual Congressman in the face until they come to their senses and start thinking about the country instead of themselves.
Also, you claim to want to go to Mars more than anyone else, but I have doubts that you want to go more than I do.
Surely their plan is just to raise the debt ceiling. Every other government has done so before hand, I think it's been raised about 70+ times since after World War 2 so why break the habit? The fact that Congress can argue so much that they nearly shut down the government is a testament to Obama's compromise capabilities, doesn't say much else though.
ReplyDeleteThe main concern across the pond is the AV referendum and it pales in comparison to this insanity.
I just got a better idea than the face-punching one!
ReplyDeleteFire all congressmen and replace them with five-year-olds, we'll start seeing some improvement then!