Wednesday, April 6, 2011

How To Really Balance Our Budget and Make a Profit, Libya Split In Two...

Michael Gerson
Dana Milbank
Maureen Dowd
"The Congressional Budget Office reported that President Obama’s budget had underestimated the deficit over the next 10 years by $2.3 trillion... In spite of this, Obama now has Republicans cornered in budget negotiations. By accepting $33 billion in cuts for the remainder of 2011, Obama has taken the middle ground and exploited a major division within the Republican coalition. The administration has transformed a weak record into a strong political position." - Michael Gerson
"How could the House Republicans make such enormous cuts and yet not solve the debt crisis? Simple: Ryan’s proposal isn’t a budget. It’s a manifesto for the anti-tax cause. The GOP plan reduces the government’s revenues by $4 trillion over 10 years because of tax cuts, including a lower top rate for businesses and the wealthy." - Dana Milbank
“You see, if you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do, kid. ... Money’s the cheapest thing. Liberty, freedom is the most expensive.” - Bill Cunningham

If you listen to the spin coming out of Washington, the tea party Republicans will have you believe that we are going broke, and the only things that can save us are drastic budget cuts followed up with more tax cuts for the wealthy, so they can create a job or two for us peons. Since the Democrats won't listen to us, we will also shut down the government until we get what we want, because it worked so well the last time that Newt Gingrich tried it. Maybe the same reaction will happen and it will be the end to Paul Ryan's short political career. Ryan is a short guy, and for some reason short guys often end up trying to bully the rest of us for our own good... This kind of austerity program was tried in England, and so far, it is failing miserably. and now Portugal is on the brink of disaster...

Shutting down the government isn't a bad idea, but only if it happens every year during the month of July or August. Many governments in Europe do this,which is why the city of Venice, Italy is over-crowded during those months... We could save some money, everyone would know in advance what services were closed, and some dedicated civil servants would be forced out into the sunshine at least once per year. And if we began the holiday on July Fourth, we  can give it a special patriotic ring to it:

Happy Birthday America, 
Take A Month Off

But if you are serious in wanting to balance the budget without raising taxes, there are a few things that can be done: First, is to get rid of all futures trading in commodities on Wall Street. Not only would there be trillions more available to spend elsewhere, but the cost of food and a gallon of gas would become a lot cheaper. Those CEO's bonuses could slide into our pockets... It's estimated that over one third of the cost of the world's food supply is due to commodity futures trading... If we keep on allowing commodity futures trading, the world's cost of food will continue to rise until there is more violence flaring up in protest in the Middle East and Africa and Asia. Trading in futures also affects gasoline prices, and is mostly the reason why the price of gas goes up during the summertime, it has nothing at all to do with supply and demand...


Second, might as well go real socialist on everyone and nationalize the oil companies. This way, oil that's gotten off of our shores will be used in America and not sold on the world market to the highest bidder. Exxon made $149 billion in profit last year. A few years of applying that kind of money, and we can kiss our deficit goodbye... There are many other ways that are less destructive than Paul Ryan's way, but he's doing his budget because he thinks it's the Right Thing to do. If you are a senior citizen or are unemployed, it's the death panels for you, because Representative Paul Ryan doesn't care about you...

Third, and this is the most obvious and easiest to enforce, is to eliminate all tax breaks for corporations, make them pay taxes. Most corporations pay less than zero every year, even the ones that make billions in profits can often have the government reimburse them. The myth of giving them tax breaks so they will create more jobs is just that, a myth. Here in Colorado Springs, where the Libertarian philosophy was born, we are very dependent on the military for most of our economy, and are glad to welcome another helicopter division to Fort Carson. We may talk a lot of tea, but we would go bankrupt if the government pulled out of our community. We may be appalled that GE paid no taxes on $14 billion in profit, but no-one is rushing to correct that in Congress...

The Republican budget is a destructive wish list of everything they want gone, including a mean-spirited cancellation of every program or change that Obama has done. I'm sorry, but the incredible viciousness of the Republicans and the length they will go to discredit Barack Obama, tells me that there is a lot of fear of Black men behind their antics, no matter how much they try to deny it. What's worse, is that these individuals have stopped being called on it, and dumb opportunists like Donald Trump think it's now OK to use racism to gain popularity for his stupid television show...

But, racism towards blacks is so last year, unless you are Black and won an election that could have gone to some good ol' boy from the South; today it's more fashionable to make ignorant slights towards Muslims, who evidently are the cause of all trouble in the world today, unless you're Chinese... Despite this hostility, a spontaneous pro-democratic movement has enflamed the Middle East. So far, France and Italy seem to be the only countries embracing the movements while simultaneously trying to send back all immigrants, leading the way in recognizing a second government in Libya, while demonizing their old trading partner and friend, Moammar Qaddafi.

As of today, there's talk of splitting Libya in two, with the rebel led side in the East, and the part ruled by the Qaddafi family in the West. This way, Qaddafi's meglomania can take off and soar to the extreme. He can rename his country the Qaddafi Nation. He can rename every city after him and members of his family that he's still speaking to, now entering Qaddafi City, or Qaddafiville... Why not go all the way, have all citizens dress up in Qaddafi designed robes burkas, rename and make your own money, the Qaddaf...

Despite the US making secret deals with Saudi Arabia, letting their military strut around Bahrain in exchange for access to Libya and giving arms to the rebels, places like Egypt and Tunisia are finding out that a democracy doesn't happen overnight by magic, it's messy, and takes a lot of work by a lot of citizens. They are currently going through post-dictator depression, standing around expecting someone else to make the decisions. We are patiently waiting in the wings, to see what flower will unfold...




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