According to the CBO, if we simply do nothing to current law, meaning the Bush gift to the rich is terminated and doctor’s fees are limited as the law has supposedly required since 1996 or thereabouts, the deficit will disappear on its own. Even if we give the doctors a pass, the deficit is reduced dramatically. The only reason the deficit is an issue is because the Republicans harp about it, while the Democrats cower, and, of course, every Republican policy, when you dig into it, increase the deficit while further enriching the rich.
This is the sort of thing that makes you think that perhaps the fix is in; that Democrats are just there to play the role of foil to Republicans, but their ultimate objective is pretty much the same. We will, I predict, here next to nothing from the Democrats, not to mention the press, about the fact that all this deficit talk is empty posturing of the first order. To talk about the reality of the CBO report would require a Washington politician to go against the prevailing Beltway consensus, and very few of them have the guts to do that. Better to buy into a narrative so entrenched that it seeps into establishment press coverage without raising a Beltway eye and avoid the isolation and derision that is peculiarly reserved for those who tell the truth in Washington.
The fact that the rest of us are being driven into poverty, while our kids see their future prospects destroyed by eternal recession, is neither here nor there to these people. We are collateral damage at best.
Post a Comment