Whenever I see an image of John 'Boner' wringing his fake- tanned little hands and yelping for more "spending cuts" to justify an increase in the debt ceiling, I just want to wring his fake-tanned neck. Sorry, but that's how I feel. I can't abide dishonest, posturing little turds, and I especially can't tolerate this phony's type. Now, I want readers to focus in on the attached photo and see who this piece of turkey turd is shaking hands with at the "Economic Club of New York" (obviously an entitled bastion of rich do -nothings with too much time on their hands, using it to figure out how to screw the poor and vulnerable using pseudo-economic hokum). It is none other than hedge fund billionaire Peter G. Peterson, the same privileged rat driving the frenzy for merciless spending cuts while preserving tax breaks for the rich.
Peterson is top banana of the 'Peter G. Peterson Foundation'. Quoted in a recent issue of In These Times (May 2011, p. 16), from his 1989 book, 'On Borrowed Time', he actually averred that:
“heroic medical interventions on behalf of the aged constitute an unaffordable and unjustified claim on society’s resources”, while adding:
“The elderly, after all, have already accomplished and enjoyed most, if not all, of what they can reasonably expect in life"
So, dig this: this piece of shit actually wants any of us - if elderly and impecunious, to just go jump off a tower or bridge. No biggie! We've already "enjoyed most of what we can reasonable expect in life". Want to know what I'd like to do with this guy? Well, consider the take on 'Boner' and multiply it by about fifty times. Of course, what Peterson (now funding many of the anti-entitlement crusades) doesn’t say is that the people he’s prepared to dispose of so readily are the poorest and most vulnerable. That is, the ones most likely to be decimated by Paul Ryan’s horrific Medicare voucher plan and insane budget.
You can bet anything that the wealthy seniors will be able to live as long as they damned well please, never mind they “have already accomplished and enjoyed most, if not all, of what they can reasonably expect in life”. Two divergent standards for living and quality of life for the elderly: one for the wealthy (who have benefited most from the Bush tax cuts engineered by economist Glen Hubbard) the other for the not so well off, who will have to beg, borrow or steal money to get the healthcare they need in Peter G. Peterson’s and Paul Ryan’s brave new world.
What gets me is why the media is even giving any play to Boehner's crappy demand for spending cuts. I mean, do they want to see European style riots and mayhem break out here, with cars and buildings torched and screaming mobs in every city - no longer prepared to believe they have anything more to lose as they've been ground into dust? Boehner for his part demands "trillions more in spending cuts" to justify agreeing to raise the debt ceiling. This he presented as part of his appearance at the Economic Club of New York. In his immortal words:
"It's true that allowing American to default would be irreponsible. But it would be more irresponsible to raise the debt ceiling without simultaneously taking dramatic action to reduce spending and reform the budget process."
NOW, this is what he ought to have said IF honest!
But it would be more irresponsible to raise the debt ceiling without simultaneously taking dramatic action to RAISE TAXES across the board to generate REVENUE and reform the budget process.
This, my friends, is the ONLY honest solution, though neither party will broach it because they'd rather play this stupid, too cute by half game of 'spending cuts' while pretending all classes can keep their low taxes (the lowest in more than 40 years as a % of GDP)...and no problemo, when revenue is what's needed...desperately! In many previous blogs I've been through all this, showing how and why the tax cut fraud is played out and now earmarked amongst the capital bad ideas (e.g. in Matt Miller's The Tyranny of Bad Ideas).
As Financial Times columnist Steve Rattner ('Only Tax Increases Can Fix America's Budget Mess', April 26, p. 7)notes:
"Those (Bush) tax cuts were not justifiable when introduced, and at a cost of about $3 trillion over 10 years, and they are not justifiable now. Tax rates during the Clinton era were still among the lowest in modern American history. The economy boomed and all workers saw their incomes rise. What's so bad about that?"
An earlier exhaustive FT analysis (9/15, p. 24) showed they haven't done one useful thing for this country since implemented. All they've done is destroy the surplus accumulated in the Clinton years, and drive up the deficit to astounding heights (along with two occupations of choice...I refuse to call them "wars" which over-dignifies them).
According to the FT's analysis from last year:
“The 2000s- that is the period immediately following the Bush tax cuts – were the weakest decade in U.S. postwar history for real, non-residential capital investment. Not only were the 2000s by far the weakest period but the tax cuts did not even curtail the secular slowdown in the growth of business structures. Rather the slowdown accelerated to a full decline”
It was said by Albert Einstein that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. If so, this nation and its political structure and duopoly party system is certifiably insane, because despite the prima facie evidence that tax cuts only wreak fiscal havoc and "supply side" is really voodoo economics (as Bush Sr. once opined) our glorious leaders voted to extend the Bush tax cuts another 2 years in December, digging us into a further $1 trillion deficit hole, with even more ruin to come. Will they ever learn? I doubt it! Politics is always played in this nation for political leverage and seldom with the genuine welfare of the people in mind. Ask that asshole Boehner.
My hope is that at least some Dems will wake up and tell Boehner where to stick it, which is to say where the Sun don't shine. I hope they will also have the intestinal fortitude to get off this masturbatory spending cut kick and level with the people: telling them that the picnic is over, and if they hope to keep any of their benefits, or "entitlements" as the Reeps and Deficit hawks call them, they will have to allow higher taxes- both for the wealthy AND the middle class! There can't be any exceptions, and playing this political game that exempts the Middle class while going after the wealthy isn't going to cut it and only plays into the Reeps' hands.
Thus, for the Ds to be able to tell Boehner, Peter G. Peterson and any other high rollers- wannabe benefit cutters and Co. to f*ck themselves, they (DIM-O-CRATS) have to be honest and forthright. They have to know higher taxes must be the main solution here, and not just making endless spending cuts - which is particularly stupid since the demand side of the economy is still weak and will suffer if spending is sliced back. After all, companies are still sitting on nearly two trillion bucks and only created 120,000 jobs this past month beyond the population increase-replacement level.
I hope this country soon wakes up, like Barbados did after its perilous 1986 experiment with American-style supply side tax cuts. After five years it was in the maw of the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, and was forced to eat fiscal crow and make enormously painful cuts across the board as the penalty for living five years taking in too little $$ came home to roost. Civil servants, among others, were affected by a uniform 8% permanent pay cut across the board, even as plans for VAT (value added taxes) were put into place. It was at that point that me and mine had to leave, as we could no longer afford to live there what with $14 cereal boxes, $78 turkeys and $15 chickens. Barbados, with some of the highest taxes in the region (even on pensions) has at least managed to pull itself out of the morass. The question will be: can the U.S. before it's too late. Or will it keep pursuing the idiotic fantasy of "spending cuts" as the only solution to deficits and debt ceilings.
One more note, Dems, don't deal with any party that makes a "pledge" or takes an "oath" ( a la Grover Norquist and his 'Americans for Prosperity') to never hike taxes! They are dishonest from the get -go and you could as well tell them to....f*ck themselves!
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