Hypocrisy and Political Self Perpetuation

Too often members of Congress are asked to vote on bills that they have not even read. Deficit reduction negotiations have never and should not currently be tied to lifting the debt ceiling. You cannot say any deal is a good deal.

The reported terms of the deal, in which President Obama and the Democrats basically waived the white towel, calls for big spending cuts; with no increase in revenue. Then a panel of twelve will make recommendations for further deficit reduction; and if these recommendations aren’t accepted, there will be more spending cuts. A panel, who will be on the panel, and who will decide who gets on the panel? We have the Senate and the House; they, not a select group of twelve should do their job.

The White House and Democratic leadership have given the signal that they will back down and unfortunately, for the American people, the Republicans are taking full advantage of this. Concessions are taken not given, especially when your party is in the White House and controls the Senate.

This deal is going to cost the middle class and poor working families in the end as well as give the wealthiest in America a free pass. John A. Boehner has declared a total victory — telling his colleagues, “The White House bid to raise taxes has been shut down.”

The majority of Americans want budget cuts along with tax increases for the wealthiest. We got the budget cuts in this deal, but no revenue from the wealthiest, not even closing tax loopholes.

"Unemployment will be higher than it would otherwise have been," Mohamed El-Erian, the CEO of Pimco, the world's largest bond investment firm, said on ABC News. "Growth will be lower than it would be otherwise. And inequality will be worse than it would be otherwise."

According to economist Paul Krugman, “It will probably make America’s long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.”

Not raising the debt ceiling would be catastrophic but cutting social nets and continuing to allow the rich and corporations to pillage from the poor is just as catastrophic.

If there are no tax increases there is no added revenue.

The worst thing you can do in this circumstance is cut government spending, since that will weaken the economy even further; this is not a balanced deal. Every day spent debating over taxes and spending is a day not spent addressing the nation’s larger concern . . . . jobs, jobs, jobs.

Eighty percent, that’s a big number! H-e-l-l-o, Dems, 80% of America is insisting that the BIG 3 – Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, - be untouched during negotiations. What is it that our elected officials in Washington D.C. don’t understand? The majority of Americans want the social safety net that they were promised to actually be there and without any cuts.

Social Security has been around since 1935 and is the most effective government run program in this nation’s history. Before its enactment over 75% of the nation’s senior citizens lived in poverty. Today the poverty rate for elderly Americans is right around 10% and over 9 million disabled people are on social security; 6.5 million widowed families also receive social security payments. There are a lot of Americans depending on the Big 3.

Democrats need to find or grow some backbone and ensure that shared sacrifice is indeed shared. The working poor and the middle class have already sacrificed. It is time for the rich and corporations to dig deep and sacrifice, the time for just contributing is over, sacrifice those Bush tax cuts, their corporate jets, and obscene profits.