Group 19: Romance/Cliff/Smartphone

The Marvel of Your Sunset

Synopsis: A couple celebrates their fiftieth wedding anniversary at the cliffside cabin where they spent their honeymoon.

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Carol set the parking brake and lifted her foot from the clutch. "We're here, dear. We can't stay in the parking area for long - so let's get you settled so I can unload the car and move it."

"I remember when you would jump out to get the key and I would start unloading the back." James sighed. "Those were good days."

"These can be good days too. Just different." Carol smiled, then reached over and patted the top of James' thigh. "I'll jump out and get the key - and you start shaking the drive out of your legs."

When Carol returned with the key, James had started walking slowly down the path toward their cabin. He seemed to be managing well, with his cane, so she opened the trunk of the car and lifted out a couple of bags.

"That's the one, James. Next to last."

James turned to smile at her and nodded. "Yes, yes. I know. My memory isn't that bad you know. We always stay in this one."

( story continues )

I was on my way to a job interview, listening to public radio, and I heard it again - the suggestion that the US Government needs to operate like a family and balance its budget.

Listening to the stupidity I could feel my blood pressure spiking. Why are so many people in this country so stupid - or so willfully ignorant? I sometimes feel like collective idiocy will make my brain explode.

There are two primary questions I have for all these government as family folks:

1. How many families do you know that have the ability to print their own money? If a family spends more than it earns it has three primary options: reduce spending, earn more money, or borrow. If a government spends more than it earns it has those three options - plus it can print more money. Printing money is a government function that enables the government to function and provide support to the economy during hard times.
   
   
2. How many families do you know that actually adhere to a balanced budget - meaning never use credit cards, loans, check kiting, etc.? Let's get real here. Maybe politicians and other fat cats in banking and industry have the earnings to maintain their standard of living without incurring debt, but the average man in the street doesn't earn enough to pay the bills and finance the American dream. Items that are normally financed include home ownership, college educations, automobiles, furniture/large appliances, vacations, emergencies (like auto/appliance repairs). And while providing for loan repayments in the budget enables a family to maintain a balanced budget - they are using debt - rather than savings to finance their lifestyle, and many families make only minimum payments on credit cards. So while many families may technically have a balanced budget - they aren't really satisfying the spirit of the demand currently being laid out by the GOP.

Hypocrisy and puritan morality - hallmarks of the Christian right - come into serious play here. There's the standard do as I say not as I do thing - plus the holier than thou suggestion that owing money is somehow sinful. To the best of my recollection, while the ten commandments do include the very specific injunction against stealing, there is nothing there about borrowing money. As long as you pay back your debts, you aren't stealing, so you aren't doing anything wrong.

For a good discussion of the economics of government debt and its uses - there are numerous blogs that have covered this territory thoroughly - including Ezra Klein, Jared Bernstein, Brad deLong, and my hero Paul Krugman.

My hope for today is that more Americans will become educated on this subject - and that all the politicians spouting this false argument will choke on their own bile.

I've long had this fantasy of going around the country taking out all the liars and idiots who seem determined to drive this country to ruin. In my fantasy I would put a single bullet between their eyes - and then write their crime on their forehead in red lipstick.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, I'm not really a violent person - and I don't think I could really shoot someone in cold blood. So, I've decided to pick worthy individuals and give them my fantasy treatment - in photoshop.

So today we have the first candidate. I heard a piece on NPR this morning, which quoted Jenny Beth Martin, cofounder of the Tea Party Patriots, as saying, " "We're all tired of it, and we expect more. And now we've got the debt ceiling increase coming up. It's time to cut America's credit card."

Cut up America's credit card. I found myself shouting at the radio, "Are you fucking insane?" I was so upset I had to turn off the news. I just couldn't listen and drive safely at the same time.

What these idiots don't seem to realize is that:

1. The United States isn't a person or a family or a household and therefore comparisons don't work. The United States doesn't have a credit card. The idea of cutting up the credit card, like a shopaholic would do, is ludicrous in the extreme.


2. If the debt ceiling isn't raised and the US defaults on its debt, a financial crisis will ensue that will make the last financial crisis look inconsequential and will probably tip the US into a spiral of decline that will leave us lucky to be considered 3rd world.

Jenny Beth Martin is a great argument against representative democracy. We are all in thrall to the tantrums of the ignorant, the immature, the self-centered, and the self-righteous. And I despair.