There They Go Again

Are you tired? I’m tired. Our national dysfunction is sucking the energy out of everything. And here they go again.

There have been a flurry of reports about the precise date when the Treasury department can no longer fudge paying the national bills. We will have hit the dreaded debt ceiling.  Presumably we’ll get a bump on our heads. Or something.

Anyway: I have ranted enough about the lunacy of having a debt ceiling. It is just dumb, the debt we are piling up is a consequence of past legislation, not current or new legislation. Besides the deficit is shrinking fast – too fast – and thus the pressure is off on the accumulation of debt. The immediate need to tinker with the budget is, therefore, far less of an issue than it was a couple of years ago.

But we knew that was going to happen didn’t we? After all even in an anemic recovery like ours the safety net costs start to go down as things pick up.

So why am I tired?

Because that self-imposed, and very foolish, debt ceiling is once more being used by the Republicans to blackmail us into accepting their extreme agenda. You know, the agenda rejected in last year’s election.

Today they submitted a laundry list of things they need done in order to support raising the debt limit. It’s an impressive list. It’s also very long. And absurd. Here’s part of the list as per the New York Times:

“They include a one-year delay of the president’s health care law, fast-track authority to overhaul the tax code, construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, offshore oil and gas production, more permitting of energy exploration on federal lands, a rollback of regulations on coal ash, blocking new Environmental Protection Agency regulations on greenhouse gas production, eliminating a $23 billion fund to ensure the orderly dissolution of failed major banks, eliminating mandatory contributions to the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, limits on medical malpractice lawsuits and an increase in means testing for Medicare, among other provisions.”

So they want to encourage pollution, slash into bank reform, neuter consumer protection, protect bad doctors, and make wealthy people pay for medicare. Well, that last one isn’t so bad. But the rest? A laundry list of sweetheart stuff for big business and other major players in the 1%. A bigger slap in the face for regular folks is hard to imagine.

This is tiresome. The Republicans have become so monotone. Not black and white. Just white. Pure white. And they’re not even shy about it.

No wonder we have no hope of dealing with inequality. They think it’s a good thing. I sometimes decry them as trying to send the country back into the 1800’s or into a type of Ayn Rand winner-take-all world. But I think I’m wrong. The truth is worse. This is overt class warfare on behalf of the privileged few.

And that story doesn’t end well.

When the wealthy disconnect from society, as our current plutocrats have, their commitment to any form of “common good” is eroded. They restrict their lens to their own issues and problems and ignore those of anyone else. They pretend they can survive without the rest. They demean them and resort to nasty tactics like defunding social programs in the name of “freedom from government”. Which they don’t actually mean because they are quick to mobilize big government when it suits them. As in bank bailouts.  This self centered approach to the deployment of government is why recent Republicans have tolerated big expenditures by Washington. In the last three to four decades the run up in the national debt has been bigger under Republicans than Democrats. They used the debt to do things they wanted. They see government expenditure as fine as long as the “right people” benefit. So Citibank is saved for the stability of the nation and is not labeled a “moocher”. Whereas the unemployed or the poor are seen as lazy and thus not worthy of help.

That is class warfare whether you want to see it or not. It is as clear as day. It is the story of the entire Reagan era. It was typified by Romney and his 47% comment that resonated so well on the right.

Can the nation reform itself to get rid of the plutocrats and their control before things get much worse?

I don’t know. But I am tired of these fights. These endless anti-democratic fights. The plutocrats lost the last election, but like spoiled brats everywhere, they are now stamping their feet and refusing to acknowledge that loss.

Until we break their power this will go on, and on, and …