A friend and I had a conversation today about what's really happening in DC. He pretty much agrees the whole show is merely theater designed to kill the juice on the third rail. In the real world, the third rail of a track is the one that carries the electricity required to run an electric train. Touch it and you die.
For many decades that's what Social Security has been called, the "Third Rail" in politics. Tip O'Neill, Speaker of the House at the time, first coined that phrase in the early 80's, during the time Ronald Reagan, David Stockman and Alan Greenspan "fixed" Social Security. After several failed attempts to change it's provisions, these three folks finally managed to get a measure passed in 1985. It cost the Republican Party control of the House in 1986, when angry voters "threw the bums out" because of the changes.
Politicians of both parties are pretty cunning guys, and the Republicans - now with the active assistance of a few Democrats in the house and the Big Guy in the oval office, knowing there was more work to be done "fixing" Soc. Security, realized they'd need to change tactics if they were ever to succeed in doing away with this very popular government retirement insurance program. They have spent the last twenty-five years slowly redefining the terms, and shaping public perceptions with conservative owned media.
Today, Social Security is no longer an old age pension insurance plan, it's an "Entitlement." Even after convincing the populace of the switch in name and tagging the word with negative connotations, it still proved to be a highly charged issue. Attacking "Entitlements" was still a great way to get voted out of office.
What we are seeing now is a further refinement of the effort to destroy the only two programs designed to help most people after their bodies have been worn out by toil. The politicians say they are not getting rid of these programs, instead they claim they're "fixing the deficit" and they're even doing that obliquely - they're debating "raising the debt ceiling." Don't believe them for even a millisecond. http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3548
Twenty-five years of changing definitions and obscuring the debate has culminated in the argument we are witnessing today. And, all of it is completely irrelevant. My friend asked that instead of railing at the unhearing Gods, and shrieking out in anger, could I just please give him what I thought was a decent solution so he could determine it's merits? That stopped me for a minute. Of course I knew what I'd do if I were in charge, but I had never taken the time to state my answer to the problem. He was right. I have been so busy yelling about the idiots, everyone must believe that I run with the same animals, just a different tribe.
OK - here we go. My solution. First, something must be done quickly about the debt ceiling. (Even the Speaker of the House agrees with this http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-15/obama-says-debt-default-may-unravel-global-financial-system.html ) In the past, that issue has stood on it's own, without ties to any other issues. That's what we need to do now. Get rid of the other issues and raise the limit. If doing that is so far beyond political reality as to be impossible, there is a separate way to deal with the ceiling. Right now, we owe ourselves 1.6 trillion dollars. Much like taking money out of your own savings account to buy a new car, and then telling yourself that you must replace it, our government has accounts just like that. We would say we owe ourselves what came out of the savings account, and need to replace it. Our government says it owes itself 1.6 trillion dollars in this sense. Just stop telling ourselves we owe ourselves this money and the debt ceiling issue goes away. http://www.ronpaul.com/2011-07-11/ron-paul-rescind-americas-ficticious-1-6-trillion-debt-to-the-federal-reserve/
Next, do ABSOLUTELY nothing. Period. Nada, nil, stop. Current laws on the books call for the tax breaks given under the Bush administration to expire. We have already decided to pull our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. These two things, along with several other items covered by laws already enacted, will bring our budget back in balance. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/we-have-a-congress-problem-not-a-deficit-problem-in-one-graph/2011/05/19/AGVOXgtH_blog.html Please note the blue band, which represents our deficit, at the bottom of the graph.
All we are watching on the TV is the purest of nonsense, designed to do nothing more than confuse and distract the American public while our benefits are being stolen from us and while taxes are being lowered on the wealthiest among us. http://blogs.forbes.com/robertlenzner/2011/07/25/the-400-richest-americans-pay-an-18-tax-rate/?partner=yahoofeed
Let's pass a clean debt ceiling increase and then declare an indefinite recess of congress. We have plenty of laws now, and all they do while in session is spend money and argue. They can meet again if we need them sometime in the future.
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