Raising the Deby Ceiling…
Republican leadership is more confused and infantile than their tea party neophytes. After driving the economy to the brink of disaster they are now trying to flip the script with talking points designed to lay the blame on the current Administration. A review of recent history is in order: subprime mortgages-blame the borrower, banking bust-blame the bailout, credit crunch-blame the borrower, Auto Industry collapse-blame the union, unemployment-blame the poor.
When it comes to the affluent paying their fair share of taxes convince us that they are “job creators” instead of the extreme entitlement seekers. We are all disappointed and challenged by the fact that the enormous stimulus package did not do more to revitalize the US economy but we are not fools. The fact that it did not do more is a function of how deep the hole was that had to be filled to pull our economy back from the brink.
Republicans liken the US economy to the average household and the analogy works for those lacking the most basic understanding of economics. The US government has very little in common with the family household where cutting back can balance the budget as long as there is income. The way out of debt for any government is to grow the economy.
The way to grow the economy is to invest in education, research and development. Innovation and hard work are important keys to real recovery and growth. Republicans regard work with such disdain that they demonize the poor, immigrants and communities of color. Republicans fail to realize that lifting the bottom generates real growth in the economy rather than false inflationary Wall Street bubbles and busts.
America is fortunate to have a smart, even-tempered president to lead the nation through yet another crisis. Thanks to his leadership we now have a national health care program that seeks to cover all Americans, the US auto industry is coming back and we are adding jobs, not as many as we need but when the president took office we were hemorrhaging jobs in the hundreds of thousands. We have come a long way in three years. We have a long road ahead. The question is not what our country can do for us but rather what we can do for our country. We can begin by supporting our President and his effort to deal with our debt, deficit and fragile economy.
