The G.O.P.’s Existential Crisis

H

Haiku

Makes the ganglia twitch.
This sums it up nicely....

We are not having a debt crisis.

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Paul Krugman

It’s important to make this point, because I keep seeing articles about the “fiscal cliff” that do, in fact, describe it — often in the headline — as a debt crisis. But it isn’t. The U.S. government is having no trouble borrowing to cover its deficit. In fact, its borrowing costs are near historic lows. And even the confrontation over the debt ceiling that looms a few months from now if we do somehow manage to avoid going over the fiscal cliff isn’t really about debt.

No, what we’re having is a political crisis, born of the fact that one of our two great political parties has reached the end of a 30-year road. The modern Republican Party’s grand, radical agenda lies in ruins — but the party doesn’t know how to deal with that failure, and it retains enough power to do immense damage as it strikes out in frustration.

Before I talk about that reality, a word about the current state of budget “negotiations.”

Why the scare quotes? Because these aren’t normal negotiations in which each side presents specific proposals, and horse-trading proceeds until the two sides converge. By all accounts, Republicans have, so far, offered almost no specifics. They claim that they’re willing to raise $800 billion in revenue by closing loopholes, but they refuse to specify which loopholes they would close; they are demanding large cuts in spending, but the specific cuts they have been willing to lay out wouldn’t come close to delivering the savings they demand.

It’s a very peculiar situation. In effect, Republicans are saying to President Obama, “Come up with something that will make us happy.” He is, understandably, not willing play that game. And so the talks are stuck.

Why won’t the Republicans get specific? Because they don’t know how. The truth is that, when it comes to spending, they’ve been faking it all along — not just in this election, but for decades. Which brings me to the nature of the current G.O.P. crisis.

Since the 1970s, the Republican Party has fallen increasingly under the influence of radical ideologues, whose goal is nothing less than the elimination of the welfare state — that is, the whole legacy of the New Deal and the Great Society. From the beginning, however, these ideologues have had a big problem: The programs they want to kill are very popular. Americans may nod their heads when you attack big government in the abstract, but they strongly support Social Security, Medicare, and even Medicaid. So what’s a radical to do?

The answer, for a long time, has involved two strategies. One is “starve the beast,” the idea of using tax cuts to reduce government revenue, then using the resulting lack of funds to force cuts in popular social programs. Whenever you see some Republican politician piously denouncing federal red ink, always remember that, for decades, the G.O.P. has seen budget deficits as a feature, not a bug.

read the rest here... http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/opinion/krugman-the-gops-existential-crisis.html?ref=opinion&_r=1&
Click to expand...
 
Haiku said:
This sums it up nicely.... “The U.S. government is having no trouble borrowing to cover its deficit. .”
Click to expand...

Let’s see, borrowing money to pay debt, Oh Yeah! Now that’s really smart! That’s kinda like what teenaged girls do with their first fist full of credit cards, They use one to pay down the other one and think they can do it forever and get everything they want, brilliant, just brilliant!!!
 
If you think you can compare running the country to the family budget then you really don't understand economics at all. You probably believe that we're broke too.
 
Well, when the national debt is equal to the GDP and rating agencies are beginning to downgrade us, it’s a pretty damn good indicator somebody’s damn close to being broke.
 
You don't understand what's happening or why. Period. Beyond that I don't have enough interest in going over all this again. It's been done so many times....
 
Haiku said:
You don't understand what's happening or why. Period. Beyond that I don't have enough interest in going over all this again. It's been done so many times....
Click to expand...

OK! I’m the dumb ass and you’re the genius! Why waste your time on educating me, right? In most places they call that a “cop-out.”
 
Classic Liberal said:
OK! I’m the dumb ass and you’re the genius! Why waste your time on educating me, right? In most places they call that a “cop-out.”
Click to expand...

If your girls could print money to pay off their balances, the two situations might be comparable.
If their borrowing now would ensure a larger income for them in the future, there might be a comparison.
 
Classic Liberal said:
OK! I’m the dumb ass and you’re the genius! Why waste your time on educating me, right? In most places they call that a “cop-out.”
Click to expand...

It isn't personal. You believe certain things to be true that aren't is all. If you want to have a conversation fine, I can do that but I'm not going to engage in the usual BS that passes for 'discussion' around here. It isn't worth it to me. I didn't say any of the things you seem to think I did.

Have you watched the video of Thom Hartmann? He's very good at explaining how our situation is not the way it is commonly described on the right and by some dems.
 
Rune said:
If your girls could print money to pay off their balances, the two situations might be comparable.
If their borrowing now would ensure a larger income for them in the future, there might be a comparison.
Click to expand...

If my girls could print their own money, it would very soon become as valueless as Monopoly money. More of anything always has less value. Too much of anything always becomes near valueless. Fact is the only thing propping up American money is the “faith & credit” of the United States. It’s highly debatable just how much faith or credit the United States money is really worth. Seems that lately even the government’s crony rating agencies are on the edge of the America’s fiscal cliff downgrading America’s credit rating.

If America’s debt isn’t really debt at all, why do they keep raising the “DEBT” ceiling? Why are politicians always warning about borrowing too much money from China? Why are even many of America’s politicians now talking about going back to a gold standard?

Educate me!
 
Classic Liberal said:
If my girls could print their own money, it would very soon become as valueless as Monopoly money. More of anything always has less value. Too much of anything always becomes near valueless. Fact is the only thing propping up American money is the “faith & credit” of the United States. It’s highly debatable just how much faith or credit the United States money is really worth. Seems that lately even the government’s crony rating agencies are on the edge of the America’s fiscal cliff downgrading America’s credit rating.

If America’s debt isn’t really debt at all, why do they keep raising the “DEBT” ceiling? Why are politicians always warning about borrowing too much money from China? Why are even many of America’s politicians now talking about going back to a gold standard?

Educate me!
Click to expand...

Sorry my friend, the task you ask of me is too large. This is the help I will give you;
Most of your assumptions are incorrect. Look at each of your statements with an open mind and research them, until you find the other side of the coin. Then if you can't see why the other side of the coin is valid, come back here with specific questions and I will be glad to help.
 
Haiku said:
It isn't personal. You believe certain things to be true that aren't is all. If you want to have a conversation fine, I can do that but I'm not going to engage in the usual BS that passes for 'discussion' around here. It isn't worth it to me. I didn't say any of the things you seem to think I did.

Have you watched the video of Thom Hartmann? He's very good at explaining how our situation is not the way it is commonly described on the right and by some dems.
Click to expand...

You’re kidding right? The video of Thom Hartmann didn’t “explain” anything except that Hartmann is a leftie lambasting the Republicans. My argument in no way seeks to defend Republicans. Hell they’re as bad as Democrats when it comes to running up debt. I noticed that Hartmann didn’t bother to deny that Medicare/Medicaid and even Socialist Insecurity are actually in “DEBT CRISIS.” i. e. “unsustainable.” Hell even every honest Democrat, (if there is such a thing), admits that. I also noticed that Hartmann didn’t deny that 16 trillion $ in National debt and rising like a rocket is a “DEBT CRISIS.” I also noticed that Hartmann didn’t even bother to notice the “DEBT CRISIS” of places like Greece and other European countries who have the most liberal socialist programs.

The Hartmann video was simply a political dressing down of Republicans, nothing more.
 
Rune said:
Sorry my friend, the task you ask of me is too large. This is the help I will give you;
Most of your assumptions are incorrect. Look at each of your statements with an open mind and research them, until you find the other side of the coin. Then if you can't see why the other side of the coin is valid, come back here with specific questions and I will be glad to help.
Click to expand...

Thus far, you haven’t addressed “the other side of the coin.” I’ll look forward to it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top