I am not an economist, nor do I play one on the teevee machine (as my beloved Rachel would say), but my dad has a Ph.D. in economics, as does my uncle. His wife, my aunt, is working on her Ph.D. in economics as well. They have all asked me to edit papers for them, so I know a bit more about economics than I ever thought I would. Plus, with the economic crisis flaring up all around me, I am reading more of the financial news–especially economic hottie, Paul Krugman.
We are in the middle of a fierce recession which is sliding its way into a depression. Unemployment figures are nudging their way into double digits. People are getting laid off by the thousands on a daily basis. Actually, www.eschatonblog.com is excellent for economic news because he’s an economist. And he’s funny. He posted this link from Calculated Risk that says 651,000 jobs were lost in the month of February. More than a half a mill in one frickin’ month!
What is government doing about it? Well, Prez. Obama and his posse (the Dems) are trying to stimulate the economy by, you know, spending money. See, if money is not spent, then the economy will not get better. That seems pretty basic to me. However, the other faction (Reps and Blue Dawg Dems) don’t wanna hear anything about this spending nonsense. They know the REAL way to stimulate the economy–tax cuts and a freeze on government spending.
Really. Tax cuts and a freeze on spending. Even David Brooks is calling that insane, and it takes a lot to get Brooks to buck the party line, albeit, in a moderate way. Because, you know, he’s a moderate conservative. Yeah, only if you’re judging by the Limbaugh/Hannity/Colter crazy stick. Seriously, folks. We are in a fucking crisis, and the Republicans want to cut taxes and freeze spending? I proposed this to my father (pretending to be serious), and he was flabbergasted. He thought I was joking, and when I told him I wasn’t, that Republicans were proposing this as their solution, he tried to figure out a way it could possibly make sense. He couldn’t.
Now, John McCain is saying that he’s gonna find an answer to our economic crisis. You know, the guy who suspended his campaign because the crisis was so serious–oh hell, I am so fucking sick of McCain. DUDE, YOU LOST! Suck it up and shut the fuck up. You have shown yourself to have a seriously-appalling lack of knowledge on the subject so do yourself and us a favor–retire already! Here is Digby’s take on this farce. Here is The American Prospect on Grampy McCain getting so much damn face-time for a LOSER. WTF?
I am channeling my inner Bill Maher to come up with a new rule. New Rule: If you are the assholes who got us in the mess in the first place and have roundly been defeated at the polls following such disasters, YOU DO NOT HAVE THE FUCKING RIGHT TO ACT LIKE YOU KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT THE ECONOMY!
New rule part II: If you are the same assholes who got us into this financial crisis, criticize the prez for being ‘too ambitious’ and ‘inciting class warfare’–by the way, can I just point out that the dreaded tax increase will make the rich have to pay what they did under Clinton? In addition, Obama is not increasing their taxes–He is just allowing the tax cut W. implemented to expire. Finally, the same fucking tax was 50% under Reagan. In fact, take a look at this graph from John Cole’s Balloon Juice. It’s pretty instructive. Newt and his ilk complained vociferously then, and they are doing the same now. Same complaints during Bill Clinton’s presidency. Somehow, asking the rich to pay their fair share was a burden on an economy. You know what’s a real burden? Not having health insurance. Having to choose between food and meds. Having a house whose mortgage is now more than the house is worth. Those are real burdens.
Shit. Where was I? Oh, yeah.
New rule part II: If you are the same assholes who rammed our country into the ground by forcing excessive dereg, by creating ‘too big to fail’ banks, and by, frankly, looking the other way from/participating in the rampant corruption that choked Wall Street, then you turn around and criticize The Prez for doing something differently, YOU DO NOT HAVE THE FUCKING RIGHT TO OFFER THE SAME SOLUTION THAT GOT US IN THE MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE.
In fact, let me state this as plainly as I can. If you are not going to act like responsible grownups and clean up after you soil your diapers–then at least shut the fuck up while an adult changes it for you!
Finally, just because he cracks me up and the title is somewhat tangentially-related, I am linking to Weird Al Yankovic’s It’s All About the Pentiums. Oh, and White and Nerdy just because.
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