Pay As You Go

Given that our current crop of neo-republicans seem opposed to paying for anything out of general revenues (i.e., tax revenues), I infer that their preferred model is a pay as you use system of (non)government.  Such a system might work as follows:

1.       Central Premise: you only pay for the government services you actually use.

2.       Education: if you have no kids enrolled in school, or you are not yourself enrolled, you would pay no local/county property taxes associated with education, and no federal or state taxes associated with education.  All costs of education would be borne by the users. And for those who hate the idea of public education, we could even consider eliminating all public education, relying on that old standard, private schools. For those who cannot afford such schools, educate your kids at home.

3.       Health care: We only pay for the health care we actually use. That means, of course, no insurance, private or public. So the Aetna’s and Blue Crosses of the world would cease to exist, as would the Health Care Financing Administration and its central program Medicare. If you get sick, go to a doctor’s office, or the ER and pay for the services rendered out of pocket. If you can’t afford to pay, don’t get sick.

4.       Health Research: Leave it to the drug companies. Eliminate NIH.

5.       Drug and Food Safety: Buy from your friendly neighborhood farmers. Stay away from drugs. Have you ever read the side effect notes on these things???

6.       Environmental Protection: The environment will take care of itself, thank you. So, eliminate all EPA functions at all levels of government.

7.       Workplace Safety: Gone. If your workplace is unsafe, go somewhere else to work.

8.       Unemployment Insurance: Gone. Get a job, you slackers.

9.       Business Regulation: Gone. Regulation of commercial entities is un-American. All business owners have the welfare of Americans in mind in all decision-making. What’s good for GM is good for America. Your friendly mega-banker is clearly a saint, and should be accorded such status by all you peasants.

10.   Rich people are good by any definition: The IRS and all tax codes will be eliminated. Taxing rich people especially is un-American.  To compensate for the loss of tax collectors, ATM machines will be placed in all homes and on all street corners. If you want something, whip out your debit/credit card and pay for it first. Example: if your home is being burglarized at 3:00 AM, there will be no police to call. Instead you will insert your ATM card into your home machine, hit 911 on the machine, enter your PIN code, and your friendly neighborhood vigilante group will be over shortly to take on those nasty burglars. Alternatively, just take out your AK-47 and spray the house with bullets.

11.   Traffic controls: there will be no police/sheriff/state highway patrols, so all drivers will have to control themselves. We will adopt the system of driving popular in Rome: ignore all vehicles behind you, focusing instead exclusively on the car in front of you.  If you cut off someone behind you, that’s their problem.

12.   Immigration: We will have no INS agents patrolling the borders. Instead, those living near our borders, will have to pay someone to build a big fence . . . or learn Spanish.

13.   Military: We will eliminate our military (there’s a big savings), so nobody can go and start any wars. If someone looks to be invading us, those who are in the way, are allowed to privately contract with Blackwater (Xe??) to counter the threat.

14.   Climate Controls: Climate is the work of God. It cannot be controlled. Anyone who says different is a liar, and a Liberal.

15.   Flooding, etc.: Move your house.

So, that’s the general idea. Everyone can do whatever they please. That’s Amurrica. Oh, except for those nasty gay and Lesbo types.  We’ll just have to dump them at sea I guess.

Oh, and there won’t be any voting nonsense, because there won’t be any voting. The neo-republicans, aided by their Christian Taliban allies will decide who is in charge, whenever someone needs to be in charge.

Fiscal Sanity

So Eric Cantor and his neo-republican buddies couldn’t deal with reality any longer and decided to head for the hills. That’s the way with these fellows. They love charging stuff; they just can’t deal with paying for anything. They’re the original “charge and spend” pols. Apparently, if you raise the subject of taxes with them, like the wicked witch of the west, they threaten to dissolve into a pool of liquid dung.

I have concluded this gang is un-American, if not downright anti-American, since they care not a whit whether the nation crashes and burns as a result of their actions. Default on our obligations? We don’t care. This strategy is fairly standard for republicans. They first create a crisis. Then they bail out. Then they try to blame the democrats. All in the name of getting themselves re-elected to power, because power is their one and only principle.

Apparently the collective lords of the manor—the Koch’s and other of their ilk, have decreed—“No New Taxes” So, Mr. Cantor and the rest of the black knights of the realm, are implementing the Koch’s royal decree. They are willing to fall on their swords rather than cross the dukes of the land—their owners.  Should the Americans default on its public debt, causing the economy to crash and burn, so be it. Should everyone not currently unemployed suddenly join the ranks of the great unemployed, tough—stuff happens. The Koch’s won’t be unemployed and nothing else matters.

America really needs to turn out this gang of thieves—for that’s what they are. They are stealing America’s future.  Americans need to awaken from its current stupor and begin to understand that republicans have turned into enemies of the Land.

And I have a suggestion for our collective pols. How about if we take the current national debt and divide it into two parts—the debt created under republican presidents and the debt created under Democratic presidents.  All registered democrats assume responsibility for paying down their debt. Republican voters assume responsibility for paying down their debt.  Uncommitted voters get to choose whose part of the debt they wish to assume.

Then they cast their ballots for the future.

Crazy America

I confess that it is getting absurdly difficult to write a blog about American politics these days. I mean, how can any rational person write anything in response to "Weinergate" as but one example. In the old days, I had thought Anthony Weiner was a rational person who represented some part of the good folks in New York City.  He seemed OK, or as OK as Congresspeople ever get. I mean we do tend towards the bottom of the barrel when we seek out citizens for Congress.  But Tony baby, you shot past all low-grade expectations for stupid behavior by a member of Congress. You claim you "made mistakes." No, Tony, it's not a mistake when you shoot pictures of your penis and then broadcast them for all the world to see. It is simply stupid. So, from now on, you have joined the legions of Mr. Stupidheads all over America.
And the Republicans . . . hard to imagine how they could be any worse, or any more extreme in their attitudes toward ordinary Americans. You all seem to despise government, yet, like St. Ronald, you seem crazed to head up this noxious beast. That's because you're phonies. You espouse ethical beliefs, but you're phonies. The only thing in which you believe is power--power apparently at any cost to America. You even have a southern Governor of that now unmentionable state in the southwest who believes his state should secede from the Union, that having worked out so well last time. Maybe he's hankering for yet another "Reconstruction."
I guess the most rational course for the near term is to obtain all my news from Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert.  Like the Faux News Network, they too just make stuff up, but at least they're funny.

America of Your Dreams

So, it turns out that Americans are angry.  Mainly, they’re pissed about the absence of jobs in America. I guess a few are angry about the state of our fiscal mess—you know, the continuing deficits. Mostly, though, Americans only really care about themselves.  I have long believed that republicans adopted a “Let’m eat cake” philosophy, with their official motto, “Hoist up the ladder, Jack. I’m aboard.” But apparently, it’s more than the douchebag republicans and their teabagger serfs. Turns out that many, many people are angry that nobody, including especially Obama, has fixed the economy, mainly jobs.  And it’s clear that, while few really like republicans, Obama is getting more than his fair shareof criticism for not making sure everyone in America has a chicken in every pot, and a car in every garage.

The big question in my mind is, “Why Obama?” I thought these same people rebelled at the idea that the Prez and government in general create jobs. Whenever he does anything, they’re always yelling that only the private sector creates jobs. OK, so then why not yell at the private sector, as in the bank CEOs who refuse to part with any of their trillion dollar holdings to give out some loans to get some businesses moving? Well, apparently, it doesn’t work that way. In fairyland, where most Americans seem to live, we applaud the private sector when jobs are created, and yell at government when the economy stalls. For example, I really love the round of arguments about the debt ceiling.

Republicans want to avoid raising the debt ceiling unless Prez agrees to do something about the deficits. OK, but then when he suggests doing something, like raising taxes to reduce the deficit, they scream—no, no, you will kill jobs. Huh?? But, guys, in, say 1996, when the economy was booming (remember those good old days??) we had a (marginally) higher tax rate, a full economy, and budget surpluses that were leading to paying down the debt . . . until George II and his neo-con stupidheads took over.

Then there’s the real jobs issue, also not created or really solvable by the Prez. See, our collective corporate CEOs thought it would be just grand if we shipped most of our manufacturing enterprise to China. We’d keep the gambling casinos (Wall Street), mining, and housing. Everything else could go.

Well, go it did, with a vengeance.  Then our banking CEO’s all decided to pull the plug on the housing bubble and the economy crashed—not just tumbled, but it flamed out and crashed big time.. Then the banks began failing, cuz there was nobody left to pay back those dumbass loans they had manufactured.

So, then what are we left with? Well, we have no industrial base remember. And since nobody has a job, or realistic chance at one, the housing market, the last remaining manufacturing entity left in fairyland, has nowhere to go but down, and it is continuing its downward death spiral.

So now, the residents of fairyland are yelling at our Prez, as though he had any control over any of this.  He can cut government spending, of course, but that will surely exacerbate the unemployment problem.  Or he could raise taxes, say back to the 1996 levels. But then the “hoist up the ladder” boys would begin whining about how jobs will be killed. Huh! What to do, what to do?

Well, the solution of the clamoring hordes in fairyland, seems to be to elect more of the guys who created the current mess—you know. . . Republicans.

Then what do they expect will happen?  Well, republicans are telling them what to expect. Under the Ryan plan, the economic quick fix of choice for republican deep thinkers, the plan is to rid the country of poor people and old people—they’re so messy. Get rid of health care for both so they’ll . . . die more quickly.  Then drop the tax rates below even current levels, so the really rich (the 1% who own 90% of the current wealth) will smile more (a new kind of Smile Train).  Then eliminate all pretense at environmental control—just get rid of all those laws and the pesky regulators and let industry (what’s left) do whatever they want.

Then everyone in fairyland will be happy.

Just in time for the Fall Rapture.

Making Republicans Vote

Word has it that Senate democrats are not playing fair. “They are trying to scare seniors” suggests a prominent Republican.  How? Well by forcing republicans to vote on their own plan to eliminate Medicare. Imagine that—forcing republicans to vote or shut up is unfair, if not downright un-American.  Voting . . . how awful.
Rep. Ryan, much beloved by republicans because of his plan to eventually eliminate the deficit by eliminating Medicare and Medicaid, is aghast at this turn of events, wherein he might be held accountable for his proposal. He loves speaking about it, especially for a large fee. He just isn’t too keen on having anyone actually vote for it. All those touchy old people, who may be paying attention.
Someday, when China decides that it has bought enough of our debt—and that could happen sooner rather than later should republicans live up to their promises by refusing to vote on the debt ceiling extension—they may decide that German, or Irish debt looks more appealing. Then, we would have no way of financing purchases by the Treasury—you know, stuff like the military, Social Security, Medicare. Rep. Ryan thinks we can escape our debt by reducing cost. Most sane people believe the representative is a doofus, and probably flunked third grade math.

I really hate writing checks to the US Treasury. I really do. However, I actually believe that revenue is the main source of our current debt crisis (thank you George Bush), and that both companies and the middle to upper income classes in America have enough money to float our collective boats.  We desperately need to increase income taxes. That’s the long and the short of it. I know, republicans will insist that our economy will stop functioning if we raise taxes. But they always say that. For republicans, the sky will always fall with a tax increase, and companies will cease being able to function if they are regulated and taxed both.  But they have proven themselves incapable of rational thought on these issues.  The entire republican establishment apparently believes the moon is made of green cheese, the rapture is just around the corner, and the earth really is flat.  After they created the greatest economic debacle since the 1929 crash and the following 1930’s depression, we should not take republican commentary seriously on any economic issue.  They are not believable. More, they are a joke on most serious issues.

And on republican planet McHenry’s Hell, Elizabeth Warren was treated to the republican version of The Big Bang. She was treated as a serf by Mr. McHenry, accused of lying, and then reassured that he really, really, thinks she is a worthy citizen. Mr. McHenry is not known for subtlety . . . or truth-telling.

Thinking and Rethinking About Stuff

So, the candidates are dropping like flies. Getting so, we will need a program to tell us who’s left and who's next to go. I wonder what’s going on? It would seem that, just as a candidate wannabe get’s rolling, someone out there snarls and the candidate drops out, generally whining about how they are doing it for “family reasons.”  Can’t help noticing that they never drop out of Fox News for “family reasons.”

Pretty soon, we’ll be left with a lapsed Catholic who serially cheats on his various wives, a Mormon who thought it was principled for people in his home state to have health care, but socialism if the broader American public is to have health care, and that crazy lady from Minnesota. One assumes that Sarah Barbie is simply making too much money on the lecture circuit (soon she’ll be making as much as our failed President Shrub). The Republican convention promised to be a lot more entertaining a few months ago. This is going to make comedians all over the country have to work a lot harder over the coming months.  Well, so long as the Newtster is in the ring, we will have high comedy all the time.

But on another less comedic front, a recent article by Noam Chomsky on the assassination of Usama bin Laden caused me to rethink my sheer glee at his death. Chomsky is not opposed to bin Laden being brought to justice, but he argues strongly that neither bin Laden nor we got justice. Instead, we got an assassination.  Given our past stance on war criminals, i.e., the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal after “the last good war” our current rush to judgment seems at best at odds with our own history.  Like many, I applauded the attack on Pakistan, and the killing. Now, Chomsky makes me doubt the wisdom of such an approach.  It does in fact resemble the George Bush cowboy approach to international diplomacy—“shoot first and ask questions later.”

I’m still glad that bin Laden is dead, much as I was glad that Hitler was dead. Still, we need to be mindful in such matters, that we haven’t become the very people we despise.

Rapturous

So the r

So the rapture is coming soon to a universe near you.  You could be among  the first to be snatched away to your friendly neighborhood heaven. Just be sure you leave your home, bank account and car to me.

As I best understand it, this Saturday, the world gets divided into heaven and hell. One group of guys gets snatched off the earth to someplace else, and the rest get to remain behind to watch the greatest son et lumiere since time began. Wonder whether the Faux News Network will be around to capture it all on film for the nightly news hour?  Oh, no, I forgot, Rupert and his entire wrecking crew will be among the snatches, so they won’t be here to tell us about it all.

So, let’s see . . . the pope, Franklin Graham, Mike Dingleberry, the Newtster, obviously Sarah Barbie and her companion in crime Michelle Bachman, and all the people rendered stupid by religion will be zipped off to their respective new homes, and assigned harps. But we must remember all those martyrs—you know, Usama Bin Laden and his various buddies who managed to blow themselves up in crowded marketplaces. They will also be there, with their assigned 71 virgins each.  So, the tea party guys will all have to meet and greet with Usama and all the Islamist bozos. Hey, that would be fun to watch . . . and I guess Glenn Beck and Rush will be there to tell them all about it.

So, what does that leave? Well, all the rest of us will have to stay here to watch the show.  Now this presents an interesting scenario. Let’s see—the world is divided into heaven and hell. The pope, the republicans, the Faux News network, and all the Islamic martyrs go together in one direction. All the rest remain behind. It’s sort of an Ikea-like do-it-yourself heaven thing.  The question remaining in my mind is, “so which is heaven and which is hell?”

So, keep your smart phones handy, ready to text your buddies, as you get snatched . . . or not. I wonder . . . do they allow twittering in heaven?

And on another hellish planet, it is rumored that the current FCC Commissioner, Meredith Attwell Baker who voted to allow the Comcast takeover, and was rewarded with a big job at . . . Comcast, is pissed at the Rapture, since she hasn’t even had an opportunity to settle on the big house she was planning on buying as a result of her sellout.

re is coming soon to a universe near you.  You could be among the first to be snatched away to your friendly neighborhood heaven. Just be sure you leave your home, bank account and car to me before you go.

As I best understand it,  this Saturday, the world gets divided into heaven and hell. One group of guys gets snatched off the earth to someplace else, and the rest get to remain behind to watch the greatest son et lumiere since time began. Wonder whether the Faux News Network will be around to capture it all on film for the nightly news hour?  Oh, no, I forgot, Rupert and his entire wrecking crew will be among the snatchees, so they won’t be here to tell us about it all.

So, let’s see . . . the pope, Franklin Graham, Mike Dingleberry, the Newtster, obviously Sarah Barbie and her companion in crime Michelle Bachman, and all the people rendered stupid by religion will be zipped off to their respective new homes, and assigned harps. But we must remember all those martyrs—you know, Usama Bin Laden and his various buddies who managed to blow themselves up in crowded marketplaces. They will also be there, with their assigned 71 virgins each.  So, the tea party guys will all have to meet and greet with Usama and all the Islamist bozos. Hey, that would be fun to watch . . . and I guess Glenn Beck and Rush will be there to tell them all about it.

So, what does that leave? Well, all the rest of us will have to stay here to watch the show.  Now this presents an interesting scenario. Let’s see—the world is divided into heaven and hell. The pope, the republicans, the Faux News network, and all the Islamic martyrs go together in one direction. All the rest remain behind. It’s sort of an Ikea-like do-it-yourself heaven thing.  The question remaining in my mind is, “so which is heaven and which is hell?”

So, keep your smart phones handy, ready to text your buddies, as you get snatched . . . or not. I wonder . . . do they allow twittering in heaven?

And on another hellish planet, it is rumored that the current  FCC Commissioner, Meredith Attwell Baker who voted to allow the Comcast takeover, and was rewarded with a big job at . . . Comcast, is pissed at the Rapture, since she hasn’t even had an opportunity to settle on the big house she was planning on buying as a result of her sellout.