Deficits, Debt, and Spending–Oh My!!

I suppose my decision to begin blogging may be as much a sort of catharsis as anything else.

For those who’ve been paying any sort of attention to the ongoing farcical discussions taking place in the nation’s capital over whether or not to vote to increase the nation’s borrowing limit, feelings of disgust and disillusionment undoubtedly are starting to become overwhelming. I have a strong sense that most people, regardless of political ideology, can’t understand how it is that a group of extremist whack-jobs (also known as the Tea Party) has actually managed to dictate the terms of the debt ceiling debate and, consequently, hold an entire nation hostage to a narrowly-defined, myopic political agenda. It has reached the point where repeated head-banging seems an utterly natural reaction, and I take up writing in this space since it is an outlet at my disposal which will not result in brain trauma.

Tea Party acolytes and their representatives in Congress espouse a most curious brand of populism indeed. For them, a vote to extend unemployment compensation for millions of Americans who, despite their best efforts, remain unable to find work is anathema: the welfare queens! How dare they mooch off of ordinary, hard-working Americans??!! And plus all of those entitlements are just running up the debt, part and parcel of the “spending binge” which is Washington’s perennial problem.

But as for two wars, a prescription drug program for seniors, the creation of an entirely new executive branch agency (the Department of Homeland Security), and tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, you ask? Surely these small-government Tea Party activists would decry expensive hand-outs to corporate America and the wealthiest earners? Undoubtedly they also direct their ire at companies which pay their executives multi-million dollar severance packages but fail to hire any new middle class workers? Nope. We hear hardly a peep when it comes to the excesses of the Bush years. Instead, they parrot the same old far right fallacy that if we fix the inefficiencies in the tax code which benefit corporate jet owners and hedge fund managers somehow we will be, in the words of Speaker of the House John Boehner, “killing jobs.” I would humbly suggest that tax advantages for American corporations have created many more jobs in China and India over the last decade than they have in the United States. Unless, of course, we consider jobs for those in occupations associated with the yachting industry, since it is the case that many hedge fund managers and corporate executives who manage to hoard even more cash via the tax code rewards themselves with state-of-the-art yachting vessels.

The situation has turned from slightly perturbing to absolutely critical as the GOP, compelled by the machinations of its Tea Party faction, refuses to even be remotely associated with any debt reduction bill which has even tacit support from the President. Those who are surprised by the Republicans’ obstinacy have yet to grasp the fundamental paradox of the Age of the Tea Party: the government is increasingly becoming populated by a group of people who seek its destruction. I can only hope that President Obama is successful at galvanizing those lawmakers who do recognize the urgency of the situation, and are able to reach a palatable solution before we find out just exactly what’s at stake.