You know, back in the olden days, it was a disaster if the Federal budget wasn't balanced by the Executive.
As late as the Reagan era, the worst program, in the eyes of Conservatives, so-called "welfare" or Aid to Families with Dependent Children, was maybe a $25 billion program, in today's dollars.
Since Bush-41, we throw around hundreds of billions in unpaid for tax cuts, annually, unrelated to economic stimulus or exigency. Probably 90% of the Iraq war was funded with unpaid-for "supplemental appropriations". It's now widely recognized that the Bush-era tax cuts didn't pay for themselves.
Tonight, Lawrence O'Donnell asks in relation to Bush-44's taxes, "Was it worth it?", to do so, as if it were a temporary thing.
I mention it, but it doesn't matter. My sense is the fix is in in Washington: cut the social programs rather than raise taxes on the super-wealthy and impose a regressive gas tax to pay for the failed years.
I'm ready to be told, "That's the best deal we can get." Why bother voting one party or the other, on policy substance?
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Signposts of American bankruptcy
