« Time to bring back the CCC and WPA! | Kenneth Thomas's Blog | Sexist Crap at the Huffington Post »
Domestic Spending Freeze? Has Obama Lost His Mind?
TPM today published this article http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/11/obama_eyes_domestic_spending_freeze.php?ref=fpa in which the President is considering a domestic spending freeze or even a 5% cut for federal agencies. Has he lost his mind? The economy is still losing jobs and he is setting himself up for a repeat of 1937.If he wants to cut red ink, he should bring home troops from Iraq (as he promised during the campaign) and Afghanistan, and crack down on tax cheats (as he also promised during the campaign), and pass health care with a public option. These will all reduce red ink.
And he should stop worrying about red ink, anyway, and pass a jobs bill with no extraneous amendments. People seem to underestimate the Right: it doesn't matter how loony they are in 2010, if we fail, we'll lose.
And he should stop worrying about red ink, anyway, and pass a jobs bill with no extraneous amendments. People seem to underestimate the Right: it doesn't matter how loony they are in 2010, if we fail, we'll lose.
Advertisement
I am so sick of hearing about deficits. I always say this but there is so goddamn much money-wealth in this country and so much stolen by the oligarchy that owns everything that I could scream.
AIG I think, is the bailed out bastard corp that is going to hand out 120 billion in bonuses...BONUSES.
There should be a ninety percent tax on these bonuses and a ninety percent tax on anyone making over a million. Period.
There should be a VAT on all stock and bond transactions, just like in Europe. I mean where in the fuck are the investors going to go?
And the rich bastards? The luxury goods they purchase here and abroad have nothing to do with our real economy.
Damn this makes me mad.
November 15, 2009 5:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
WOW! To call you an idiot is to insult idiots everywhere! Sure, let's set the tax rate at 90%, and then put a VAT tax on stock transactions. That should totally shut down the capital markets. Who in their right mind would invest in an atmosphere like that? All risk, no reward? Great idea! Then as companies are starved for capital, can't expand, can't innovate, can't modernize, and can't HIRE ANYONE, you will have achieved your goal of economic armageddon.
November 15, 2009 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I believe he was talking about tax rates on those absurd bonuses.
November 15, 2009 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Idiots shouldn't call other people idiots. None of that would happen. The filthy rich complain about any and all taxation and always provide the same dire predictions you offer but it is never, ever true. You're just barking about nothing as dumb dogs do.
November 15, 2009 8:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
tCB...
If you "EVER" posted to me like you did with DD, you would have to take off your shirt to take a shit! I'll buy your ticket, you candy-assed key board warrior!
I have mixed with the rich and the poor...I have never known a Republican that wasn't an arrogant-sanctimonious prick! Got a problem with that? I'll send you a Goggle map!
November 15, 2009 10:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, he hasn't lost his mind. He is a weakling. He is a timid politician without the slightest bit of courage who refuses to do anything that upsets those whose praise and approval he craves most: the Republicans and the richest, greediest special interests from Wall Street and the corporate world.
Over and above the pathetic weakness this indicates it just goes to show that if Obama is this stupid, just as a practical matter with respect to what the economy and the people need right now, then perhaps it's time to reevaluate all the unearned praise served up by the shovelful about what a mighty intellect he is.
November 15, 2009 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
It doesn't mention which agencies might get budget-cut. It is too bad it couldn't have been the military budget. Wonder what Voelker is thinking.
November 15, 2009 10:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
They have no intention of restricting the Pentagon's bloated budgets Wendy. The point of the spending freeze would be to reserve as much of the borrowing as possible FOR the military budget instead of wasting it on productive things like job creation, investing in our schools, infrastructure and other worthless things that don't kill foreigners or help us to threaten others with destruction. They don't care about the budget deficit at all. If they did, the number one target would be the grotesque military expenditures. We spend more annually on "defense" (aka: war) than all the other nations on earth combined. Let me repeat we spend MORE than all the other nations on earth COMBINED every single year. It's an obscene joke.
November 15, 2009 11:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, in my limited spare time I have been collecting info on the KNOWN, admitted bases we have around the globe, in all the different categories. It is obscenely expensive, and in many areas the soldiers,politicians on the bases engage in rather political endeavors. PBS began a series last year about this, all a piece of the Bush Doctrine; they aired one, and quit. It was Quite Spooky, but no searches online brought up any discussions of the Propaganda Series.
I do know, back to the budget, that the pundits on teevee are working hard to portray Americans as freaked out about the deficit. But the average American knows next to nothing about the budget, or its implications during a recession/depression; hell, economists don't agree!
Jobs bill! Jobs bill!
November 15, 2009 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
What we need are real Democrats in the White House and Congress instead of the whores we are stuck with.
As for the military bases, even more obscene than the cost is the fact that our military on steroids is entirely unnecessary and so muscle bound it cannot actually serve it's primary purpose which is to defend our country. They proved entirely incompetent in protecting us from the one attack on our country of any significance since World War II. Ours is a dangerous military, but one that is a Frankenstein's monster, completely out of control and the biggest actual threat there is to world peace. The military wags Obama like a dog wags it's tail. It's sickening.
November 15, 2009 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lots of the bases exist to defend what we think of as "our resources." Hah! Like defending sweat shops in, is it Jakarta? Oil, bananas, bauxite in Somalia, ad infinitum. Bah!
November 15, 2009 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
n reading the linked article, I get the impression that contingency plans for the FY 2011 budget are a prudent step in the effort to balance the short term need to keep money flowing so as to sustain the economic recovery, with a long term need to constrain the deficit so that it won't cripple our economy.
Since no details are provided, and in fact, no concrete plans are yet in place, the approach remains flexible. It is also a trial balloon to gauge public reaction, and to preempt attacks from rightwingers without making any actual commitments. What actually happens when the FY 2011 budget is finalized is impossible to predict at this point.
November 15, 2009 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Obama is a conservative. The Democratic Party is conservative. They've appeased, enabled and now they have the power to enact Reaganism. Why are progressives still supporting this party?
November 15, 2009 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good questions all bluebell!
November 15, 2009 8:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you, Dr. Thomas. It boggles the mind how this nation is gonna keep going if many people have no work, keep losing homes, become homeless.
November 15, 2009 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
The AP article at your TPM link says
White House budget director Peter Orszag said Friday that it is imperative to start curbing the flow of red ink in coming years so as not to erode the fledgling economic recovery and raise interest rates. But he called it a balancing act and said acting too fast could undercut the recovery.
I just read that there is similar thinking going on in Japan right now:
timulus and Exports Help Ease Japan’s Recession, by HIROKO TABUCHI, November 16
that despite the fragility of signs of recovery, they must begin thinking about changing what they have been doing.
I'm no economic expert, but what both articles seem to me to be talking about standard economic planning for the future, trying to figure out the right time to ease back so you don't kill a recovery. And seems to me you are overreacting to that, as if they are planning to do it tomorrow. It's probably not a good idea to take a short AP news wire item as giving you the full gist of a country's economic planning.
November 16, 2009 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink