If you've been waiting for the "progressive" answer to Paul Ryan the Congressional Progressive Caucus has a report, The People's Budget, that should wet your sickle (click the image to see the report it comes from). It's not going anywhere, but gazing upon it is still a recommended educational experience.
I like this plan, it reminds me of the saying if you dig a hole too deep you might end up in China. To me the kids that really go for it because they think it actually works are role models in perseverance. It's important to nurture that kind of drive, because they have to lose it at forty if they don't want to fall victim to the ghost of that cranial bandit Winston Churchill.
“If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”
A more cynical person would call a serious effort made to dig to China ignorance, or if the person digging is an adult...insanity. To say either would be pretty rude true. Or maybe this is just a case of seeing the impossible and asking why not? After all, Alice kind of did it when she went to Wonderland, a place that in my mind strikes an uncanny resemblance to China in that both are ruled by a Red Queen.
That said, what do normal people do when they find themselves spending more than they take in? I would love to tell you it's nothing a scanner and Photoshop can't fix, but doing hard time is not money, so I'll just have to level with you and say THEY SPEND LESS.
I know this point highlights the root of the irreconcilable differences in the philosophy behind Paul Ryan's budget and how progressives think tax dollars should be prioritized. Which, in a nut shell, is the battle between who gets to use your money, you or government. Regardless of the "winner" of that battle, the fact remains nothing other than cutting down spending can remedy the structural problem that causes debt.
Since that is the condition of the people, their budget should probably live in that reality. Therein lies the rub...
When it comes to economics the progressive mind functions like a solar powered calculator in an Alaskan December. Their budget makes a huge assumption that taxes can be raised in a vacuum, meaning people won't modify their behavior in ways that stymie economic activity to the point where the revenues projected from the tax increase never even materialize. Then we have to put up with New York Times articles detailing "unexpected" budget shortfalls that deepen the deficit rather than "fix it."
Raising taxes with a mentality that addressing spending is never on the table (The ONLY exception in this budget is, of course, gutting defense. Maybe progressives should actually visit move to China and rethink that brilliant idea) does nothing to guarantee that we wont have this problem again. To do it in the difficult economic times we are in now is tantamount to a shovel ready job like digging 'til you reach...um...China.
By the way, China, I know President Hu Jintao is not really a queen in any sense of the word, because Obama bowed to him instead of giving him a iPod full of his speeches, can this show up on your search engines now?
