Posted on 01/02/2011 8:54:10 AM PST by Kaslin
Outside the usual celebrity circuit of marriage, divorce, betrayal, indecent exposure, and over-exposure, this year’s big stories centered on politics. But in all these political stories was a consistent tendency for major media voices (which must now include mocker Jon Stewart and ultra-ironist Stephen Colbert) to miss the real story that should run under the headline, or at least after paragraph one.
1. Health care reform. Big win for the Democrats. Yes? No. Media folks tend to think Americans should have supported this. Most Americans don’t. So we witnessed lots of rumination on why Americans are letting politicians down. The fact that Democrats didn’t listen to Americans, but instead to their own narrow band of policy pushers, was the story that screamed for the most attention. The health care “victory” cost Democrats control over the House of Representatives — arguably, an outcome worthy of attention.
2. The “Bush Tax Cuts” extension. Did the President “cave in” to Republicans, or . . . does it really matter? The inability to think rationally about tax rate adjustments comes in several forms. It’s great to witness a few Republicans insist that Americans’ wealth is theirs, not the government’s, and that Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. But R’s never get around to the spending problem — not significantly. Meanwhile, Democrats put on their “fiscal conservative” cap only on the matter of marginal tax rates, saying that the R’s favored cuts scuttle any chance to balance budgets. But when the R’s remind the D’s that the government actually collects more revenue with lower marginal rates (Laffer Curve and all), the D’s either go into denial or give a Clintonian shrug. This would be a crucial issue to resolve, you’d think, if the D’s really wanted to increase revenue. But with the R’s stressing revenue, they look a less coherent on the “spending” issue. Besides, maximizing the government’s take — is that really such a good thing?
3. “Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell” was struck down by the Senate, as if to prove that “lame duck” no longer holds meaning in today’s politics. Not talked about is the seemingly never-ending sessions of Congress, these days, on the one hand, and the current sexual misconduct in our “co-ed” armed forces. The narrowness of the discussion seemed strange to me, and once again I got the feeling that the differences between R’s and D’s on these issues are not over principles so much as reflexive “We’re not the Other Guys” positioning that makes up so much of contemporary partisanship.
This year’s issues not covered as “Big” were, perhaps, truly bigger:
1. State finances imploding. Multiple states, with California and New York making the biggest headlines, have proven themselves in financial ruins, and appear on the brink of bankruptcy . . . or whatever limbo is reserved for governments that can’t pay their bills. Hidden beneath this undercovered story was the bigger story, of
2. Public-sector employee pensions. Underfunded, sometimes not funded at all. A number of news outlets have mentioned this — Reason magazine (and the Reason Foundation) has done heroic work putting it on multiple covers for several years now — but too few investigative reporters investigate, too few unearth how pervasive the problem is. Instead, media folks pretend that the big story is
3. Excessively tight budgets in state and local governments due (solely!) to drops in revenue, leading to “impossible” and “scary” cuts to “essential” government services. Were journalists to look behind budget categories and look to see how often “current” budgets are merely devoted to paying workers for their amazing benefits packages, it might spark a revolution . . . against public employee unions in general, and unfunded pensions and medical insurance in particular.
The big take from these stories? Politicians promise the moon while delaying discussion of funding their lunacies, and, in the end, deliver (at best) cheese.
There is some cause for hope, though. Citizens in the initiative states are increasingly active in gaining some purchase on their politicians’ wayward ways.
At the national level, the move away from Obama’s too-much-more-of-the-same non-change and towards real change — in the form of less spending, responsibly balanced budgets, and against the giveaway, bailout, earmark mentality still pervasive in Washington — has been noticed as a big story, a pleasantly surprising victory for “the Tea Party” movement.
The recent crushing of Harry Reid’s over-porked omnibus bill shows that this movement has begun to have effect on even the lame duck Congress — who knows how far it can go, once the newly elected finally take their seats?
But this next Congress will simply stall — like previous ones — if they accept the lingo and mindset of today’s simplistic partisan idea spectrum. They must break out of bad old habits, of more than one kind. They need to realize the real state of tension in the United States: Between normal Americans and the Overlord Class in the nation’s capital. It’s not between Republicans and Democrats, “red” and “blue” America. It’s between the bulk of the citizenry that pays the bills and the too-big-of-bulk factions that are running the tab sky high — and the country into the ground.
In 2010, the American people made history, while their politicians merely made the news.
Another story they refused to cover adequately: the Lockerbie bomber deal.
Look, one thing is certain, “Big Government” be it federal, state, county, city, etc. must go if the USA is ever to regain number one status in the world. We shall see whether the “new” Republicans have “religion” or just mouthings. As for the Democrat Party, poor souls are lost and cannot be saved. The American people, all of them, will either wise up and dump Obama and his Democrat vermin or they will abet the Democrats in the meaningful destruction of the USA. And.....folks, do not only blame the Democrat Party. There is plenty of blame to be handed out. Much must go to Republicans, Unions, Schools of all types, banks, government agencies, etc. Who knows, maybe we, as a nation will wise up? Me, I think we have seen our best days!!! Please prove me dead wrong!!!
This is inaccurate, or at least incomplete.
Depending on where a society is located on the Laffer Curve at a given time, lowering marginal tax rates can mean either more revenue or less revenue. I have no idea where we are presently on the curve, and I'm not sure anybody does.
It should also be remembered the LC is a theoretical construct, not a law of nature. It has worked many times in the past, this does not mean it will always work in the future. If for no other reason than that tax rates do not occur in a vacuum. Many other things also impact revenues.
I do not disagree with you, but I am curious about one aspect of this argument.
Most if not all of those nations who are our "competition" for the title of #1 have governments that are even larger and more intrusive than ours.
If the size of the government is the primary issue, how therefore can they ever be a threat to our status?
I will admit we are rapidly catching up in government intrusiveness, but our economy is still a good deal more free than most others.
Public employee pensions are going to be the undoing of dozens of states, counties, and cities. This will likely be one of the defining issues of the next decade.
It must be noted that while China (The PRC) is a “Communist” government, the drive of the Chinese economy is consumer based (consumption based) and export products and services (private business). That is a ditto for India, who finally wised up after fifty years or so, that socialism was taking them nowhere. Hence, the consumption driven economy is now alive and well in India. And....yes there is truth to your comments about large governments. Take the city/state/country of Singapore. Large & powerful government, but, government works to develop, strong, profiable, capitalist business and economy. Big difference from the USA who seeks income distribution, unionism and public sector control over all life and business. The United States is dying. Not because of Obama. He is the worst offender & hates America, but he is one in a long line of Democrat politicians and some Republicans (RINOs), along with our “traitor” media that seeks to destroy the American economy. There is no substitute for individual freedom & wealth, free enterprise, opportunity and private business. And....There should never be such a thing as a free lunch or Obama “stash” handouts, except for citizens that cannot work or protect themselves. The Obama welfare state will destroy America, which is exactly what he and the Democrat party want. It is as plain as the nose on your face!!! Too bad, the American people are asleep at the wheel. The movers and shakers of the world economy no longer reside here in the USA. All we have now, by our own voting hand, is a “third world mentality” and failed, weak, but collective minded leadership!!! Sad!!!
bump
Actually, I think that the Big Story that the media missed was all the “work” accomplished by the 7 week Lame Duck session. If they were able to do all that in that session, and they demonstrated that a budget isn’t really necessary, then why do we need a full-time Congress? Why not have, say, a session of three months, and pay them accordingly?
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