Posted on 07/26/2011 8:32:13 PM PDT by sickoflibs
Watching our system deal with the debt ceiling crisis — a wholly self-inflicted crisis, which may nonetheless have disastrous consequences — it’s increasingly obvious that what we’re looking at is the destructive influence of a cult that has really poisoned our political system.
And no, I don’t mean the fanaticism of the right. Well, OK, that too. But my feeling about those people is that they are what they are; you might as well denounce wolves for being carnivores. Crazy is what they do and what they are.
No, the cult that I see as reflecting a true moral failure is the cult of balance, of centrism.
Think about what’s happening right now. We have a crisis in which the right is making insane demands, while the president and Democrats in Congress are bending over backward to be accommodating — offering plans that are all spending cuts and no taxes, plans that are far to the right of public opinion.
(clip)
The reality, of course, is that we already have a centrist president — actually a moderate conservative president. Once again, health reform — his only major change to government — was modeled on Republican plans, indeed plans coming from the Heritage Foundation. And everything else — including the wrongheaded emphasis on austerity in the face of high unemployment — is according to the conservative playbook.
(Excerpt) Read more at krugman.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Since you are probably a socialist you will never understand. Go eat some saurerkruat and watch the show. The middle class of this country has been defending your sorry butts in Europe and have been treated like the worlds's piggy bank for too long.
The problem is that the American political community has been invaded by doctrinaire Marxism-Leninism, which is at a cusp of overthrowing the entire political reality and political system, but has encountered fierce resistance from what remains of American political thought and the resistant Jeffersonian underclass.
The old Hamiltonians have done their suicidal deal with the Marxists and are prepared to stand aside now and let the Marxists take the country down, in return for assurances that certain economic and social-status arrangements will not be disturbed. Of course this is folly, but that is the nature of hubris.
It remains, then, for the old Jeffersonian liberals and ordoliberals ("conservatives" now), the old yeomanry and their modern heirs, to fight it out with the Marxists, who have long-marched through the communications and education institutions and are determined now to impose their top-down, vanguard-led revolution. Obama is now seeking open conflict and an excuse to use force, as a way to break the stalemate in his favor.
The conservatives are trying to rally the People and use the Constitution to stalemate him until he can be overreached in the 2012 elections, while he labors to demagogue his 43% "tax-eater" share of the decaying electorate to turn out to return him to power next year with a renewed minoritarian mandate to oppress the successfully-divided conservative majority. That is where things stand.
Crazy as a sh*t house rat.
It’s a wonder he head doesn’t spin around when he makes
some of these pronouncment.
Just the opening "Watching our system deal with the debt ceiling crisis — a wholly self-inflicted crisis, which may nonetheless have disastrous consequences". Everything after that departs at right angles to reality.
Coincidentally, so is Obama.
The real question is this: How does a fool like this guy gain a forum in which to vent his idiocies?
Oh, wait a minute - The New York Times.
Never mind.
You forget that the left looks at 1984 as an instruction manual, not a cautionary tale.
Obama is turning into a total disaster (the the surprise of nobody here). But since the principles of liberalism/collectivism can't possibly to blame, because they are perfect, the only answer must be that Obama has strayed from the path of purity and must be purged.
Of course, why waste a good purge? If he isn't on board with the true plan, he must therefore be actively working for the evil forces known as conservatives and is, therefore, a conservative himself.
Q.E.D.
Now decided, the Ministry of Truth embarks on the path to rewrite whatever history (and present) they need to to make it reflect the agreed-upon reality. The ideal solution would be for Obama to realize his crimethink and come back to the principles of the Inner Party, but this approach also gives the Inner Party the means of cutting him off completely.
Same here. If he’s not already ill, he’s pretty clearly undergoing a serious mental breakdown.
But if we are socialists here and China is at least according to their own understanding a socialsit country than the two leading exporting nations on this planet that gain market shares on the world markets would be socialistic countries.
So it might be better to see germany as a democratic market based society wouldn´it?
Ideology or to use a more positive word values are a good thing but this is not a classroom the university or a church we are talking about here.
It´s a serious economic crisis and huge structural problems. It´s not the time for general debate or ideology. It´s time to unite and get together and find a solution for all people for the complete country.
The deficit is insane and everybody with a clear mind knows that both things are needed less spending and higher taxes.
The political debate should perhaps be about the how not the if. The question is where to cut and which taxes to increase how much.
Nonsense. Lower spending -- of course that's true. But higher taxes? No way. The government doesn't have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem, one that has not been created by the current Administration, but certainly exacerbated by it (and the Democrat Congress over the previous 2 years) by tripling the annual deficit.
And even if revenue were the problem, higher taxes do not equate to higher revenue. There's already a ton of money sitting unproductive on the sidelines instead of being invested into economic growth because the capital holders are being punished for success and are being threatened with even more punishment in the future. Lower the taxes and the regulatory burdens (e.g., Obamacare mandates) and investment in business will return, which leads to more jobs, more profits, and a larger tax base.
We don’t do tariffs like you guys. Protectionism works for some.
Wrongo ace. Now is the EXACT time for idealogy. Raising taxes is an idealogical event is it not? The US Govt taks in 200B / month. The Feds have a spending problem not an income problem.
For revenue we need to exact a tribute from europe for the Marshall Plan and defending their lazy socizaliastr asses for 50 years.
socizaliastr = socialist
socizaliastr = socialist
Call me a Cult member if I think a person or a country should never spend more than they take in.
The higher taxes will crush any hopes of an economic recovery.
Even the Democrats agreed when they extended the Bush tax cuts earlier this year.
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