Left Side of the Aisle #97 - Part 6

Economy: Arguing over which way to screw ordinary people

I haven't talked about the economy recently; I promise I will get back to it next week, but did want to mention something important now.

You been hearing about the sequester, probably until your ears ache. The idea was to have a deadline after which these harsh, immediate cuts in both domestic and defense spending would be instituted. Since neither party would want to see these cuts happen since it would be politically disadvantageous to them, they would be forced to cooperate on a longer-term plan for dealing with the dreaded deficit monster.

That was the idea. Obviously, it hasn’t worked so well.

But here’s the thing: The longer term, these longer-term proposals to “deal with the deficit,” all also involve massive cuts in domestic spending, even deeper that the sequester, and they don’t really touch military spending. In other words, what they are actually arguing over is different ways to screw you.

Different ways to cut government services. Different ways to cut health services; environmental protection; Food Stamps; housing assistance; roads, rails and bridges; jobs programs; the arts; local aid to firefighters, cops, teachers, sanitation, libraries. Most of these proposals also involve cuts to Social Security and Medicare, cuts in Medicaid.

All of this, all of this, all of this - what they’re arguing about is different ways to cut what government provides, different ways to give you less, different ways to take things away from you, different ways to leave you more and more on your own.

To put it bluntly, what they are trying to decide is which way to screw you: fast and hard or slow and long. In the whole discussion of the sequester and the alternatives, that is what they are arguing over. And don’t you ever forget it.