Time for a New Deal
This recent political conversation - debt ceilings and deficits - reveals a whole host of problems with the United State Government, and, by extension, the electorate.
I wont go into the entire list of lies and outright fabrications distributed by our elected representatives and our media (it is a ridiculously long list), but there are a few things I'd like to say:
- The debt-ceiling has absolutely no relationship to the federal deficit. Conflating the two issues is disingenuous and it is shameful we haven't had enough common-sense reporting to make that known to the American people. The debt-ceiling is solely related to fulfilling the budget obligations that the United States Congress (Congress, not the President) have already agreed to. Including the Tea Party members. The deficit is an issue related to long-term imbalance between income and expenditures.
- A Balanced Budget Amendment is a disastrously stupid idea. We haven't been told this much, but it is so incredibly awful that everyone should be decrying it. That the Democrats understand this, is clear. That they aren't explaining why is a problem. Quickly, we don't want a balanced budget all the time. When the economy is slow, the government collects less tax revenue, but has to maintain expenditures. The way this is done is by taking on debt. The idea is that, later on, a surplus in revenue is used to pay that back. Economist agree that sometimes the only way to keep the US economy going is by the government spending rather a lot of money when the people are unable to.
- The Democrats ought to be ashamed of themselves. They allowed the conversation to be dictated by a minority of the Republican Party that has no idea of how to govern. In the case of this conversation, they have given everything the Republican party wanted, and maintained nearly nothing important to Americans, or the half of America that is on the progressive side. In doing so, they are allowing a tremendously bad law to be passed. They are giving in to the hostage demands of the Tea Party.
With all those things being understood, I think we need to create an opposition movement to the Tea Party. A New Deal Party (I'd love your ideas for a better, snappier name). The Tea Party no idea what the People of the United States of America really want (though they have a good handle to what multi-billionaires like), but they are extremely good at inflaming the people. We need to counteract this. The problem, as I see it, is that it would need to truly be a grass-roots movement. After all, few of the super-rich would opt to provide campaign contributions to candidates who want to increase the taxes paid by the wealthiest people, corporations, and excesses in America.
Anyone looking at facts and history can clearly see that the economic policies of the Republicans are simply disastrous. Now, the Right will point to the 1980s as an example of how they work. The problem with their assertion is that it is, well, wrong. The middle class and working class had much smaller growth than the richest group in America. And the growth in the economy was not due to trickle-down tax cuts, but the explosion of the consumer electronic industry and a decade of innovation.
What we need to do is examine how money really flows. Simply, rich people don't spend and when they invest, they invest in securities, not in business. This means that their bank accounts grow, but not much else. When poor people get money, on the other hand, they spend it. They have many, many things they want and need to spend money on, and when you give it to them, they will use it. With increased spending come new jobs (as manufacturing and service needs increase), more profit and growth in businesses, and a general increase in quality of life. Who in their right mind would not want that?
Well, the rich people and their Tea Party cronies. It isn't about wealth, in absolute terms - which is better served by taxing the richest end and reducing taxes on the poor end - but about wealth in relative terms. They don't want more money, just more money than anyone else, and by the largest margin.
Allowing this idea to dictate economic policy is something we simply cannot afford to allow to continue. We are at a crossroads in history. We need to invest in the infrastructure of America. In our failing transportation system, in our failing education system, in creating new technologies which can create new industries (like electronics in the 80s) so that we can have growth for all segments of America.
We should remember what the Romans knew: when the people are content and entertained, they are unlikely to revolt. And we are not content.