The Deficit Game Is Not A Drinking Game

The Deficit Game is being played out as a game of brinkmanship, with both sides making dramatic gestures in an effort to gain political support. Honestly, the Republicans are looking like idiots. As Thomas Friedman said in his column in the NY Times, I signed a pledge to not vote for anyone who has signed a pledge. Whenever I see John Boehner or Eric Cantor give a press conference, I see the marionette strings and look for the puppeteer's hand up their ass, moving their mouths... At least several news stations and newspapers like the Washington Post have interviewed Grover Nordquist, but no-one has asked him the right questions, like why does he make candidates sign pledges in the first place. The Communist Party used to have members sign a pledge in the 1930's, as did the Nazis; and the US government made you sign a loyalty oath if you were to be hired by the government, or schools and universities. I had to sign one in 1971, when I got a job reading for blind people at my local community college. Perhaps it's his wonky way of pretending to be a real organization and a pledge gives him some validity.

 But all of the other organizations trying to get Republicans to sign their own pledges are crazed fringe groups, hoping to piggy-back on Michele Bachmann's shoulders into the limelight, where lonely, church-going ladies might donate to keep that sharia law from creeping into the US system of law, next thing you know, we'd have to elect some kind of mullah or ayatollah to the Supreme Court and they'd allow terrorists to move in next door...

Of course, the gorilla in the room is being ignored, that we could be saving $10 billion per day by taking all of our troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq, cancel all contracts to outside sources and have the military do its own grunt labor... Although the idea of having a war catered appeals to my lazy old butt, and next year we could have the Cooking Channel sponsor the Chefs of Kabul, or film a season of The Chefs of Beverly Hills, or better yet, let's send Andrew Zimmerman and Anthony Bourdain over... Reality shows are already moving towards our more violent natures, with regular folks making and shootin' guns, huntin' and shootin' gators, and  undergoing a training course like a Marine or Seal... And if old George Bush hadn't sent our boys over just to make his ego feel big, we'd be $10 trillion less in debt, except he'd have found other ways to spend the money, the old fake Texan that he was... The other things to do is close tax loopholes for just about every corporation and special interest, and let the Bush tax cuts die out since they have cost us over $4 trillion so far. Not only would we have no trouble balancing the budget, but in one year we'd have another surplus, ready for the next profligate Republican...

Raising the debt ceiling should be a one-line piece of legislature, that is what it has been in the past. ronald Reagan raised it 11 times, and George W Bush raised it 7 times, and there was no objection. The only reason that Barack Obama is having a difficult time is because people like Mitch McConnell have vowed to fight everything he proposes, so that he will become a one-term president. Part of it is party politics, and part of it is southern racism, no matter how much they deny it there is resentment that a black man is in charge of our nation. I can't wait to see how they'll react when Hillary gets elected in 2016... Sometimes it seems that I'm waiting for everyone older than myself to die off, so that they can be replaced by someone younger and more reasonable, but then I look at James Murdoch, shudder, and pray for Rupert's good health...

Nobody can really say what will happen if we default, and have to learn our lesson the hard way, like the tea party wants us to. It depends on how long we are in default. a couple of weeks will only make us the laughing-stock of Europe. Longer, and the lack of money problems will trickle down to the states and counties, which will be very interesting. We may end up renaming our cities after our banks and other monied institutions. My city would be the first to rename itself Wells Fargoville...