Demo Derby

Dramatic Scene From The First Balkan Race (1929) - Ivan Kolev

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that our elected leaders are playing an infantile game of chicken in the current debt crisis. And the American economy is all set to careen right off the road. I blame both sides for the stalemate and believe that with the lack of tractability on either side, we will probably be in a default position in another week. I find myself longing for the good old days, when bipartisan groups like the Concord Coalition sought to cultivate acceptable middle ground in our quest for fiscal solutions and sanity.

I do blame both sides for the current crisis and performing the necessary forensics regarding just how we got to this place is far easier than formulating a ready solution. Democrats and Republicans need to solve this problem like two sensible divorced parents might agree to raise their child. We don't have to like each other but lets put the knives away and figure out what's best for the kid.

First let's look at the issues. When Roosevelt signed Social Security into law in 1935, there were 7.8 million americans over the age of 65, with a life expectancy for a male 65 year old male of 78 years. There is expected to be 70 million plus baby boomer Americans on our shores this year. The growth of the entitlement programs is clearly unsustainable. We will not be able to provide status quo services at current levels for our graying baby boomers without putting a serious hurt on the more productive younger workforce by way or taxes. Or we find a way to change the paradigm.

I am going to try something different today and not indulge too much in the blame game. Republicans had major gains in the last mid term election. Who can blame them for feeling like they have to show something tangible to the constituency who fairly elected them? They rode a tea party horse into the battle and they won. I may not care for it but it happened and we need to respect their loyalty and responsibility to the people who elected them.

Disregard the fact that this was all supposed to be about the economy and we are now faced with a concerted social attack on abortion and birth control and homosexuality the likes of which we have never seen. This is their moment and they want to make something happen. The sides are so evenly balanced and the tipping point so minute, that who can blame a party for shoving it down each other's throat when they get a decent chance?

The problem I have is the über-piousness on the part of the conservatives. All of the current predecessors to the current president raised the debt ceiling, Bush II seven times. The conservative god Reagon raised it eighteen times. It has been raised thirty eight times since 1972. Is it really time to start sounding righteous? While liberals have a giant log in their eye regarding our capacity to maintain entitlement levels and careen down the path to socialism, conservatives have an equal mote in their own eyes about their role in getting us here.

Obama was handed an incredibly bad hand, the worst recession we had experienced in nearly eighty years. A recession largely born from conservative programs to deregulate, look the other way and provide fat tax cuts to our diamond Jim Brady cronies. All that Jack Kemp supply side  stuff, what do we have to show for it? Or you can take the easy and ridiculously unfounded position and blame everything on Fannie Mae. Those with short memories need to be reminded that Clinton handed his successor a surplus which Republicans insisted be given back to the American people as a tax cut. Then we started spending like drunken sailors.

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Jim DeMint was chortling the other day that Obama would say uncle and sign it. Republicans today said that he will sign a short term deal rather than nothing at all. Obama is pissy and stamping his feet and indulging in his own tough guy gamesmanship. It's a big poker game right now. No one is behaving like an adult, it's all a who has the biggest schlong contest. Very immature, very stupid and the reason why we are about to drive right off the cliff. That nasty part of the divorce when we would rather get a really good lick in and hurt somebody real bad than even live. Maybe both sides need a temporary restraining order. Because right now we just look at each other and get sick.