Marty's Bon Mots (Selections found in: Glad You Asked)

Fiscal Games and Realities

A few months ago in Long Island, Nassau County specifically, a basic lesson was learned.

Edward Mangano, a Tea Party backed Republican, was elected Nassau County Executive. The first thing he did upon coming to office was to sign a repeal of a home energy tax. At the time, it was applauded by his supporters. But as the county suffered from grievous non-funding issues, the Nassau County Interim Financial Authority decided to exercise their respective authority. It seems that Mangano’s tax repeal set Nassau in such a fiscal tailspin that the Authority had to step in and seize control of that county’s finances.

You see, there are very basic economic concepts with which some folks have a hard time coming to grips. Despite the fact that one is dealing with gargantuan sized numbers, conceptually the facts remain the same. If you want to buy something, you have to pay for it. See? Easy. Right?

Let’s break this down. Regardless of the form of government, be it Democrat, Republican, Tea Party, Communist, Socialist, Whig or Benevolent Dictatorship, we are faced with certain unalienable truths, one amongst them being that, stuff don’t get done for free. There has to be an exchange somewhere regarding the receipt of goods and services.

Tax cuts!! Tax cuts!! I hear you cry. Well, that’s real swell and everything, but where does the money come from to pay for police, fire equipment and personnel, road services, teachers, schools, snow removal, and the list goes on and on? Taxes.
"A lot of people who got elected on this type of anti-tax platform are running into the brick wall of fiscal reality," Matthew Gardner, executive director of the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington was prompted to admonish.

Now let’s bring the clock forward to today’s romper room type setting in Congress.

Let’s cut spending!! Yahoo!! The first Republican proposal was to cut the rest of the 2011 budget by $32 billion. Then, since we’re on such a nice roll, let’s not stop there. Let’s go to $61 billion in cuts. At last count, the Republicans now want to slash a total of $81 billion, all out of the next seven months of government operations.

Hold on a moment. What are talking about as far as these proposed cuts? What programs are being slashed? One proposal suggests the United States would stop paying dues to the United Nations. Other proposals would cut all financing for the health care reform law, or Planned Parenthood, or any foreign aid to a country that regularly disagrees with the United States at the United Nations. And by the way, the programs being slashed have nothing to do with the programs driving up the long-term deficit: Medicare, Medicaid and, to a lesser extent, Social Security.

Asked on Tuesday if he was concerned that the proposed cuts could lead to tens of thousands of new layoffs, John Boehner said he was not. “Over the last two years, since President Obama has taken office, the federal government has added 200,000 new federal jobs.” “And if some of those jobs are lost in this, so be it.”

It is true. The Federal government has added jobs. But Johnny boy is a tad off here. The federal roster has increased, but more to the tune of around 63,000. Also, cuts of the order proposed by Republicans would result in more than just “… some of these jobs …” as he so glibly puts it. When polled, economists have indicated that cuts in the order of the proposed 81 billion could result in about 800,000 job losses throughout and across the entirety of the American economy.

Oh. You want to hear a priceless (pun intended) quote? You’re going to hear it anyway. Get a load of the genius of newly elected South Dakota Republican Representative Kristi Noem. “A lot of us freshmen don’t have a whole lot of knowledge about how Washington, D.C., is operated. And, frankly, we don’t really care.”

The prospect of working the rest of my life is something I find less than attractive. However, mortgages, electric, gas, oil and grocery bills beckon. You see, as unappetizing as this might seem Kristi, before money goes out, it has to come in. See? No? Well just work that red pen, Kristi!

It all comes down to public posturing for the 2012 elections. Johnny and company know full well that these proposals have 0 chance of getting past the President’s desk.

But this is a risky game being played. Not for us, the American public, but for the politicos attempting to put budget related issues front and center. The Republican gamble goes something like this: The economy is in the toilet and our bills and proposals were vetoed. Therefore, get that miserable Democrat out. But the risk they run is an economic upturn and an unemployment down turn.

Does someone besides me feel that wishing the worst for one’s country is kind of sick?

posted by Marty Brounstein @ 12:27 PM