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

Kool-Aid and credit cards

We have a relatively new expression in the American lexicon. We say, “we drank the Kool Aid.” This comes from an incident in 1978, now called the Jonestown Massacre, where in Guyana members of a cult, called the Peoples Temple, drank Kool-Aid (actually it was Flavor-Aid, but why quibble) laced with cyanide in order to commit communal suicide for a faith based ritual. Today, “drinking the Kool-Aid” is a metaphor meaning to blindly and unquestioningly believe in an ideology, or to accept an argument or philosophy without critical examination.

Which brings us to today’s headlines surrounding our near-the-brink economic debacle. I read incredulously as people just don’t get it. These people listen to other people who, completely misunderstanding the economic crisis within which we currently find ourselves. The talking heads projectile vomit their ignorant bile fully expecting others to buy into their jive. The more meek and more prone-to-follow types stand in line, nod their heads and regurgitate the same goop without bothering to take the few synapses and the few minutes it would take to connect the dots for themselves. In some so-called newspaper or another, some dude at some Tea Party like gathering was photographed all dressed up in Revolutionary garb and held up banners decrying that our problems will be solved not be raising the debt ceiling but by spending less.

Stupid! This is a typical Ron Reagan response. Simple answers to impossibly complex questions. People like to grab on to simple. This reminds me of a movie called ‘Dave’. The premise of the movie had a brain dead President. A look alike with unerringly do-gooder tendencies was enlisted as a temporary replacement and the replacement made things better despite the gross and underhanded political wanking surrounding him. In one scene we have the do-gooder going through deficit line items and during the course of an afternoon, cut out billions and billions of wasteful expenditures to the delight of the majority of Congress.

Isn’t life like that? Isn’t life like the movies?

Uhm. No.

A few years ago during yet another bogus gas shortage, a well intentioned but woefully misguided boyfriend of a co-worker explained the exorbitant gas prices simply, “…supply and demand…” This explanation sent yours truly into almost uncontrollable fits of paroxysms with the utter and complete hopeless display of even attempting to uncover the actual root causes of the mass screwing we were collectively receiving.

We have an extremely complex economic situation. The causes behind this situation are an intertwined web of even more complex tendrils of wars, buying habits, mishandled energy policies, bad decisions regarding international trade policies, delicate balances of international relationships, and on and on.

Is the answer to spend less? Well, and to be honest, spending less is, in fact, one aspect of a long term recovery. But, and after giving it some thought, one realizes that it isn’t quite that simple.

Yes, we have to spend less. And just as we have to spend wisely, we also have to examine what we eliminate from our spending habits equally as wisely.

Will eliminating Planned Parenthood or National Public Radio save our economy? No. It won’t even make a dent. Do we have to monitor our military wisely? Yes. Do we need to re-examine our import and tariff policies? Desperately. Should we put a comprehensive all inclusive energy policy in place? Yesterday. Should we let the market decide its own fate, just like we did with Wall Street, the oil and insurance industries? Don’t think so.

Cutting to the chase and the definitions. Raising the deficit ceiling has absolutely nothing, I repeat, absolutely nothing to do with future spending trends. The issue of the debt ceiling enables the United States of America to pay its respective bills.

Let’s take the issue of your credit card. I know you don’t want to think about. Well … neither does our government. But, assuming you actually want to be responsible and keep your decent credit rating, you just have to gird your loins and pay up. Is this something you like doing? Of course not. But, again, you have to pay your bills. If you don’t, there are nasty consequences.

In a simplistic move of either bombastic misunderstanding, or, more likely, in a move to provide simplistic forms of spoon feeding to the huddled masses, the political types are trying to create a new definition and purpose behind the debt ceiling. The impression these folks intend is to foster is that the prospect of a debt ceiling raise is the natural equivalent of a spending vacuum. The picture being painted by these types involves the following scenario: As soon as the debt ceiling is raised (which by the way, it most assuredly must) there will be the equivalent of a dam burst of spending on over priced buildings, luxury items, travel, patronage assignments, unnecessary government programs, golf junkets and, of course, wholesale abortions. The picture being painted is that of the Roman gentry languishing idly by fountains being fed grapes by scantily clad nubile nymphs and being gently fanned by loyal harmless eunuchs.

Let’s eradicate that picture and allow me to less than humbly ‘splain things.

As we said before, if the debt ceiling is not raised, we’re not going to be able to pay Master Charge. Again, all we’d be doing with this new debt ceiling is not spending, but rather, paying. How’s that for simple?

The issue of deficit reduction is an altogether different matter. Hello out there. The two have nothing to do with each other. The sad fact is, with all of Congressional hesitancy, we've already hurt our credit score.

An estimate from the Congressional Budget Office is that if our borrowing costs rose just one-tenth of a percentage point, it could translate into $130 billion more in what we owe over the next 10 years. We will have Washington dithering to thank for that.

Add to this the fact that the rate of economic growth the past two quarters has been incredibly low, and we have nearly 25 million Americans either unemployed or stuck working part-time.

The fact is we wouldn't have a deficit crisis, if we had more people working. The revenue that would come from halving our unemployment rate would reduce our long-term debt to manageable levels.

So if you’re strung out for overly simple answers, well here it is. Raise the budget ceiling so we can start paying our bills. At the same time, we need a WPA like program in order to get people back to work and have them input and circulating into the economy.

So what’s with all the brouhaha surrounding less spending instead of adjusting the current debt ceiling?

It has nothing to do with the economy. It’s a photo opp. It’s about hustling for sound bites on the boob tube. It’s about getting the masses to grasp on to mind numbingly simple, yet incorrect, economic falsehoods. It’s about getting the masses to tie these sound bites with these talking heads. It’s about building non-credible political credibility. It’s about getting votes.

And all they have to do is to get you to drink the Kool-Aid.

posted by Marty Brounstein @ 10:23 AM