Super Failure
I usually never have the energy to write after a 13 hour shift at work, but today’s confirmation of the Super Committee’s failure made me too angry not to. Because a plan really isn’t that hard to come up with.
It’s Not Class Warfare
It was a predictable result of the President’s announced deficit reduction plan, which included higher taxes on wealthier Americas nicknamed the “Buffet Tax” for Warren Buffet, the billionaire who has called for higher taxes on the wealthy. As Fox News played in my mess hall, the term I kept hearing was “class warfare.” What bullshit.
Irene costs restart Washington budget battle | Reuters
Irene costs restart Washington budget battle | Reuters.
I find Eric Cantor’s assertion that any spending to recover from Irene means spending will have to be cut other places extremely disturbing. Perhaps if Republicans weren’t so preoccupied with constantly cutting spending, there would be sufficient money in the budget to respond to emergencies. But regardless, such a plan is short sighted and will place us in an even worse place than we are already, fiscally and economically.
Equally disturbing is Ron Paul’s opinion that FEMA should be disbanded. As readers of my old blog may know, I used to be a high school history teacher in New Jersey. I only got to be a teacher for 1 year, right out of college, because New Jersey readjusted it’s state funding model that year to bring costs down. That readjustment reduced state funding for schools and led to massive teacher layoffs, and I was right in the middle of them. So here’s my question for Ron Paul. If states have been cutting spending every year because they are completely broke, how are they supposed to pay for disaster relief programs as well? Disasters frequently span more than one state, and having a federal agency overseeing the relief efforts means that a rich state and a poor state stay on relatively equal footing, rather than the poor state being left to struggle through funding the relief operations.
A Thought on Constitutional Rights
So class at UMUC has started and I’m pretty much done with Week 1 responsibilities on the second day of class. That’s how I like to start the semester. Part of the semester is offering analysis and opinion on a host of polisci questions. For this first week, one question focused on the experience of Mr. and Mrs. Rank, who wore anti-bush T-shirts to a Bush 4th of July speech in Charleston, SC. They found themselves arrested and removed from the event. When the Charleston PD tried to charge thin with trespassing on what turned out to be public grounds, the Ranks filed suit with the help of the ACLU and got a nice settlement out of the PD.
The Most Basic Macro Says the U.S. Debt Deal is Terrible
I kept very close tabs on my country’s ridiculous negotiation on raising the debt ceiling. Although a deal was reached, Economics 101 – basic macro. – tells us that the deal that Washington Cut isn’t going to do our economy any favors.
