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Down The Middle - Dec 2, 2004 - Printable Version
- Mister, Can You Spare a Dime?
by Down The Middle
For years, the Republicans have accused Democrats of being the “tax and spend” Party...but how they got away with it, once again, is totally beyond me. Edward Gramlich, the Governor of the Federal Reserve Board, recently expressed his deep concerns over the present budgetary madness and warned of rapidly increasing interest rates, with investors turning away from bonds, not to mention, the “reality” of upcoming retirements of the “baby boomers” looming around the corner. “We have big deficits now, and the politics of deficit reduction, if you want to call it that, are terrible.” he was quoted as saying, “If you even dare talk about anybody’s taxes, that’s political death.” He went on to say, “Many Asian countries {China and Japan} are fueling their export industries by supporting the dollar and keeping their own currencies cheap. If they begin to have inflation in their own countries, which is getting close in China, they will probably have to stop...so we have a pretty unstable world situation, right now.”
With the monster U.S. trade imbalance growing with every tick and the folly of this “no tax and spend” policy, sending Bush’s budget deficit to new record highs, {causing the dollar to tank into new record lows against the Euro}, Georgie ups and gives the rich even more tax breaks so they can go out and get that all important, third yacht. {I think I’ll name mine, “Selfish, Spoiled and Greedy”...that is, when my ship comes in.}
The government opened the 2005 budget year, in October, by recording a deficit of 57.3 billion. {A billion here and a billion there...and pretty soon, you’re into some real money.} For the 2004 budget year, which ended September 30, the government posted a deficit 412.3 billion.
The simple fact of the matter is...the more money you print, the less it’s worth. The more money you borrow, the more interest you pay. The bigger the debt, the bigger the interest percentage charged. The bigger the interest, the fewer bonds you sale. Let’s just call it, say...“The road to bankruptcy”...or how about, “Goin’ down the tubes”...or maybe, “Can’t afford to eat out and can’t afford to eat in.”
Not to worry! Our fearless leader is on top of things. He’s now toying with the idea of a national sales tax!!! Once again, the poor of the nation will be given the opportunity to show their patriotism by, let’s say, giving up lunch, each day...but let’s not forget the sacrifice of the rich, having to pay all that sales tax on all those yachts.
This “conservative” President has also promised to “fix” the problem of Social Security {hmmm...seems like he said something about that, back before the FIRST ELECTION!} but the only real problem that exists with Social Security {it actually should be solvent for the next twenty years}, is that the Congress won’t keep their damn hands off of it! They keep over-spending {much of it, at the behest of our President, these last four years}, so they “borrow” {“rip off” might be a better way of putting it} OUR retirement money, therefore, costing the program OUR interest earnings {money lost forever} and then, to cover their sorry slack asses, they raise the debt ceiling, {borrowing more money and paying out more interest} to cover what they shouldn’t have taken, in the first place. Just days ago, they did that very thing, raising the debt ceiling to the tune of 800 BILLION BUCKS. {What the hell...why didn’t they just round it off to an even trillion?}
Not to worry! Bush and his economic advisers are thinking about borrowing even more money, to “finance” the transition into privatizing Social Security {Democrats have vowed to “protect” Social Security from such privatization}. The change would allow workers to “redirect” four percent of their payroll taxes into a personal account, so they might “play” the market, gambling for larger retirement returns, beyond the limits of Social Security. {I can see the “Big Boys” licking their lips now! Suckers by the millions!}
I would think it should be obvious to most anyone that any and all money pulled away from the system just weakens it, all the more. The less money workers put into the system, the less there is to pay out to an ever increasing number of retirees...but then, I guess, there seems to be about 51% of the people that just refuse to see the obvious.
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