America won’t go bankrupt just because Barack Obama got re-elected...

... and if it does, it’ll be the consequence of very bipartisan efforts.

Here’s a little reality check for all the hysteria out there I’ve seen.

Democrats will continue to control the presidency and the US Senate.

Republicans will continue to control the US House, almost 60% of the governorships and, quite significantly, almost 65% of the state legislative chambers.

We’re not suddenly lurching toward a Democratic Party dictatorship. The two corporate controlled parties have a pretty good split on power amongst themselves. 

(And if you believe Republicans and Democrats are two different social issues-based factions of the same corporate-controlled party, then it’s been that way since Clinton’s reign. Obama’s re-election changes this in no way.)

To all the people who didn’t care about the debt/deficit during Bush’s reign and suddenly got all worked up once a Democrat entered the White House, here’s a little reminder of 8^th grade social studies.

All federal spending bills originate in the House of Representatives.

The president can submit a budget but it’s nothing more than a suggestion. No budgets get passed without the approval of the House. The House will remain comfortably controlled by... Republicans.

The national debt increased from nothing to a little under $5 trillion in the 220 or so years leading up to 1995. Though it started increasing consistently during the Reagan administration in the 1980s.

Since 1995, the national debt has increased by $12 trillion in a mere 18 years.

The Republicans have controlled the House for 14 of those 18 years. The Democrats have controlled the presidency for 10 of those 18 years.

So if you think the debt is a problem, it’s a problem that resulted out of that most sainted of actions: bipartisanship.

If the nation goes bankrupt, which it wouldn’t if we had rational military spending (another sensible idea blocked by bipartisanship), it won’t be because Pres. Obama and the Democrats did it by themselves.

Sometimes, you do get what you vote for

Apparently some people are upset that NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo is threatening to lay off as many as 12,000 state workers, about 5% of the entire state work force. Why?

Nearly 96% of New Yorkers recently supported the Republican economic agenda, via their votes for either Cuomo or Carl Paladino; the highest vote getter among those advocating a non-GOP economic agenda was Green Howie Hawkins at 1.3%.

In a recent Siena poll, 87% said they wanted the state to erase the $10 billion budget gap without raising taxes or new borrowing.

If you want to balance a budget, you either need to cut spending, raise revenue or some combination thereof. And since the public’s stated preferences exclude the latter two, they have nothing to complain about.

You voted for it. You got it. Quit whining!

Bits and pieces

"When I give food to the poor, I'm called a saint. When I ask why they are poor, I'm called a communist." -Archbishop Dom Helder Camara.

-ABC News takes a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a documentary on the NGO Doctors Without Borders and the truly heroic work they do.

-The Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, which focuses on isses relating to rural America, published a report exploring the particularly high rates of young child poverty in the southern US. Carsey also released an interesting report on Challenges in Serving Rural American Children through the Summer Food Service Program.


-A piece on Alternet 6 shocking ways conservatives have caused the economic destruction of America... or more specifically, the conservative ideology.

-Speaking of harm caused by the Supreme Court-sanctioned corporate takeover of government... I noticed an AP piece highlighting how many judges in the Gulf Coast (where lawsuits related to the BP oil catastrophe will be heard) have close ties to Big Oil... 37 of 64 federal judges in the region, to be exact. (And this doesn't even take into account state judges, many of whom are elected and thus raise money) Then, I caught an item about how one of those federal judges struck down the Obama administration's temporary ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Please move along... nothing to see here.

(Also see: MoveToAmend.org - a project of the Campaign to Legalize Democracy)

-Sadly, this area has seen the death of not one but two local soldiers this week in Afghanistan, the latter 19 years old. The deaths of these young men occured the same week that a report by Congressional investigators issued a 'shocking' (not sure I'd use the adjective) report that the US is funding Afghan warlords.

The triumph of rhetoric

"When I give food to the poor, I'm called a saint. When I ask why they are poor, I'm called a communist." -Archbishop Dom Helder Camara.

North Country Public Radio did a news report on a northern New York meeting of fiscally conservative Republicans.

It was a seemingly ordinary piece that brought to light the complete intellectual bankruptcy of most of those (non-libertarians) who espouse fiscal conservatives.

All the interviewees preached the standard mantra of less spending, lower taxes and smaller government... all stuff that sounds great in theory. But when pushed for specifics to translate that theory into reality, it was one giant #fail, as Tweeters might say.

The self-described fiscal conservatives talked a good game until it was pointed out that the politically conservative region is heavily dependent on taxpayer money, particularly from Albany and Washington. With the Fort Drum military bases, universities, school teachers, park rangers and prison guards, NNY's economy is very heavily based on jobs in the public sector or that are funded by public money.

When challenged with this fact, the small-government types reassured their potential supporters that this reality was no impediment to their ideology. It would be no problem preserving the taxpayer spigot to NNY; they could just make other regions suffer the budget cuts instead.

One interviewee pretended to sound specific by suggesting that Medicaid spending be slashed. When asked what particular Medicaid programs she'd want to cut, she said she didn't know.

I didn't hear one thing in this piece that showed that these so-called fiscal conservatives were the tiniest bit serious. Cheap NIMBY rhetoric is good for the fantasy world of rabble rousing, not for the real world of governance.