Grover Norquist, anti-tax radical:
My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.
Michael Bennet in voting against the Bipartisan (How dare he?!?!?!?) Fiscal Cliff of Doom™ bill:
"Washington once again has lived up to its reputation as the 'Land of Flickering Lights.'
For four years in my townhall meetings across the state Coloradans have told me they want a plan that materially reduces the deficit.
This proposal does not meet that standard and does not put in place a real process to reduce the debt down the road."
We've already cut $1 Trillion from the budget. And the deficit is not in a state of emergency and our budget is not unsustainable as Bennet claims à la Dr. Evil in Austin Powers:
What the Dr. Evil types think, and want you to think, is that the big current deficit is a sign that our fiscal position is completely unsustainable. Sometimes they argue that it means that a debt crisis is just around the corner, although they've been predicting that for years and it keeps not happening.
But more often they use the deficit to argue that we can't afford to maintain programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
So it's important to understand that this is completely wrong.
Now, America does have a long-run budget problem, thanks to our aging population and the rising cost of health care.
However, the current deficit has nothing to do with that problem, and says nothing at all about the sustainability of our social insurance programs. Instead, it mainly reflects the depressed state of the economy - a depression that would be made even worse by attempts to shrink the deficit rapidly.
Michael Bennet's ignorance about economics is quite astounding here. And we know he's not listening to your average Coloradan on this issue, he's listening to Big Shots and Fat Cats represent by their lobbyists Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson:
Our leaders must now have the courage to reform our tax code and entitlement programs such that we stabilize our debt and put it on a downward path as a percent of the economy.
Washington missed this magic moment to do something big to reduce the deficit, reform our tax code, and fix our entitlement programs.
"Reform" means cut to these guys, with the guiding principle of maintaining tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of the elderly and poor and unemployed. The fact that our debt came primarily from 2 wars and massive tax cuts for the wealthy, and the deficit came from the housing crash of 2008 is ancient history in the eyes of those like Bennet.
Austerity is failing here and has failed everywhere it's been tried around the world.
By ignoring voters, cowing from their mandate, and listening exclusively to the whispered pleas of the moneyed elite, Democrats are still poised to cripple our nation's social safety net that has worked so well for many years and has supported the world's largest Middle Class for generations. Michael Bennet will be key to that if he maintains this ignorant and politically harmful belief that austerity is the best - and only - way to get full growth back to this pitiful economic recovery. |
