The Bowles-Simpson Cult
¶A brief shout-out to Stan Collender, the mild-mannered budget analyst who finally says what must be said: the Very Serious People who keep pushing the Bowles-Simpson deficit plan as some kind of talisman of fiscal responsibility are delusional and deeply unserious:
¶B-S and some of their biggest supporters then made a huge mistake when they expressed surprise and extreme disappointment that the Obama administration didn’t make the co-chairs’ recommendation the basis of its fiscal 2012 budget, that is, the first one it submitted after the commission ended.
¶That demonstrated a level of political tone deafness that seriously hurt the credibility of what had now become a B-S cult. They were seriously suggesting that the Obama White House unilaterally support the tax increases and spending cuts included in the two co-chairs’ plan even though it was virtually guaranteed that the GOP would never agree to do the same and would punish Democrats for doing so.
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133 Comments
Perhaps when Obama and Democrats actually present a budget or economic plan, then they other ideologues like Krugman will have a right to criticize the others who do. Of course, their opinions will be likely be worthless.
They.
Must.
Be.
Beaten.
Mercilessly.
Before they get us all killed.
Stimulate, export, cut deficit and military and restore equality are all related..
We are in the fourth year of a Great Recession that could have been a depression. The end is still not in sight. The net worth of all Americans was affected negatively, as has their optimism and willingness to go on spending binges as they have over the last several decades. To make the recovery happen, part of the answer is to stimulate our economy by investing in our future including infrastructure, education and the internet.
Our ability to presently stimulate is somewhat limited by the debt burden our country is currently carrying as depicted by the chart below. If we cannot show how we can afford to stimulate now and implement a debt reduction plan in the near future, we could be facing the same problems as Greece, Spain and Portugal. Read More:http://goo.gl/f3q26
You just wanted to find a way to say BS in the Times.
.
As a person who enjoys contemplating the future, I used to encounter such resistance from people who insisted the personal computer would not be widely adopted and change how we accomplish literally everything.
Fans of James Burke would point out that the advance of human civilization is based on information. Technology to share information is the driving force accelerating advances gained through the advent of the printing press, telegraphy, telephony, radio and television. These advances have increased pressure on governing systems to change, and have caused change around the world.
What is happening now in information exchange is difficult to see and very hard for older people to grasp. It may be called social media, Facebook, or Twitter, whatever. National borders and language barriers are dissolving, permitting a global conversation about how we humans are to be governed and to share the world's resources/wealth.
History will likely show this period as the point of greatest change in world-wide institutions involved in meeting all human needs.
Deeply Serious.
It would be a huge tax increase on the middle class. I could stomach it for deficit reduction or infrastructure or programs for the truly unfortunate. To raise my taxes, when I haven't had a real raise in 10 years to fund the bankers and mangers that looted the economy is total nonsense.
P.S. This country is not "borrowing 50% of the Federal spending outlays from CHINA."
'Let’s start with the already famous exchange in which Justice Antonin Scalia compared the purchase of health insurance to the purchase of broccoli, with the implication that if the government can compel you to do the former, it can also compel you to do the latter.'
might have something to do with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx5smKMqvHI
sorry if I'm like the 89th person with a comment like this
There are lots of things that Congress could do to make this a better country-single payer health care, upgrade infrastructure, alternative energy. etc., but as long as the Republicans are only working for the 1% it ain't gonna happen. I say let the tax cuts die and move on.
Simpson-Bowles? Just another austerity scam masquerading as bipartisanship.
The Fatal Flaw is that this plan, regardless of the specifics and regardless of the well-meaning intent of the committee members, represents a Compromise. As we already know, and have been told hundreds of times, the GOP WILL NOT COMPROMISE, so...obviously the plan is/was dead from the moment it existed.
However, just as in some State...can't remember which one right now...a dead fetus must be carried to term, inflicting that anguish upon the mother and father involved. Therefore, while B-S is clearly dead, and we all know it, the GOP believes we must continue the charade of the pregnancy. In this case, the normal gestation period is not nine months, but more like that of an Elephant: 19 months. Are we there yet?
This is all a pipe dream as the Republicans will never go along with such a proposal, particularly if President Obama supports it. What a country!
The democrats would not be giving all this money to corporations if they expected to protect the middle-class! Please stop with the false hope and get rid of these incumbant Third Way democrats!
So, "Simpson Bowles" as a label is pretty misleading, at least to me. It's not much different than, say, the "Sanders-Brown" recommendations - a couple of smart guys who've thought about it some, but hardly the product of a professional and focused process.
1. To what extent The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) influence the Bowles Simpson plan?
2. Why aren’t the Democrats and in particular the Congressional Progressive Caucus hawking their progressive budget plan through the media?
Progressives tried, but Administration simply ignores all ideas and people from this group. They are so far Right,we are the enemy. As you know the media is controlled and governed by the Right so it was DOA.