The End of the Terrorist Party

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Obama needs to end the Terrorist Party

Though I would argue with a dead man, I rarely get impassioned by politics. I do not remember being angry at a politician in my lifetime. Until recently…..

I feel political anger, which is a new phenomenon for me. A minority in Washington have become terrorists. They say unless their hostages do exactly as they say, they will shut down the government, destroy the credit and respect of America, and introduce the Tea Party Recession.

If I were Obama, I would allow the shutdown and inform the American people that they voted the Tea Party in and the Tea Party kept its promise.

The lie that 80 years of social programs must be unraveled or the American economy will collapse is believed by too many Americans with too little reason to guide them. After twelve years of republican rule, we have a major deficit problem and we should solve it. We do not have a debt crisis, which can only be defined as an inability to pay ones debts.

What brought us so out of balance was extra spending on war, 800 billion dollar relief packages and reducing taxes on everyone to historic lows. We increased spending, not primarily on social programs, but on war and tax cuts, which primarily padded the pockets of the wealthiest of Americans. Top tax marginal rates are at 35%, almost historic lows, and even that is not really collected. When more revenue was needed, Reagan raised taxes. When more revenue was needed, Bush raised taxes. More revenue is needed now, but raising taxes is out of the question. Reagan and Bush were not fair, but the Tea Party has it all figured out. We can cut social programs many Americans need to survive instead.

Democrats can and should compromise, meaning, unfortunately, allow some cuts to some social programs, major cuts to defense spending, and modest increases in tax, and as everyone agrees, we should close the corporate and upper income tax loopholes (and we should tax long term capital gains more than a token amount, since it is income).

This would solve the deficit crisis the Tea Party created and would probably also balance the budget. The debt could be paid down slowly, and the fictitious debt crisis could be averted.

Traditional republicans mostly are going along with the Tea Party, but I don’t blame them, as they have become ineffectual except as subjects of their Tea Party masters. If Obama once again negotiates with terrorists on their terms, meaning that he gives them everything they demand, they will continue to use terror as a bargaining device.

When a stalemate happens, both sides have to compromise in order to avoid disaster. Reagan knew this, Bush knew this. The terrorists do not know this. The Tea Party did not hesitate to vote to raise the debt ceiling when republicans were asking for it and when the debt soared to historic highs. The national debt is always far greater than it was before, and yet no one voted against the increased debt ceiling. The Tea Party suddenly defines it as a debt crisis, not because we are in danger of insolvency, but because they can. The democrats have submitted to the terrorists’ demands numerous times, and the terrorists continue to increase their demands. Their real target is and always has been the New Deal and they are making up a crisis to justify their war against it.

If the Tea Party were sincere, they could have come out of this with a huge political victory. They could have squeezed significant chunks out of the New Deal, which would be a win like the Republican Party has not seen in my lifetime. SSA was challenged repeatedly, both in court and in congress, and all challenges fail. Despite a long-time desire to cripple Medicare, it survives. The long term goals of the Republican Party could have been realized and some democrats, probably most moderates and all republicans would have praised our Tea Party saviors. Instead, if Obama does not finish turning the country over to them, they will be the ones who threw us back into recession and the Tea Party era will probably end here.

About Post Author

John Myste

John Myste is a proud agnostic liberal living in Texas with his loving wife, two loving dogs and a cat. He does not actively seek the truth, and has a firm opinion on nothing. He likes interesting discussions and unique perspectives; and he hopes and believes that if he indulges in these, the truth will follow.
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12 years ago

John,

Very well done sir! I would like to add if I may that the Republican Party with the entrance of W inherited a surplus budget that would have paid off the entire deficit over a ten year period. W gave the countries bank book back to the upper class with major tax cuts and had 24 votes to raise the deficit during his two terms.

President Obama has the authority to raise the deficit limit with a single stroke of a pen. Let the Republican’s sue him if they think he overstepped his power. The President is charged with defending the country be it foreign or domestic. What the Republican’s are trying to do is by all accounts and act of terrorism on the American economy.

Blog on my friend and we need more posts like this from you.

Papamoka

Reply to  Papamoka
12 years ago

Damn, Papa, I am utterly shocked that you found this. You missed the other one I just posted, though, I suspect, so I only give you partial credit. The other one was better because it offered the definitive solution that does not result in impeachment of anyone, as invoking the 14th amendment perhaps should not, but well may with the current cowboys in the House.

I know you have a link to my personal blog, but I am utterly shocked that you found this. I really am.

When are you going to post another opinion piece?

Reply to  John Myste
12 years ago

I’ll post something soon. I seem to be preoccupied lately for some reason or another.

12 years ago

Bob ,

I’m not sure why you are arguing the semantics.

Because I dispute the semantics.

I could call the top marginal rates being under 50% a revenue crisis and then question why you are dispute the semantics, but I won’t do it. I am an honest man.

Unless the Debt Ceiling is raised, sometime between August 3 and August 18 (best estimates from the Secretary of the Treasury) we will be unable to pay our debts. By your own, twice repeated definition, that is a debt crisis.

Right, so unless we refuse to raise the debt ceiling, just like we never did, a debt crisis will follow. The Tea Party has boasted of their willingness to create this crisis. We were so impressed with their newly designed disaster, that we elected them so they could fulfill the promise. I agree with your argument that the Tea Party is capable of producing a debt crisis. In fact, they are determined to do this unless we cancel the New Deal, which is one of the main premises of this article. It is like me saying we MUST raise taxes because there is no other means of solving the problem. Budgets are made of revenue and spending. The Tea Party somehow convinced you that it doesn’t know about the revenue or how it works. The Myste budget (q.v.) keeps the New Deal, cuts spending, raises revenues and solves the deficit problem.

The Debt Ceiling has never been raised without angst and strong worded debate. When President Bush petitioned Congress to raise the ceiling NOT ONE SINGLE DEMOCRAT SENATOR voted for the increase. It was raised over the objections of every Democrat.

God, those hypocrites! They piss me off. Maybe we should shut down the government after all. I had not considered this very convincing justification for defaulting on loans and losing our credit rating.

What were they even upset about again? What was their claim about the budget and what was included and what was swept under the rug, and where funds were going? It is so hard to remember. Even so, I think it the ceiling was raised and I don’t recall the government shutting down, but my memory is older than it was back then. It is a crisis, my memory.

Sadly, President Bush and Congress (first the Republican Congress, then the Democrat controlled session) doubled down on the Deficit Spending. President Obama has quadrupled down on the same bad bet. Stop making war. Obama should not continue his predecessor’s direction; among other reasons, we cannot afford it, and also, he promised not to. It is a promise crisis.

Will Congress raise the Ceiling? Will the President do it through Executive Order (the Constitution is vague)? If so, the current Debt Crisis (based solely on your definition of the term)

Come now, Bob, you know that is not my definition of the term. You must play fairly with the other children.

… will be averted and we will then simply have a Deficit Crisis or Spending Crisis or Revenue Crisis or some other term to define our spiraling debt level.

The term is budget deficit and debt, not crisis. Perhaps we can increase taxes to help solve the budget deficit, as Reagan, Bush and Clinton did. I wrote a post a few clicks back explaining how to handle the budget deficit. Once we get that in line, we can start paying down the debt, you know, like Bush didn’t.

Soon, interest on the debt will be the single biggest line item in our Federal Budget. If not averted, it will shortly exceed all incoming revenue. What do you want to call that crisis?

Wow, then we better handle that. It seems that you found a way to ask an erroneous question. A large debt is not a crisis. Therefore, I am not required to give a label to a nonexistence crisis. There are plenty of other non-existent things without labels and they do just fine. It just wouldn’t be fair when there are plenty of real crises still in need of labels. This is a label crisis of the highest order and immediate action should be taken to avert it.

I believe that there is no debt crisis was one of the main premises of this article. You should read it some time. It is very interesting.

I do think we should solve this budget deficit problem and now, as I stated in my prior article. Shutting down the government and going to a recession is one good solution, but perhaps there are other methods also. I am not going to call our debt being the single biggest budget item a crisis, but it is bad and needs to be handled immediately. A “debt crisis” is the inability to pay one’s debts. I should have made that more clear from the beginning.

Perhaps we should cut our enormous defense budget, stop making war, collect the taxes we assess and raise the top marginal rates a modest amount. I laid this out in the Myste budget.

We must reduce spending and increase revenue (raise taxes). Truer words were never spoken. You and I are like political twins, Bob.

Call it by any “crisis name” you wish. Business as usual cannot continue for long. I believe we covered this. I do not call it by a crisis name. I reserve those for crises. You must provide me with another choice or I refuse to cooperate, even if it shuts our dialog down. A crisis is not defined by Bob injecting the word crisis.

12 years ago

John, To quote both your post and your comments back to me above “A debt crisis is the inability to pay one’s debts”

I’m not sure why you are arguing the semantics. Unless the Debt Ceiling is raised, sometime between August 3 and August 18 (best estimates from the Secretary of the Treasury) we will be unable to pay our debts. By your own, twice repeated definition, that is a debt crisis.

The Debt Ceiling has never been raised without angst and strong worded debate. When President Bush petitioned Congress to raise the ceiling NOT ONE SINGLE DEMOCRAT SENATOR voted for the increase. It was raised over the objections of every Democrat.

Sadly, President Bush and Congress (first the Republican Congress, then the Democrat controlled session) doubled down on the Deficit Spending. President Obama has quadrupled down on the same bad bet.

Will Congress raise the Ceiling? Will the President do it through Executive Order (the Constitution is vague)? If so, the current Debt Crisis (based solely on your definition of the term) will be averted and we will then simply have a Deficit Crisis or Spending Crisis or Revenue Crisis or some other term to define our spiraling debt level.

Soon, interest on the debt will be the single biggest line item in our Federal Budget. If not averted, it will shortly exceed all incoming revenue. What do you want to call that crisis?

We must reduce spending and increase revenue (raise taxes).

Call it by any “crisis name” you wish. Business as usual cannot continue for long.

Jess
12 years ago

We’ve got Boehner trying to herd rabid raccoons in his party and using video from movies to get his point across today. From republico, an article alluding to dissent in the ranks and Boehner telling them to “get their ass in line” This will not end well I’m afraid, and all because 400 Americans don’t want their taxes raised to bring in some coin. It’s insane.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/60022.html#ixzz1TJpdxpOw

12 years ago

This site is helpful in understanding the scope of spending and debt. It also shows where money is spent. http://www.federalbudget.com/

Reply to  Bob Keller
12 years ago

Thanks, Bob. I have a link to that site. This site is more interactive:

Federal Budget Charts

Seeing Ryan’s budget there was the ultimate inspiration for my two-article soap box.

In case that does not show properly, the link is here:

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_budget

Reply to  John Myste
12 years ago

John – You are indeed honored, not very often is Mr. Keller lured into the comment section, your (another) fine post is responsible. Let that be a lesson to you.

12 years ago

John, Actually, what we have here is EXACTLY a debt crisis. And it is a crisis that is caused directly by our inability to pay our many debts, including debts owed to the holders of U.S. Treasury Bonds, the massive debt owed to the Social Security Fund and debts owed to other U.S. creditors through a myriad of debt instruments and borrowings.

The ONLY WAY we can make the payments on these huge and rapidly mounting DEBTS is to borrow more money. That is a fact and we cannot ignore it.

What we have done for the last fifty years is to akin to you or I taking out a bank loan to pay our MasterCard bill. And we borrow more every passing minute. Eventually we can no longer borrow money simply to pay past bills.

This is not a Democrat Problem nor a Republican Problem and it sure ain’t a Tea Party Problem. The debt has climbed steadily except for a few brief moments (for just a few months, actually) under the Clinton Presidency.

I am disgusted with the Republicans and especially the Tea Party activists who refuse to entertain compromise to solve the underlying spending and revenue problems. Beyond doubt President Obama has emerged the “winner” of the political battle. But it’s a hollow victory. A lot like being the elected the Captain of the Titanic.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

P.S. To Mike and all the fine contributors here at Mad Mikes: I read every article every day. I rarely comment, I appreciate all your extraordinarily fine work.

Reply to  Bob Keller
12 years ago

Bob,

John, actually, what we have here is EXACTLY a debt crisis. Saying it doesn’t make is so, my friend. We cannot define “debt crisis” as argument by vehemence. We cannot define debt crisis as “Bob says it is a debt crisis and he used the word exactly in all caps.” A debt crisis is the inability to pay one’s debts. We have always borrowed money to pay the interest on borrowed money. Perhaps we should balance the budget in ways I mentioned a few posts back and not manufacture a crisis to help us abolish social programs we don’t like. For a wacko minority party to arbitrarily decide that the crisis point is here only makes sense if you are member.

I appreciate the astute observation: The ONLY WAY we can make the payments on these huge and rapidly mounting DEBTS is to borrow more money. That is a fact and we cannot ignore it. Fortunately, no one is trying to ignore it. We are trying to borrow more money. Please keep up.

What we have done for the last fifty years is to akin to you or I taking out a bank loan to pay our MasterCard bill. And we borrow more every passing minute. Agreed. That is why we need to handle the budget deficit and not mistake a budget deficit emergency for a debt crisis. This mistake could cause us to go off half-cocked and create a manufactured disaster.

Eventually we can no longer borrow money simply to pay past bills.Agreed. Today is not eventually. If today were eventually, you would not admit it. You would call it today instead.

This is not a Democrat Problem nor a Republican Problem and it sure ain’t a Tea Party Problem. It is all of those things.

The debt has climbed steadily except for a few brief moments (for just a few months, actually) under the Clinton Presidency. No one has suggested otherwise. A budget deficit is one thing and the national debt is another. The budget needs to be balanced or eventually we will have a crisis on our hands, heaven forbid.

I am disgusted with the Republicans and especially the Tea Party. Me too. Utterly disgusted.

Beyond doubt President Obama has emerged the “winner” of the political battle. He is still on the battlefield and has emerged from nothing. At this point a Pyrrhic victory is the good scenario.

I read every article every day. I rarely comment, I appreciate all your extraordinarily fine work. I am honored to have the distinction of rousing you from your shell. It is has been a pleasure serving you, sir.

Bradley Scott
Reply to  John Myste
12 years ago

Thank You, Mike. You have no idea how much it means to me today, to’ve heard a sane person speak.

Bradley Scott
Reply to  Bradley Scott
12 years ago

Opps that was supposed to be John and Mike. John for the words, Mike for the site.

Reply to  Bradley Scott
12 years ago

No problem, sir. I am just glad I could sanely speak for your enjoyment. Oftentimes, we have no way to and so they just keep coming. I try to handle the retreat, but without enough aegis, and so I rarely am. I guess what I really mean to say is that we all have our moments, but the rest of the time there are no moments and we just gobble at the heads of the thingies trying to make sense out of it until it is fully eaten and we didn’t get any pizza.

Bradley scott
Reply to  John Myste
12 years ago

Not mere enjoyment sir. I had just wrapped up a two day fb postathon with a non-self proclaimed, but obvious Tea bagger, at the end of which not one point of agreement was found on either side. When he said ‘rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,’ I might have agreed conceptually, though contextually we were miles apart. I felt whatever the opposite is of intellectually stimulated. Then I read your post, with so many of the same facts and arguments that other fellow disputed, denied or simply ignored, and thought, deck chairs, schmeck chairs. The Tea Party is about locking the gates to the lower decks, picking pockets of the regular passengers, and shoving women and children over board, while sheparding first class passengers to the lifeboats, angling for a seat themselves. Thanks again.

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