Politicians and America

There was a piece in the New York Times today that discussed the fact that while most Americans support Democratic policies, they distrust Government so much that they vote for people who run against Government even if they don't like their positions. This is of course an oversimplification of the actual article and the link to the article follows.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/opinion/sunday/tuning-out-the-democrats.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1

The premise of the article is extremely plausible and ultimately explains much of what we see going on today. Clearly very few Americans want to see the Government default, yet we have elected officials who seem to want that exact thing. Most Americans support Social Security and health care for seniors but we have elected officials attempting to dismantle those programs. I could list any number of similar situations to illustrate the point but I believe it is somewhat self evident.

Certainly, in my own experience, and I would like to point out that due to my work and other factors, I generally interact with fairly well educated people from liberal/democratic states. Still, I hear opinions expressed about policies and Government that are simply wrong. Some of this comes from the political ads that bombard them and others from the media which likes to point out the foibles of society. It should be noted that while there is really no excuse for an FAA controller to fall asleep on the job, this is the exception, not the norm. Unfortunately, it isn't news to report that in any given day no controllers took a nap on the job.

The media has us convinced that Government doesn't work, doesn't care and doesn't represent us. We have accepted this as a social theme. We love the country but hate its Government. Of course we shape that very Government even if we are told it is controlled by special interest groups and big business. Sadly, our belief in how evil Government is leads to apathy or protest votes instead of a reasoned consideration of the issues before us.

Consider some of the potential candidates for the next election. We have celebrity candidates who take positions that are really illogical in many ways. Right now we have a congress that is refusing to provide the Government with the ability to pay its obligations because the self same congress has authorized over the years to many obligations. There is actually an easy fix, if is the budget and appropriations process. It is not to cut off funds by refusing to allow the Government to raise money to pay its debts.

We look at this and have been convinced by the rhetoric that budget cuts and raising the debt limit are related. They are only related because some radicals think they can blackmail the system. Those very same radicals are welcome to attack appropriation bills and go on record with the cuts they want. By using the debt limit as a smokescreen, they are hiding from individual accountability.

Ultimately I have a strong belief in common sense and I hope the majority of us are so appalled by the current insanity that we remember the real issues in 2012.

The wonder of Politics

The stated purpose of this BLOG is to try to make sense of things. I haven't written in it in over a month for many reasons and perhaps one of them is that it is becoming harder and harder to do just that.

There have always been many different opinions about things and at any given time there are plenty of issues that become befuddling because of the intransigence of those who hold them. However, we are facing a potential crisis in this country which in all honesty shouldn't even come close to being a crisis because certain individuals in office have taken positions that do not allow proper functioning of the Government.

I am talking about the debt limit issue that may very well lead to the depression some elected officials seem to desire. First thing we need to understand is that the debt limit is something unique to this country, most countries have no such limitation. In fact one might wonder about why congress, which approves all spending then puts a limit on how we finance this very same spending. Second, we need to consider the deficit. As economic times improve and our military adventurism also declines, I believe they are related, we will see increase revenue and decreased expenditures. Whether that change in and of itself will bring us to a surplus does not seem likely, it would take a robust amount of growth to do that, but it would diminish the problem. Of course actions that prevent prosperity or lead to a new recession or possibly a depression will only lead to a bigger problem.

Growth is the means to mitigate the problem and recession increases the problem. The problem we have now is related to the fact that we had the worst recession is many decades and are barely out of it. There are other contributory factors, but if we hadn't had the recession we would not have seen the explosive increase of the last few years. Remember, during the Clinton administration we actually had a budget surplus.

We are now faced with a situation where an artificially imposed limitation that has no impact on what congress approves or doesn't approve is possibly going to create a situation that will cause a recession, increased interest rates and tremendous worldwide distress.

Yo have to love Politics.