Ramblings, musings, and most everything in between

Revolutions, Republicans, and Budget Cuts…Oh My!

It seems like everything’s been in a flux lately, and I feel the compulsive need to muse on it.

As someone with an extensive historical background and a keen interest in the international, the recent events in the Middle East have really been gripping for me. It’s not everyday that one country, much less an entire region, is able to come together and demand an all around betterment of the human condition. However, this time around the revolutions have an extra fun twist…They’re occurring in the one region of the planet the United States cannot afford instability in. You see, as a country we’ve been addicted to foreign oil since the 1970’s, when most of our domestic deposits dried up, not to mention that most of this oil must pass through the vulnerable Straits of Hormuz and Suez Canal thus we have cultivated a series of friendly strongmen in order to keep the peace. So now we’re at a crossroads between security and the very ideals our Republic is built upon. As of right now the government is playing a defensive game, urging democratic reform in a peaceful manner, while trying to buy time for their political favorites until the State Department is able to regroup. With any luck we’ll take the high road, and simply butt out while providing moral guidance and material assistance when the time for elections comes. We really need to understand that now isn’t the time to play hardball with democratic reformers. We did that with the Iranians and they ended up appointing an oppressively theocratic regime that doesn’t like the United States in any official capacity. Perhaps if we had dumped the Shah earlier and encouraged gradual and peaceful reform, then maybe there wouldn’t be an Iranian nuclear emergency among other things. Now is the time to encourage organic democratic growth, even if the current electoral slate isn’t jam packed with parties and individuals waving American flags. People will remember what the United States does for years to come, and I just hope we handle this situation as delicately as we can.  I’m really anxious (both excitement and apprehension) to see how this all shapes up.

Domestically, things have definitely taken a turn that pretty much no one is happy with. Both the Administration and the Republicans in Congress are doing their utmost to offend people with their completely unprofessional competition to figure out who can cut the deficit in the most destructive way possible. However, I have to say that in my own personal opinion the Republicans are going about it in the worst possible way. Of course, that isn’t to say that they don’t have any competition, as the Obama Administration’s recent budget also demonstrated huge cuts to domestic programs that are crucial to impoverished Americans, not to mention graduate students like yours truly.

Despite this, the Republicans still take the cake, and my personal congressman Mr. Boehner is doing his utmost to piss off anyone with half a brain. Their chant lately has been one of fiscal responsibility, which on its own isn’t bad, I mean the debt and deficit are out of control and must be reined in. But, they really aren’t living up to the responsible part of that plan. The Republicans are determined to remove $100 billion from the budget regardless what it could do. They’re essentially playing political theater to show how quickly they can cut “superfluous” federal spending without taking the time to think about what their actions are doing. In this way the Republicans are showing their political affiliation, utterly refusing to raise taxes by 3% on the wealthiest 2% of Americans (as that would supposedly kill the job creating process), while simply slashing domestic programs that real people actually rely on. They’re basically doing what they espouse to be preventing, mortgaging the future for immediate political gain. By potentially eliminating the thousands of federal jobs Mr. Boehner so carelessly stated were unneeded, cutting education spending, doing nothing to make higher education more affordable, cutting spending for energy research, and subsidies for low income families the Republicans are dangerously close to not only stalling recent economic growth, but derailing progress in key areas like education and scientific research. If that’s not mortgaging the future, then I need a new bloody dictionary.

Their plan coincides with the recent “Reagan Renaissance”, as they are once again espousing the trickle down theory of economics, which has been proven time and again to have very little actual effect on the economy as a whole, as well as good old fashioned supply side economic theory (also known as a modification of Keynesian Economics, but don’t tell them that). Making the rich even richer generally doesn’t mean that the working class, much less the middle class, are bequeathed with large increases in their standard of living in either the near or distant future. I wonder if they seriously don’t realize that supply side economics is just another really fun way of saying deficit spending.

Taxes are a necessity to balance the budget, we pay them so that we may have the privilege of living in a functional society. It is completely unfeasible to balance the deficit and lower the national debt without raising at least some revenue from taxes. Inherently they represent an investment in the government. Sure, I’ll be the last person to deny that the Feds spend our tax money on same insane stuff, but in all honesty I’d much rather the Federal (read also State and Local) Government have the necessary means to continue John Locke’s social contract than have a government too emaciated to function properly. Of course some people will say that the private sector will then swoop in and fill in the gaps, but I have a really big problem with that. The private sector, while having numerous virtues and being the greatest boon to the economy, is a for profit enterprise, and thus something diametrically opposed to the common welfare of all. Thus its ability to effectively fill in the gaps left by a weakened public sector will be limited

Take public libraries for instance, they’re affordable and do the community a valuable service by allowing those with limited means to access information at little to no cost. They’re an awful business model since they offer relatively expensive services at a bargain price, but that’s inherent in their design. Libraries are humanistic organizations designed to let anyone with the drive (if not the means) to better themselves intellectually and thus the community. Now imagine such a place run by a private corporation that makes you purchase those same services at cost. You would very quickly discover that the library is simply…gone. Those who use them are poorer, and thus would be completely unable to afford more expensive library services. The private sector would then quickly pull themselves out of the game, as their motive is profit. Voila no more public service, and the community as a whole is left much worse off for the experience. 

I don’t mean to constantly bash the Republicans here, the original tenants of their party are sound, but they’ve gone off the deep end since 2000. The religious right have utterly subverted the party’s hierarchy, and their allegiance to the free market appears to be more one to large corporate backers. As much as I deplored the utter idiocy of the majority of Tea Partiers, the notion itself wasn’t that bad. The Republican Party was and still is completely out of touch with its base, people who honestly want lower taxes and private innovation over public (I’m just going to discount the Bible thumpers since we do have a legal separation of church and state). However, the Republican brass are literally doing nothing for these people. The expiration of the Bush tax cuts would have had no effect on 98% of Americans (while pumping $40 billion into the economy every year, to you know, work toward the deficit or something), but the Republicans swore up and down that to let them expire would kill the economy dead even though real life economists stated that unemployment would only go down by .01% if the cuts remained in place. And let’s not even get into health care reform and how thanks to the Republicans unwillingness to play nice gave us a monstrosity that literally everyone hates (I’m assuming that was their interpretation of a coup de grace or something). I honestly hope some of them wake up at some point and demand a civil political party that considers the Democrats the opposition not enemies, and looks beyond the corporate avarice which consumes so many Republican politicians. Well, I can hope can’t I?

Alright, well that’s it for one evening. Maybe I’ll post a recipe or something next time to counteract this long winded political rant.