The Trap
2011-03-15 - by
In thirty years in politics I’ve only seen a handful of problems with no solutions. None at all.
For example once during Steve Forbes first Presidential campaign we got trapped in a corner in Iowa – and there was no way out. None. But, then, as usually happens in politics the tides shifted and carried us to safer ground.
That said it’s hard to see any way out of the trap we’re in now in Congress: We’re stuck with a $1.5 trillion deficit and a $14 trillion debt which is growing like topsy every minute and all even our Republican leaders in Congress dare to propose is a token $100 billion in cuts and all they’ve dared implement is $4 billion.
Why?
The answer is courage. Political courage.
To tackle the deficit means a) cutting entitlements (which makes lots of voters mad) and b) cutting corporate subsidies – so any politician who tries is literally staking his career on his ability to survive the political equivalent of a nuclear war with everyone from the defense industry to the AARP.
Worse, from the politicians point of view, the people who elect them are of a divided mind – voters hate the deficit but love Medicare and Social Security and no politician wants to be the one to say, Look, there’s not enough money for you to get the Social Security you’ve been promised.
No one wants to be the bearer of that piece of bad news, so we have John Boehner and Eric Cantor promising $100 billion in cuts and declaring victory which – as a political tactic – may work for a while until the roof falls in on Republicans financially – just like it did on President Obama last election.
Every passing day it is clearer – in terms of the economy – the 2010 election solved practically nothing. We swapped one wildly spending elite of Washington Democratic politicians for another elite of Washington Republicans who, at best, spend a fraction more slowly; — and nowhere in sight is there even one political leader who dares to put his career on the line by saying, Look, either we face the pain of cuts now or we go on spending like this until we lose everything – Social Security, Medicare and the whole nine yards.
The Trap
2011-03-15/
In thirty years in politics I’ve only seen a handful of problems with no solutions. None at all.
For example once during Steve Forbes first Presidential campaign we got trapped in a corner in Iowa – and there was no way out. None. But, then, as usually happens in politics the tides shifted and carried us to safer ground.
That said it’s hard to see any way out of the trap we’re in now in Congress: We’re stuck with a $1.5 trillion deficit and a $14 trillion debt which is growing like topsy every minute and all even our Republican leaders in Congress dare to propose is a token $100 billion in cuts and all they’ve dared implement is $4 billion.
Why?
The answer is courage. Political courage.
To tackle the deficit means a) cutting entitlements (which makes lots of voters mad) and b) cutting corporate subsidies – so any politician who tries is literally staking his career on his ability to survive the political equivalent of a nuclear war with everyone from the defense industry to the AARP.
Worse, from the politicians point of view, the people who elect them are of a divided mind – voters hate the deficit but love Medicare and Social Security and no politician wants to be the one to say, Look, there’s not enough money for you to get the Social Security you’ve been promised.
No one wants to be the bearer of that piece of bad news, so we have John Boehner and Eric Cantor promising $100 billion in cuts and declaring victory which – as a political tactic – may work for a while until the roof falls in on Republicans financially – just like it did on President Obama last election.
Every passing day it is clearer – in terms of the economy – the 2010 election solved practically nothing. We swapped one wildly spending elite of Washington Democratic politicians for another elite of Washington Republicans who, at best, spend a fraction more slowly; — and nowhere in sight is there even one political leader who dares to put his career on the line by saying, Look, either we face the pain of cuts now or we go on spending like this until we lose everything – Social Security, Medicare and the whole nine yards.