I'll be posting later tonight about the poker tourney I attended last night (a hint as to how I did can be found in how quick I am to talk about it).
But I only have a few minutes right now (damn you daylight savings time!) so I want to quickly put a few words and a link up about the single scariest thing that I can see about the future of our country...
There are many policies by promulgated by the Bush administration that I have issues with, from his socially conservative legal pushes, to his highly questionable choices (and re-choices) in judicial nominees.
But the single scariest policy push of his has been the "starve the beast" policy that he and his people are clearly carrying out.
For those who don't know the term, it refers to a fiscally "conservative" (and I use that term loosely in referce to Bush & Co.) policy ploy.
Fiscal conservatives, by definition, think the government spends (and taxes) way more than it should. They would like to see the end of popular programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, education spending, etc. Basically anything not having to do with National Defense and a few other, smaller programs.
With these programs gone, what they consider to be the ungainly tax burden the government places on its citizens can be removed. They'd like nothing more than the entirety of the federal income to be derived from something as abhorrent (to me and anyone who makes less than 200 grand a year) as a national sales tax or a flat tax.
However, they have been politically burned in the past when they've tried to directly remove or reduce these programs, as they are, in fact, quite popular with the people. People being funny in how they like government programs that help keep them alive and out of poverty.
So a branch of the conservative movement has hit upon a new idea... "Starve the Beast".
The American people like their entitlement programs, yes, but they also like tax cuts. And sadly, most of them either never took Econ 101 or just don't care enough to realize that you can't have both.
So these conservatives get massive tax cuts passed (including Bush's two large tax cuts from the start of his first term and the massive reductions in capital gains taxes and inheritance taxes that mostly took place towards the end of Clinton's run).
And everyone loves them. I mean, who likes taxes?
And then, wow, suddenly the government is in debt. And more debt. And MORE DEBT. And then there's a war. And another war. Couldn't be avoided.
And now the government is so far into debt that something MUST be done. But we can't increase taxes! It's an election year (every other year) or it just isn't popular with the people... so we have to cut spending.
But what the Starve the Beasters are starting to see is that people REALLY don't like spending cuts either.
So where does that leave us?
It leaves us here.
Welcome to the world of unintended consequences, and the realm of my worst nightmares.
The above-linked article (and the articles it links to) are good summaries of my fears.
The well-being of our economy is ever-increasingly in the hands of foreigners; some of which we don't get along with all that well (China).
Shifts in their monetary policy could absolutely destroy our current economy, sending us plummeting into a depression the likes of which only our grandparents can dimly recall. But WORSE.
Because this time, not only would our economy be shot to hell, but we'd still OWE trillions of dollars to foreign lenders. And we CAN'T declare bankruptcy.
I'm a student of history, and trust me when I tell you that overwhelming foreign debt is one of the largest contributors to the collapse of governments in the past few centuries (see story of Mexico in the 1860s for one example of this).
It all seems really dry, I know, but trust me, it's scary as shit. We're not past the point of no-return yet, but we're fast approaching the time where only major policy shifts (such as massive tax increases or massively painful spending cuts) will save us.
And frankly, I don't see the current idiotic administration being capable of either.
No, instead we'll argue morality and the rightness of when people should die and what should or shouldn't be taught in our schools in fiddle-like fashion while Rome slowly burns around us.
Nothing like a good show to distract the masses from the desperate state of the country around them...
Posted by Campbell at April 3, 2005 01:06 PM