The downgrade:Looks like the Tea Party is getting what it has long desired, a return to the financial situation at the time of the Tea Party in 1773: Poor credit standing by the government(s), a preference for "hard money", hostility to debt of any kind, and economic thinking suitable for small farms and firms operating in villages. It's simple and works fairly well if you have a family-based social services culture, although growth is severely constrained.
Faced with the realities of modern capitalism's atomized and dispersed work force along with occasional disruptions within the system, both Bismark and Keynes advocated for (a) a substantial government-run safety net, and (b) counter-cyclical spending. Both involving debt and taxes. And - most important - it requires a citizenry that agrees to the social contract and does not have callous disregard for those in distress and needing aid (usually people, but can be firms, e.g. General Motors).
Republicans are practicing myopianomics. If they, and their supporters, still have jobs, then that's as far as they care to look. Therefore, it's easy to propose elimination of whatever policies that might help the "other guys". And so they have. And here we are.
posted by Quiddity at 8/06/2011 01:11:00 PM
This is the 2011 Tea Party Great Recession. Here's a bumper sticker idea:
"ICED" TEA PARTY
They are living out M. Thatcher's infantile understanding of Ayn Rand: "There is no such thing as society." What they do not grasp is that there indeed is a society and we're all connected, as in the rich depend upon the middle and working classes, and especially the poor.
What's a bit remarkable about the Tea Party is how many people I know who proclaim membership that live in trailers and collect all sorts of government subsidies.
I have one fellow I work with who makes minimum wage and is absolutely livid that "half of all people don't pays taxes!!!" When you point out that he's part of that half, he indignantly insists he's not because he pays payroll, gas, sales, and all kind of other taxes. The fact that his outrage is over federal income taxes not being paid by people like him is beyond his ability to comprehend.
So, he and many millions like him will cheer on the work of the TeaHadists and GOP. Right up until the point that he realizes that the policies he's rooting for end up taking $50 out of his already meager paycheck every week.
