GOP Cost cutting deep

The GOP recently revealed their plan to cut $2.7Trillion in spending over 10 years (Yes that is a T). Does this mean we're on our way out of our national financial problems? Not if the Democrats have anything to say about it and they will have something to say. Without a majority in the Senate the GOP efforts to bring fiscal sanity back to the country are symbolic. What that really means is they already know this and they are going as dramatic as they can to try and build public support. The problem is that it's almost as likely to backfire as it is to help them. Of course the staunchest Republicans are going to support them in any and all of the cuts they've detailed. The problem is that while the independents got them into office on the promise of fixing the economy and bringing down the debt the reality is that they are just as likely to balk at some of the cuts that have been proposed. The GOP knows this and proposed them anyway forcing the dialog with the Democrats and if the Republicans are careful they can show "compromise" and still win...if they're not careful they'll stick to their guns and fail miserably and be accused of being "too partisan". This is an opportunity for our country to get back on track and perhaps dig out from the holes that were dug over the last 6 years. If the Republicans can navigate this tricky political maneuver and bring up a legitimate Presidential candidate they have a decent shot at saving us from the whims of China and our other creditors. Don't hold your breath though.

Related articles

• Will the GOP Deliver on Spending Cuts? (reason.com)

"itty bitty" political affiliations

I was reading a recent article on the Boston Herald (linked from Drudgereport.com) about Senator Brown in a Martin Luther King Jr. address and found it to be quite interesting in its implications. First of all the reason it was on Drudge is because it would raise eyebrows within the furthest Right of the Republican party. Many of them would be concerned that he diminishes his party affiliation and gives the impression that he is someone who could be a target of the Democrats in close votes. This is a valid concern since he has been one of the more malleable Republicans since taking his position in a shocker election last January. While many would see this treating his party as an after thought as a problem I see his speech in the larger context.
He was promoting the seating for the State of the Union address coming soon. Seating that forces Democrats and Republicans to sit next to each other is a great political symbol. The voters in general are fed-up with division and partisanship and even a relatively pointless symbolic gesture like this is going to speak to the populace. A strictly adversarial attitude as both parties have demonstrated lately is not going to get the public the results they expect. Republicans are in control (for now) because they offered hope that the spending, Obamcare, and deficit would be addressed and the sooner that Democrats embrace that the sooner bipartisanship can begin. Senator Scott Brown is trying to demonstrate to Republicans that the most important thing that they have to bring to the table is themselves and not their party affiliation. The "itty bitty" R or D that tells us the "team" they're on is not something that should exist because they're all on the same team America's team. It's about time they demonstrated it less in rhetoric and symbolic gestures and more in actions that benefit the country.

Hiding behind the news of the day.

The tragic shootings in Tucson this last weekend have the political world in an uproar.  Talk radio is on the rage because the liberals are blaming them or at least implicating them morally.  The politicians are either trying to upstage each other in their condolences to the families or their efforts to "find a solution" to this type of problem.  Has anyone thought about the real problems?  Not to make the tragic loss of life and senseless act of violence less important...it's very important to the people who are directly involved...but much less so to the country as a whole.  By making this tragedy a national issue they are taking off the table the real national issues.  China is testing a stealth fighter, getting ready to trade their currency in the US, and generally assuming the role that America once held unquestionably.  National unemployment is sickeningly high and there are no economic indicators that it will change any time soon.  The national debt (most of it held by China) is getting close to making our nation bankrupt.  Our borders are a no-man zone running wild with criminals trafficking guns, drugs, and people.  Our education system is losing ground to almost every developed country and most developing countries.  This list isn't short and it's only getting longer as long as our politicians continue to make national issues out of isolated incidents.  The news cycle on this apparently needs to make it long enough in the national story line for American Idol to start its new season.  Then we'll be talking about Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez and the next William Hung and this national crisis will still be played out on capital hill because "something must be done" and with have a dozen proposals and bills waiting to be debated this is the perfect thing to "do" instead of the things that really matter.

Related articles

• Fox's Future Hangs On Jennifer Lopez, Simon Cowell And Lots Of Dinosaurs (blogs.forbes.com)
• "Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler, Randy Jackson & Ryan Seacrest Visit the Tonight Show" and related posts (mjsbigblog.com)
• The Note: 2012 Politics Gets Tangled In Arizona Shooting Aftermath (blogs.abcnews.com)

Tragedy in Tuscon is made all the worse by politics.

Today 19 people were shot.  It doesn't really matter who they were or what they did because in the end human life was extinguished and the reason is still not clear why.  Several of the people injured or killed today were political figures.  That doesn't diminish the tragedy.  It also doesn't mean that politics should diminish their lives because they were for or against a particular policy.  A nine year old girl was shot in the back and died while heroes tried desperately to save her.  Several people died on the scene and others are fighting for their lives.  There's a reason that I don't mention a single person by name, even those with names that would mean something to people outside the families who are suffering right now.  There really isn't a good reason to name them.  They are people, humans, and they deserved life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and tragically it was taken from them by someone who didn't care or who was just as tragic as their victims.
Today there have been people from all walks of political persuasion that have been decrying this as a result of lack of gun control, lack of border security, Sarah Palin, tea party anger, the health care law, the list goes on and on.  Leveraging the tragic loss of life for political gain is tantamount to grave robbing.  Nothing is quite so despicable as political hacks one uping each other during a tragedy.  It makes things all the worse because we're left with bitterness at politicians instead of grief for the loss of life.  My heart goes out to those who are suffering right now.

Brilliant movie/cartoon

Thanks to David Price I was entertained by this incredible video that describes our modern banking system and economy in terms that are "South Park" like and yet inescapably simple.  It tells us how the world became dependent on credit and how our founding fathers wanted to escape the system that ruined Europe.  It shows how the economic crisis we're suffering now is really the result of centuries of economic foolishness.  It also does a fine job of demonstrating how the average American is ignorant of the Federal Reserve and it's beginnings and the impact that it has on our government and even our everyday lives.  I would suggest that you watch, laugh, and more importantly, learn.