Banging our Heads Against the Debt Ceiling
How about this debt ceiling bloviation? Prez W. raised the debt ceiling 8 times during his 8 yrs w/ nary a whimper from either party, and it’s been raised some 88 times in the last 90 yrs. All of a sudden it’s a big deal.
Why this big debate now? Because neither party has any new ideas on creating jobs, while existing jobs are hemorrhaging to overseas markets. In the last decade, 2.9 million jobs have been outsourced outside this country. While only 2.3 million jobs have been created here. And what could create jobs? The arts. Something we’ve been bloviating about for years: First that artists are already doing their jobs as usual in every corner of every state making products for consumption here and export overseas - exports made only- in -America . An untapped resource waiting for investment whether public or private.
Job losses will only get worse w/ continued automation—computerization. Paul Revere move over—The robots are here! Except they’ve been here for a long time and there seems to be no moral compunction about replacing people w/ computers as well as doubling down on existing jobs for so-called efficiency. Saves money right?? Maybe not so fast. Each lost job has a ripple effect for that person’s family, the places they shop, the food they buy, the improvements to their home—if they can even stay in their home. All coming down to even more job losses.
Meanwhile, the real wages of Americans continues to go down. Hummmph! Congress should forfeit some of their salaries for wasting our time and our money. This posturing is beyond unpatriotic.
Whose entitled and Whose Entitlements? In the last 10 years, government spending has doubled—that’s right—DOUBLED. Ill-advised wars, Wall Street being catered to, horrendous financial shenanigans. But what do the Republicans say to concentrate on? Entitlements—things that help make our lives be a little better and offer some kind of safety net in these un-empathetic times. And I ask yet again: Where is the jail times for these money thugs? I know there are investigations moving forward; they just can’t move forward fast enuf for me.
