May 13, 2011, As the screw turns
And so, it seems, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has given us his "grown-up" perspective on the imminent financial apocalypse financial apocalypse looming, by saying he (too) will demand spending cuts and entitlement "reform" as his price for agreeing to increase the federal debt ceiling. Naturally, any solution to debt based on actually paying for it increasing taxes, is right out, but any reduced social spending is certainly within the realm of discussion. Of course.
And so, the chicken game goes on unabated. Present drop-dead date seems to be August 2nd... but as we know, nothing really happens in August. Was forgetting about this looming debt-ceiling thing at the time the Bush tax cuts were extended a gross oversight, or was this a brilliant Obama Administration triangulation, "forcing the President's hand" to make painful cuts in yet another in a series of endless Sister Soldjuh moments (just as the financial sector forced everyone's hands with a threatened financial crash if they didn't get their bailout, complete with manipulated stock market crashes to show they meant business)? I think the better question is... why does that question matter?
This is where we find ourselves: as "quantitative easing" (a/k/a/ printing more money) to stimulate the economy results only in price increases, but ideology (and international competition, but mostly ideology) keeps wages flat or declining, now it seems, that government stepping in to ease the pain that its own policies are causing... is right out. OK then. I've been telling you not merely to eat your vegetables, but to grow your vegetables, for some time now.
I'm still telling you that. This has been... "As the screw turns."