Friday, July 15, 2011

USA: “Death by a Thousand (Budget) Cuts”

Written by John Peterson
Thursday, 14 July 2011


Plackards on February 26 protest in Madison. Photo: Fibonacci Blue

As ratings agency Moody's considers the possibility of cutting the US AAA debt rating, concerned that the US could default on its debt obligations, we publish a recent editorial statement of the US Socialist Appeal on the forthcoming wave of massive cuts in public spending in the United States. As the article points out, “the capitalists must impose a new normality on the U.S. working class. The crisis of their system means that small cuts or adjustments are no longer enough. The hatchet is out now...”

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RENEGADE EYE

29 comments:

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

“the capitalists must impose a new normality on the U.S. working class. The crisis of their system means that small cuts or adjustments are no longer enough."

We agree. The weight of utopian socialist adjustments is too heavy for ANY economic system to bear. The cause of the crises to our economic system must be extinguished and all socialist Obamic elements extirpated. Compassion and charity are matters for religion (non-compulsory), not government (compulsory).

sonia said...

massive cuts in public spending in the United States.... U.S. working class

Pure demagogery. The US working class has never been a beneficiary of public spending. Medicare and Social Security represents more than 50% of public spending - its beneficiaries are old people (including billionaires), statistically far richer than younger people. Most working class people are not eligible for Medicaid neither.

In fact, if US government would stop spending money, income inequality would decrease dramatically. Most US government spending benefits the richest people.

Probably the only large government spending program that benefits the poor is military spending.

Frank Partisan said...

FJ: Religion is not up to the task. The job requires treating saint and sinner as equals, before the law.

Sonia: To some extent you're right. The US spends less proportionally on the poor and workers, than other countries. The capitalists want to take away, even the small amount they have. Most advanced capitalist countries have more entitlements.

Speedy G said...

Religion is not up to the task. The job requires treating saint and sinner as equals, before the law.

Compulsory "compassion" and "charity" would negate the terms. There would be no "virtue" in either. Money given voluntarily DEFINES "charity". The compulsory form of the term is "taxation". And as soon, as you "tax" what was once "charity", the "compassion" evaporates/ disappears. The beggar/bum no longer gets another quarter from passers-by because they know that the government already gave him his "quarter".

As for the rest of your statement, "The job requires treating saint and sinner as equals, before the law," what does enabling a moral hazard to continue through government subsidization have to do with equality? It's not the government's job to equalize "honours" between wino's and Nobel laureates, is it?

Speedy G said...

The job requires treating saint and sinner as equals, before the law.

I know that G_d certainly treats saint and sinner "precisely" equal before His Law. It's generally "humans" that seem to have difficulty doing the same before their "secular" laws. Hmmmm, perhaps it is we, the secular, who are not up to the task of following G_d's example. Think?

Frank Partisan said...

SpeedyG: In Minnesota we're finding out with the state shutdown, the state gives fishing and beer licenses, and other things you don't talk about. In MN 20,000 are out of work.

Services need to be given out, by strict criterion. Religion doesn't do that.

It is touching, when you talk religion.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Every bit of this is nothing but bullshit. There's nothing wrong that can't be solved by laying off about one-third of the government work-force. Do away with about eighty percent of the regulations and give all those fucking bureaucrats their walking papers. That's the answer. That's the only answer. You get those cocksuckers out of the way the economy will grow so fast it would experience growing pains. You'd have to raise interest rates, which would also be good as long as you don't have to raise them too high.

Lower the tax rate and reform the tax code by eliminating loopholes for the rich and refunds for the poor, and raise wages to make up the difference. Keep taxes low and eliminate so many burdensome regulations and employers no longer have a bitch about minimum wage. Do away with deductions and withholding and institute a flat tax, and everybody's got skin in the game. Everybody's is paying the same rate and no matter what wage scale you are operating from you have enough left over after taxes to live good. Maybe not like a fucking king, but still good.

Moreover, the government will take in more than enough money to fund its basic constitutionally mandated duties and still have a safety net.

What's so hard about this shit? Oh, that's right, ideology.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

the state gives fishing and beer licenses

I'm sorry, but (St.) Tammany granted all those hunting and fishing rights to ALL Americans who settled in this country in perpetuity at the very same time William Penn signed a treaty with him granting land to his ancestors. We don't need a government to charge us for exercising rights already granted to all Americans by the indigenous aborigines, do we?

Talk about supporting money grubbing capitalists... you're worse than King John arresting poachers in Sherwood.

*shakes head*

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

Don't believe me? Here's proof.

Frank Partisan said...

FJ: I liked that link.

It was the fishing and the beer issue, that is ending the state shutdown.

The Democrats gave into the Republicans. Governor Dayton got nothing of his original demands. When a labor party is established, it'll be a new era. I admire the Tea Party's attitude. When there is a labor party, its all over for both parties.

I'm not an anarchist, so I don't care if rules govern drinking and fishing.

Pagan: The debt crisis is manufactured. End the wars and repeal Bush tax cuts, is all that is needed.

Its confusing when Obama outflanks the GOP from the right.

You'd be happy to live in the early days of industrialism, with child labor and great smokestacks. I'm for progress.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

It was the fishing and the beer issue, that is ending the state shutdown.

I guess it goes to show that poor men need recreation just as much as their wealthier government masters... ;)

SecondComingOfBast said...

In a sense you are correct, the debt crisis is manufactured, and the workforce in charge of manufacturing it is spelled G-O-V-E-R-N-M-E-N-T! And roughly one-third, at the very least, of the motherfuckers need to be given their goddamned walking papers, pronto.

I'm all for ending the wars, too, so long as we keep enough of a military presence in the Persian Gulf to protect oil shipping, and so long as we bombard the living hell out of the next country or countries to start any fucking shit with us, take our troops out of Europe, South Korea, and Japan, and kick the UN's fucking worthless ass out of the country and otherwise end any and all involvement with it.

As for ending the Bush tax cuts, I'm all for that too. The rate at which Bush lowered taxes to is way too high, taxes should be lowered even more and regulations should be cut by eighty percent.

If the Republican Party would just adopt that very simple commonsense formula, get it passed and implemented gradually over a period of five-to-seven years, by the end of that period well over half the people in the country would be registered Republican, and most independents would vote that way.

Your calls for a Labor Party would find success in the better comedy clubs, but in real life the grown-ups would stay in charge.

sonia said...

Ren,

The debt crisis is manufactured. End the wars and repeal Bush tax cuts, is all that is needed.

Huh!?! You mean capitalism isn't in deep crisis, about to explode and usher a new era ? Everything is fine, the capitalist system works, only a few minor reforms are required ?

I thought I would never see a year when even Trotskyist Communists would be arguing that all you need is to raise taxes a little bit and lower military spending. That year is 2011.

Bob said...

Do away with about eighty percent of the regulations and give all those fucking bureaucrats their walking papers. That's the answer. That's the only answer. You get those cocksuckers out of the way the economy will grow so fast it would experience growing pains.

Hey, that's great. Let's hand the bureaucrats their walking papers and end regulation.

The problem with that idea is that those regulations and the 'cock sucking' bureaucrats, as you not so eloquently labeled them, are the only thing keeping the majority of the American Workforce from returning to the sweat shop conditions that existed pre-1900.

If those are the kind of work conditions you want, Foxconn is hiring in Southern China, but the rest of us would rather give it a miss.

@ Ren, isn't it irresponsible to not want to reform Medicaid and Medicare to remove the fraud and waste (without removing benefits from the people that need them, of course)?

Whether or not you trust the current crop of congressional jerks to do so is a different subject.

Joe Conservative said...

Pagan, Pagan, Pagan. Bob is 100% correct. Stop lamenting lost laissez-faire capitalism-based jobs and CELEBRATE state-capitalism based jobs. Otherwise you'll have nothing to do but eat bread and watch circuses all day.

The good news, is you won't have to worry about voting or having your say in a misinformed democracy anymore. Obama will just decide what's best for EVERYBODY!

Thersites said...

Celebrate all the diversity, Pagan. None of these jobs would exist, were it not for liberals and regulators. I mean, it's not as if any of these positions are "make-work" positions. They're all VITAL to getting the work DONE!

SecondComingOfBast said...

I said lay off a third of the government workforce and slash regulations by 80%. I did NOT say do away with ALL government workers and end ALL government regulations.

It doesn't matter though if I said lay off one percent of government workers and reduce regulations by three percent I'd be hearing the same motherfucking crybaby bullshit by Bob, or somebody like them who has been hypnotized and indoctrinated to think we just can't do without big government stuck up our ass every single second of every single day and night.

I'd never start a business under the kind of conditions we have now. Not if I had ten billion dollars I had that I could just throw away. No buddy, I don't believe in throwing money away, if I'm going to start a business, fuck that having to put up with a bunch of government regulator assholes and union thugs out to cut my throat at every twist and turn. People can just continue their dumpster diving, I won't be interested in putting up with the shit.

This argument that unless government continues to grow and expand every year we'll return to the days of the Robber Baron's leaves me as cold as an iceberg.

I have my own policy. I refuse to buy anything that is produced by an American company that employs members of any union, and I joyfully and enthusiastically encourage every other American to do likewise.

Let the watchword of the day be-

Hey, where's the nearest Wal-Mart?

Frank Partisan said...

Sonia: Capitalism is in crisis. The process is not happening in a week or a month. Like the Arab Spring, commentators talk about it like it will be a process, that will happen overnight. The crisis is reflected by the fact funding schools or nursing homes, is a discussion subject. The US has wealth.

Bob: I believe Pagan is shooting himself in the foot. He loses more than anyone.

FJ: Correcto.

Thersites said...

FJ: Correcto.

Did you read the link? I doubt it.

the Internal Revenue Service is looking for a deputy executive director of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, at a salary of up to $155,500 per year. The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is looking for a Gender Issues Advisor, based in Iraq, at up to $155,500 per year. The Agency for International Development is looking for three Democracy Specialists, at up to $136,771 per year. And the Department of Housing and Urban Development is on a hiring spree for Equal Opportunity Specialists, at up to $65,371 per year, with openings in Hartford, Boston, Buffalo, New York City, Newark, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Baltimore, Miami, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Louisville, Birmingham, Jackson, Greensboro, Knoxville, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Little Rock, Oklahoma City, Dallas, San Antonio, Albuquerque, Omaha, St. Louis -- the list goes on and on.

VITAL, not "make-work" positions? lol! And ALL the positions are the result of idiotic EEO regulations that should have been thrown in the trash twenty years ago.

Thersites said...

from an article by Michael Barone at today's Washington Examiner...

Take the California State University system, the second tier in that state's public higher education. Between 1975 and 2008 the number of faculty rose by 3 percent, to 12,019 positions. During those same years the number of administrators rose 221 percent, to 12,183. That's right: There are more administrators than teachers at Cal State now.

These people get paid to "liaise" and "facilitate" and produce reports on diversity. How that benefits Cal State students or California taxpayers is unclear.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/07/will-college-bubble-burst-public-subisidies#ixzz1SkAzH74s

Bob said...

I'd be hearing the same motherfucking crybaby bullshit by Bob

I laughed.

SecondComingOfBast said...

What you don't realize Bob is whether you laughed or cried, what you said was still bullshit. And I don't feel like I'm "shooting myself in the foot" by telling you I think if we ever did do what I suggested I have no doubt you damn sure wouldn't be laughing. Neither would Ren or these other so-called "socialists" who talk bullshit about "local control" and the state withering away. Every time they dispute me on almost anything I say to them, they might as well be wearing a big sign saying "we don't really believe one-tenth of the crap we say we believe in".

Frank Partisan said...

FJ: You know its not the administrator that is going to be cut. It will be the teacher. The teachers are more ruthlessly attacked By Obama, than Bush ever dreamed.

To US capitalism, those are not make work positions. They hide their intention.

Pagan: Nobody has less free speech in America, than unionists. Two people are picketing a store, calling for a boycott, because of slave labor to make products. One is a unionist, another not. Legally only the unionist will be arrested. The Taft hartley Law, enacted by Democrats.

You're clueless.

Bob: Still LOL.

-FJ the Dangerous and Extreme MAGA Jew said...

FJ: You know its not the administrator that is going to be cut. It will be the teacher. The teachers are more ruthlessly attacked By Obama, than Bush ever dreamed.

No argument here. This is true.

To US capitalism, those are not make work positions. They hide their intention.

LOL! HIDE their intention? Such nefarious DEVIOSITY! They do nothing of the sort. They ADVERTISE their counter-intention of creating "social justice" for under-representated groups in response to legislated socialism. Picking economic winners and losers is all part of the bribe-swallowing Lordism which is our government. This is what prevents the administrators from being fired and forces the teachers to dump their teaching loads on a bunch of minimum wage paid post-grads in the name of "fellowship".

If you liked economic feudalism, you'll love centrally planned economic inefficiency.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Yeah Obama might be pretty rough on a few teachers and schools here and there that aren't worth a fuck, because he knows he's going to benefit from that politically. It looks like he's actually doing something constructive when he isn't actually doing a damn thing to address the real underlying problem with education that exists in the vast majority of schools.

Let's see him do something about addressing the stranglehold the teacher's unions have on public education, and the influence of special interest groups on those lobbies. You'll be waiting in vain for him or any Democrat to do that, because that's who fills their campaign coffers and also goes out of their way to indoctrinate public school children to be good little progressive asshats.

SecondComingOfBast said...

Ren-

If I own a restaurant, and another restaurant undercuts my business by selling better food at a more affordable price, there's nothing I can legally do about it either. If I picket his business or harass his customers as they go in and out of the door my ass will probably be arrested too. That's the way it should be.

Unions have the right to go on strike against their workplace and to collectively bargain for better benefits, but they have to live with the consequences. They don't have the right to harass somebody else that takes advantage of an economic opportunity they have created by making their own employers uncompetitive.

Speedy G said...

It's all a "protection racket", Pagan. That's how the Left get's its money... claiming to represent "Eskimo's" and then suing whaling companies and fishing companies and oil companies, etc. It's all part of the scam of learning how to take advantage of one's opponents (at least the rich ones).

Speedy G said...

If you don't want to get sued, you PAY OFF Jesse Jackson, Jr. and get him to go harass your competition. And then you PAY OFF Al Sharpton and repeat. It's all part of the Left-wing Shakedown.

And THAT is why the DNC is NEVER going to kill the goose that lays their golden eggs (capitalism).

SecondComingOfBast said...

That's why Democrats can be legitimately compared to Nazis, among other reasons. They have half the population indoctrinated already into thinking they have a constitutional right and a mandate to exercise government control over whole sectors of the economy, usually for the benefit of "the little guy" but actually for their own corrupt special interests butt buddies.