I am a Federal employee. I have a cousin by marriage who is a Federal employee, and not being paid. I have a daughter who is a member of the Army Reserve. I have a son-in-law who is attending school on the G.I. Bill after having served in more than one Middle Eastern country. My cousin is not being paid. My son-in-law is in danger of having no benefits. My daughter is frustrated. I have been informed that I may be on furlough within a couple of months.
Madness, thy name is Tea Party.
Tonight, after the Senate had worked so hard on trying to craft a compromise to the government stoppage, the House was unable to pass any type of bill. This was after they stopped all Senate negotiations by announcing that they were taking up a bill. Since the Constitution says that all funding bills begin in the House, this meant that the Senate needed to stop for some more Tea Party oddity.
Madness, thy name is Tea Party.
I have not received a cost of living adjustment for four years, thanks to the Tea Party, and was told today that this was not bad because the person with whom I was talking had not received one for the same number of years. It never struck that person that executive profits had continued to increase during the same years that disposable income among the middle class had decreased. In fact, the argument seemed to be that if they did not get it, it was unfair for us to get it. There was no realization that it is unfair for neither of us to get a Cost of Living Adjustment if executives continue to receive increased disposable income.
Madness, thy name is Tea Party.
Do we need to live within our means? Absolutely, most definitely, I fully agree with that. But, when living within our means signifies increasing profits to executives while decreasing disposable income to the middle class, when it means increasing military expenditures while decreasing social expenditures (something which has been rejected by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops), when it means a Paul Ryan budget that was unacceptable to the Catholic bishops, then I must object, as do the Catholic bishops.
Madness, thy name is Tea Party.
Amen! Bill works for the state, and state workers are also being affected, due to federal funds and grants that come to the states.
Indeed. Though I will note that at the country level, “living within our means” is not actually an overarching demand. (Well, it is, but it doesn’t necessarily imply balanced budgets as many people seem to assume.) At the macroeconomic level, a country is really not like a business or a household at all. Unlike a business or household, a country’s economy covers both sides of most economic exchanges. (Exports and imports account, I believe, for less 30% of activity.) So cut back on government expenditures (as we have drastically, especially at the state and local level, over the last five years) and that depresses economic activity, raises unemployment, and reduces revenue creating a negative feedback cycle that actually makes things worse than they otherwise would be. Right now, the deficit as a percentage of GDP is lower than it’s been in a long time and the debt as a percentage of GDP is not alarming and, provided we don’t commit economic suicide, is projected to fall as a percentage of GDP. So the trumped up “alarm” over the debt is really a canard providing cover for an attempt to slash Medicare and Social Security.
I’ll also note that most of our debt (roughly three-fifths of it) is actually money we owe ourselves. It’s held by the Fed or the SS trust fund (and to a lesser extent other US funds).
The only “fix” SS requires after the 1986 restructuring is to raise the cap so at least 90% of income is once again subject to SS tax. While the 1986 restructuring did index the cap to inflation, it didn’t take into account the vast shift in concentration of income to the top. About 11% of income went to the top 10% back then. Now almost 25% does. As a result, only about 83% of US income is currently subject to the SS tax and that percentage is falling as income becomes more concentrated at the top. But as long as we ensure that at least 90% of total US income is subject to the SS tax, social security doesn’t need any reform. It’s solvent for at least the next 75-100 years. Apparently people forget that it was already reformed in a bipartisan effort back in the Reagan years.
Medicare, of course, faces the problem endemic across our entire health care system. Costs are out of control, disconnected from results, and spiraling. We pay far more than any other industrialized nation per capita on health care and get markedly worse results. With that said, Medicare is the most efficient part of our health care system, with all but a tiny fraction of its funds going to health care rather than administration (overhead) or profits. We need to extend its ability to negotiate reimbursements to drugs in part D and consider lowering the eligibility age to add more relatively healthy seniors to its pool. Sixty years old would be a better threshold. Fifty-five wouldn’t be bad either. And, of course, our entire healthcare system needs to be reformed, which the ACA at least attempts to begin.
Ironically, the tea party includes a lot of older Americans who want to “keep the government out of their Medicare” and protect SS benefits, which are desires that directly conflict with the stated goals of the politicians they support. That’s one aspect that’s always struck me as bizarre. Of course, there’s also a strong nativist element to the tea party. It’s managed to collect most of the radical right-wing fringe groups in our country into one pot. Not really sure how and it certainly doesn’t look sustainable, but it creates a volatile mixture right now.
Ironically, the tea party includes a lot of older Americans who want to “keep the government out of their Medicare”….
AARP has a series of commercials saying exactly that on heavy rotation on local morning drive-time radio. “Keep your Gubmint hands off MY Medicare!” “Keep your Gubmint hands off MY Social Security!”
It reminds me too much of my parents when they deteriorated after retirement. Like the AARP junk mail I’ve been getting since I turned 40, they degenerated into a repeating chorus of “I’M ENTITLED! I’M ENTITILED! YOU GOTTA GIMME! YOU GOTTA GIMME!” And before they retired, they were two successful, self-reliant people.
I saw them deteriorate into bitterness, and I see these AARP commercials promoting the same deterioration.
The Tea Party reminds me of nothing so much as classic Communists — Reality must bow to Purity of My Perfect Ideology. Or maybe a funhouse-mirror reflection of same; Communism begets Objectivism.
Or maybe it’s all Atlas Shrugged: The Role-Playing Game. Like End Time Prophecy types living in the prologue of Left Behind and finding it all Very Exciting, so they are living in the first chapters of Atlas Shrugged and find it all Very Exciting. Atlas WILL Shrug, the Moochers and Takers will fall, and *I* Get to Play John Galt! Tick tick tick tick tick….
And then there’s this preacher named Joyner, calling upon our Noble Military to take over in a Godly Coup and Restore America. Future Commanders of Holy Gilead: The Role-Playing Game.
Must bow to purify my perfect ideology??? Gee, who was that guy (I think his first name is Barrack) who said “I will NOT negotiate”?
What is truly terrifying to me is that even after all this, even with the debacle freshly behind us, the true nuts on the right are even MORE dug in. I do not understand. I read an article just the other day that explains the intransigence of the Tea Party in religious terms…most self identify as Chritian evangelicals and if you listen to their phraseology, it sounds vaguely familiar. Statements like they feel in their heart that this is the right thing to do…and so on. Many of these people seem to feel we are in the End Times and Obama is at least an agent of the Devil so they must burn down the country in order to save it. Personally, I think they should be celebrating if that’s what they believe…as well as perhaps they should start being a witness to the goodness of the Gospel, but I won’t hold my breath for that to happen. I’m sure many of us are not found worthy enough to join those good people in Heaven with their version of Jaheezzus. I just know that I will continue to write my Congressman and complain about him playing follow-the-ersatz-leader, I will continue to speak out, I will vote, and I will continue to pray for relief.
Father, I’m hoping your family is on a more normal footing…my oldest son went back to work and hopefully is not too far behind (he won’t get back pay) and my youngest (still active duty in Europe) seems to be moving beyond the shutdown rollbacks so hopefully it will stay this way. We can only pray that cooler and more sane heads will prevail.
What is truly terrifying to me is that even after all this, even with the debacle freshly behind us, the true nuts on the right are even MORE dug in.
It’s called “doubling down”. An old Army proverb puts it this way: “If at first you don’t succeed, USE A BIGGER HAMMER.” Or scream louder.
Again, the Communists used to do a lot of this shtick during the Cold War. Since their Pure Ideology of the Inevitable Marxist-Leninist Dialectic was Perfect in Every Way, their response as the Soviet Union crumbled was “Increase Ideological Purity! Increase Political Consciousness Indoctrination!” Double Down and Scream LOUDER.
Many of these people seem to feel we are in the End Times and Obama is at least an agent of the Devil so they must burn down the country in order to save it.
The formal name for this is “Imminentizing the Eschaton.” In koine English, “trying to jump-start Armageddon to fulfill your Prophecy.” It’s been a part of the Fundagelical shtick since Hal Lindsay brought End Time Prophecy mania up to date with “Christians for Nuclear War”.
I’m sure many of us are not found worthy enough to join those good people in Heaven with their version of Jaheezzus.
Who will beam then up to their Cosmic Galt’s Gulch Paradise and kick off Armageddon any minute now… Any minute now… Any minute now…
(Can you tell I’ve been burned BAD by this in the past?)
Sigh…..what a joke. Guess what? At some point in the near future all of your family members who “work” for the federal govt won’t even have jobs because our govt will come crashing down due to the weight of the debt that it will no longer be able to hold up. Is there anyone out there trying to sound the alarm? Oh yah, that would be the much reviled tea party. You might be interested to know that this country became the strongest and most prosperous nation on Earth due to people who believed in pulling their own weight.
Hmm, I like how you put the word “work” in quotation marks when attached to Federal employees, including members of the Armed Forces. It tells me all I need to know about your views, that you have not done much fact-checking.