The Only Choice We’ve Left Ourselves
By Ahansen
Looks like the Boomerz, along with the rest of America, are finally going to have to bite the bullet. Not think about biting the bullet, someday, when things get really crazy, but bite the bullet right now, in time for Christmas 2010 –and beyond into the foreseeable future. Your leg (not some vague “somebody’s” leg, but your leg,) is coming off, and you can either have a bullet to clench between your teeth during the amputation or not–it’s your choice. But it should be apparent to all but about oh say, 95% of us, that that’s the only choice we’ve left ourselves.
We 50-60-somethings have always suspected we’d not be receiving Social Security when our time came; that was a program set up to benefit our parents and grandparents– at our expense, as always– and we’ve stepped up to that mandated plate by allowing the state to care for them in their old age rather than get our hands dirty by changing their diapers ourselves. We encourage what we subsidize. But Social Security as we know it today is about to wither away like our aging fun-parts and promises to bring us just about as much non-satisfaction as we reach our not-so-golden years.
Although (and ironically,) the more progressive and traditionally conservative among us acknowledge that this new austerity is upon us (and may even push for its implementation,) one doubts that those most politically vocal about paying down the national debt and limiting governmental intrusion really have any comprehension of what the ramifications of those policies might entail. With the bi-partisan Fiscal Commissions’ task force recommendations, http://www.fiscalcommission.gov/sites/fiscalcommission.gov/files/documents/CoChair_Draft.pdf
we’re about to find out.
Given its civic incuriosity and intellectual limitations, it’s not surprising that America’s vast and amorphous TeaParty refuses to confront its ideological inconsistencies. So neither should it surprise anyone when that huge portion of our country begins howling bloody murder about limiting “our” Medicare, and “our” defense, and “our” pensions, and about how that traitorous (epithet redacted) Obama is raising “our” taxes and destroying our Constitution. (And in all fairness, If McCain/Palin had been elected, the TeaParty would be a coalition of liberals and progressives raising the same stink–and they still may be.)
But in a very real sense, it has been this fine group of citizens who’ve brought the fiscal mess upon us by insisting, in typical call-and-response fashion, upon lavish funding for our invasionary military, our bloated retirement “benefits,” (we worked for them!,) our deregulated banking policies (remember that Cold War fight against “communism,” folks? After the Soviet Union broke up –for the same reasons the US is now doing so, btw– it was simply re-branded as “free market capitalism” and “God’s work,” and WE dolts went for it. ) Then there were our gas-hog trucks and motorized toys, our “right” to big houses and cheap electricity, our stubborn, willful denial of what every credible PhD climatologist and astrophysicist for the last thirty years has deemed obvious, (recall please, that it was George H. W. Bush who first proposed a cap and trade energy policy in an attempt to rein in the fiscal and environmental excesses of his own oil cronies?)
So as annoying as it is to admit, our national NASCAR tailgate party is finally over–and of course you don’t want to let “the illegals” in to clean up your mess, do you?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re going to have to tax the rich,(and the middle class, AND the poor,) re-regulate the FED, clean up the markets, “create” jobs (however we’re supposed to do THAT with the ill-educated citizenry we’ve allowed ourselves to become.) But more significantly, you and I are going to have to take the hit for our apathetic profligacy in letting this financial hoo-rah’s nest develop and fester in the first place. To wit (in my lifetime, at least,) Republicans loot the treasury, then the Dems come in and make it worse trying to clean up the smoking ruins with ill-conceived fiscal dishrags. Without addressing in-depth policy issues, which is another screed for another day, and in the spirit of the Fiscal Commission’s recommendations, here’s how we can start the loot-and-redistribute cycle this time:
-Reduce Social Security by 20%, across-the-board, effective immediately. Eliminate it completely for those with retiree incomes over 50K/year, and raise the retirement age to 70, with no phase ins. Sorry, but it’s not like we didn’t see this coming all our lives. I remember socio-economists screaming about the effects of the “Baby Bulge” on Social Security pay-outs back in the 1960’s. If you’re honest, so do you. On the “bright” side, that big an affected demographic will force a re-calibration of the CPI and a rethinking of just how much “the government” owes its oldster citizens. Isn’t that what the TeaParty is advocating?
-Reduce SSI/SDI benefits to “Widows and orphans” levels, and stop subsidizing semi-literate baby factories by limiting the number of offspring any one mother can receive money for gestating. To, say, one subsidized child per household. (I’m talking about your precious grandbabies, TeaPartiers, not just “Those Others.”)
-Oh, and to counterbalance this, guess what, guys? YOU only get to collect ONE government pension. That means EITHER military, OR public service, OR Social Security, OR “first responders.” NOT all four.
-The defense budget gets reduced by 20%, effective immediately. Close and sell 20% of our off-shore bases, stop subsidizing foreign theocracies, incorporate veterans’ services into the domestic budget, reduce pay scale 20%, cut contractors’ contracts and compensation 20%, and eliminate automatic re-funding of projects and payouts. Fair is fair. The military is a de facto welfare system for the working poor. As much as our corporate oligarchy wishes it so, the rest of us can’t afford their private international security forces anymore.
-Cut all federal operating expenses and salaries by 20%
-Cut all entitlement budgets by 20% Yep, even National Endowment for the Arts. And VA benefits.
-Cut all federal pensions by 20% and guess what? The states will follow suit, as will unions, “private” industry and public corporations. We’ve had 30 years of arrogant expectation, now we get to spend the rest of our lives with our expectations reduced to more globally equitable levels. Whine all you like, stasis is stasis. And here’s a hint: 20% is just the beginning.
-Eliminate child, church, and mortgage tax credits. Period.
-Establish a single-payer public health clinic system to pay for public health issues. If you want dialysis, stomach stapling, hip replacement surgery, fertility treatments, “spare-no-expense” end care for Mum, great. Pay for it yourself. People die– even Boomer people. Remove the insurance industry from public health care and put them back into private elective medicine where they belong.
-Similarly, eliminate 20% of funding for “higher” education and put that money into scholarships for those who legitimately should be pursuing college-level studies. Not everyone should be taking up room in our university systems. Like maybe 20% of them.
-Let the Bush tax holiday expire in its entirety. YOU aren’t going to get a $10M inheritance anyway–let alone leave one– so why do you care? And if you’re making a quarter mill a year in this era of diminished expectations, you can pop for another 4% to ensure your head doesn’t roll when the hungry mobs hit the street. You DO want police and fire protection, don’t you? Or were you planning to pay for that privately?
-Raise gasoline taxes by 20%. Maybe you’ll think twice about driving those little TeaBaggers to school or soccer practice instead of making them walk. And Chevron thinks we’re stupid anyway. http://chevronthinkswerestupid.org/weagree
-Tax processed foods 20%. Kill two birds with one stone here and address America’s fatass health issues while encouraging it to consume healthily instead of mindlessly.
This is hardly a comprehensive list, but at least it’s ideologically consistent with our TeaParty’s stated positions. You don’t get to talk the talk and vote in idiots who do, if you’re not willing to walk the walk you’re forcing on the rest of us. Right? Right?!
Personally, a couple of years ago, I “cut a zero” off of my financial expectations and now live accordingly. That way, a mere 20% off “my” entitlements seems like a bargain. Or something.
