Its just impossible for some people to walk and chew gum at the same time, or in the case of Washington, to deal honestly and directly with both the debt-ceiling and fiscal cliff, both already can-kicked from a month ago..
From AP: "The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a Republican plan to allow the federal government to keep borrowing money through mid-May, clearing it for fast enactment after the top Senate Democrat and White House endorsed it...
The measure avoids for the time being a repeat of the 2011 debt ceiling standoff that rattled markets and resulted in a downgrade of the government's triple-A credit rating. The Treasury is expected to exhaust remaining capacity under the $16.4 trillion debt limit between mid-February and early March."
We are a deadbeat nation.. a Loser nation.
Be offended by that if you wish but it is true.
We were once a creditor nation, and every other nation would come to us, hat in hand like peasants asking for financial assistance. And it would be US holding onto other nations' outstanding and outrageously expanding debt loads as they would try to weasel out of paying..
Case in point: Of all the nations we the US lent money to prior to and during World War I (1914-1918), only Finland ever paid all of it back.. All other nations of Europe who borrowed in good faith were deadbeats...
As the United States is currently.
Now we are the peasants.. though we still wear our Sunday best when doing the beggin' as if it wasn't so obvious to the lenders that we're in a real bad bind..
Neither do they feel the motivation or immediacy to raise taxes to more realistic percentages to generate the revenue to sincerely tackle the debt and deficit.. Especially on stock dividends where a dramatic increase is needed most..
And there's no passion or impetus to make serious and necessary budget cuts in any government endeavor or spending program.. that is outside of those that actually go directly into the hands and pockets of those who need it most.. Those 'terrible' so-called entitlements..
435 cowardly Congress people and 100 spineless Senators and one bullshitter of a President can't seem to at least agree to Respect the line-in-the-sand Deadline of March 1st to address the debt ceiling, much less have the courage and 'Balls' to default on this crippling, suffocating Debt...
Take real estate..
We got into some heated debates among those we socialize and congregate with on our last post.. Some were quite irritated because it didn't matter to them as to the 'Why' the market was growing... All that mattered was that it was... Increased home prices were good and whatever triggered it, was most welcome.
Of course others have felt home prices have been exceedingly high for some time.. As in many. many generations... The fact that any homeowner with a job needs more than 15 years to fully purchase a home shows how truly out of whack home prices are in proportion to wages.
It is quite a messy affair when both sides to this debate are in a room.
Much like 10 yrs ago, someone taking out a 6 year car loan was as rare as seeing a pink Cadillac or brown Plymouth on the highway. Now the 72 month lease is as common as a vehicle with silver paint.
So what are the options: That a person should have to either Work n' Work' forever to own, give a landlord rent with nothing to show for it or live at home with mommie and daddie until everyone is grey in the ear, just to have a save place to sleep at night??
No one has any fight to "fight" the Good Fight..
Think about that..
Politicians-- They'll fight and scratch and claw and cheat and lie and thieve to get into office... and once there, will do everything humanly possible to compromise, concede and come to consensus... all with the ultimate goal of not alienating voters for re-election..
And the Populace.. They'll fight and yell and kill over nothing..
A person recently slashed the face of a stranger while sitting in a public bus over an argument when the slasher felt he was ignored... Two guys a couple months ago shot to death another person on a subway train because the victim wore the wrong sports team paraphernalia... A man grabs a woman and tries unsuccessfully (thank goodness) to push a woman down onto the tracks before an oncoming train for absolutely no reason at all...
And yet things that matter.. to us.. to our children.. our nation & its future.. We have no fight in us.. We just embrace our political party affiliation badge of 'R' or 'D', assume they know best and make the conscientious choice that silence is better than the imaginary "treason" of fighting one's party's beliefs and leadership when we disagree..
Its just it seems that a natural disaster is the only thing government and its leaders can not manipulate, delay, stall, can-kick or otherwise fuck around for an artificial time extension. When it comes, it Comes.. and not a Damn thing a President or a Congress can do about it..
Now the aftermath? Sure--business as usual..
And how Utterly horrible and Controlled a world do we all live in where we or anyone else has to even remotely wish or want natural calamity just to be reminded what it is to live in a nation not utterly micro-managed and dead-line manipulated!
And back to the issue at hand.. what was the goal of this Grande Compromise? Job creation? Improve the quality of lives of the citizenry? Nope..
And once again, the Corporate-whore media will treat a sad thing as a cause to rejoice.. And in all likelihood, the vast, vast majority will do so..
Assuming they even bothered to pay any attention to it at all..
An individual deeply indebted may also be a deadbeat and 'loser', but at least most are smart enough to pay the creditor Last.. or at least.. Never Ever First...
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