Congress to the Head of the Line!

The Sequester, one of this nation's stupidest legislative moves in history, finally made its mark on large numbers of the public.

Up to this point, the mindless cuts only effected the poor, and children. Oh, I forgot all the service men and women in the country. They also get to be the sacrificial lambs to the arrogance and stupidity of austerity.

The cuts are already being deeply felt by those who actually serve their country, but they don't count I guess.

But, furloughing 10% of the Air Traffic Controllers, causing rolling flight delays across the nation, now that's another matter. The cuts started to be felt by the upper middle class. This suddenly brought the crisis home! Gee, privilege has its reward.

Especially when Congress is about to take a week vacation.

So, the brave conservatives, whose solution to our economic problems, which are decreasing (but that's another matter) is austerity for everyone but THEM!

This comes as a graduate student, whose only sin was doing a term paper, uncovers a host of errors in the "study" from two Harvard Economists, that purported to prove that large deficits ruin modern economies.

This "thesis" was so riddled with basic spreadsheet errors, and left out several countries (the most prominent Canada which is the most like the United States) that the whole thing has been discredited. And, the basis of their stupidity was that no nation could grow an economy with a 90% deficit to GDP ratio.

Now, it is dumb to compare macro-economics to micro-economics, I have already written on that, but if you applied this nonsense to a home budget, like cons do all the time, we all would be ruined.

Everyone has debt over 90% of their income, at least everyone who has a home mortgage, owns a car, has a credit card; etc. The entire American economy is based on people walking around with a debt load of 100, 150, 250 percent of their income. And most of us do quite well thank you.

Cons: find a quiet place, quit drinking cheap beer for a day, and THINK ABOUT IT!

Not to mention: The European Union that is stupidly trying austerity and ruining their economies. Read about Spain!

U.S.History, that once saw a deficit much greater that GDP in 1946, due to WWII; but the economy did quite well in the post-war boom, the greatest expansion in history.

We did not pay off WWII until 1976! The nation still prospered at a record rate.

That is because most government spending, and taxing, redistributes wealth to a certain extent, benefitting everyone. The concentration of wealth, is what harms capitalist economies. And, the rich, who scream at marginal tax rates, NEVER HAVE LOST THEIR PRIVILEGED POSITION DUE TO EXCESSIVE TAXATION!

Go ahead, find me an example, in a capitalist economy, where the rich actually lost their privileged position. Most benefit from a growing economy, even though they are paying a 90% marginal tax rate (look it up). A marginal tax rate does not mean all income is taxed at that rate.

Tax and spend has become a dirty phrase. But it is the way we all run our own lives, we invest in the future by buying homes on credit, cars, travel, with faith that we can make the payments. If all Americans went to cash only, the economy would stop. This is called repressing demand. Austerity represses demand and makes economies stop!

Those cons, who probably slept through Econ I, never get this basic economic fact!

The austerity crowd, whose President actually caused the deficit in the first place, (remember Clinton had the budget almost balanced) is not to be dissuaded, won't raise taxes and make reasonable cuts AND continue spending; and so we have the sequester. The Party of NO says no!

Look at California. For years (Reagan to 2012), California led the nation in tax cutting, austerity if you will, supposedly to "grow the economy". This policy has landed the Republican Party as an afterthought in California politics.

"Take money from the do nothing public sector and put it into the private and the economy will boom": that was the con promise.

And it boomed all right. And it busted, in meltdowns in the mid 1980s, the Dot Com implosion, the energy meltdown in the early 2000s, and finally that grand time in 2007-2009 when the wheels really came off the wagon.

Meanwhile, California's world class educational system fell apart, opportunity dwindled, the middle class suffered immeasurably; etc.

Now, as California has some REVENUE, suddenly we are seeing the economy rebound big time, housing values going up again; etc. Gee, is there a correlation here?

But, I digress. The tax cutter, government spending crowd has finally blinked: yes, by GAWD they have finally found something that is worth saving in government......an on time plane ride home!

So, damn the veterans, they must sacrifice; damn the primary school children, they must sacrifice; damn the servicemen and women; no raise for them; damn the government disaster aide workers, damn all of them, cut them, they need to sacrifice: JUST KEEP MY DAMN SEAT WARM IN FIRST CLASS!

The President should veto this joke, (he won't) as the House, who hasn't done a thing in months, suddenly finds the energy to pass a law, shifting funds that allegedly will tip the nation into a depression if the government is bailed out, to fund the Air Traffic Controllers so Congress can go home. This is the same Congress who can't pass reasonable gun legislation, who can't get immigration reform out of committee...but a plane ride home....priceless!

The only hope we all have, is that the bastards cannot get back to Washington!