economy

American Exceptionalism Fuels Republican Obstructionism

July 22, 2011 By Jimmy Zuma

Cross-posted from Jimmy Zuma’s blog at Technorati.

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As near as I can tell, “exceptionalism” is a made up word only found in the phrase “American exceptionalism.” Yet that hasn’t stopped the creation of a cottage industry asserting the mythological idea. Underpinned by both religion and hubris, American exceptionalism argues that the United States is the land chosen by God to enjoy the miracles of capitalism. According to the belief, Americans are a modern day chosen people – sorry Jews; you’re so yesterday — meant to lead the world by divine right. Divine right, of course, is a concept that used to be associated only with kings. Nowadays, it’s associated with morons.

In the ethos of American exceptionalism, we are the best at everything. We have the best health care, the best economy, the best civil society, the most freedom and the greatest opportunity. God made it so. And who are you to question God? Never you mind any facts to the contrary. Everyone knows that only over-educated liberal snobs like to use facts to find the truth.

This belief is a big factor in why Republicans in Congress imagine we can default on our debt without consequences. Because this same American exceptionalism – borrowing from its 1^st cousin, Neoconservatism – argues that we can do whatever we want. Who can stop us, after all? We’re the top of the food chain. Everyone else is dependent on us. Screw ‘em!

Did I mention that most believers have never been outside of the US? Never seeing (Or is it never looking?) is a necessary part of any self-delusion.

So here we are at the brink. Many in Congress are ready to renege on paying the debt created by a decade of government underfunding. A sneering Eric Cantor, for example, has voted to spend the money since 2001. Now he won’t vote to pay what he owes.

Republicans like to say that running the government is just like running a household. If so, then this is deciding to default on the mortgage, refusing to move out of the house and saying that’s OK because God says you are the greatest neighbor on the street. You can also forget this whole notion of just paying the interest, like the chronically under-informed Michelle Bachmann likes to argue. When a loan is due, both the interest and the principal are due. Try just paying just the interest on your car loan next month.

Meanwhile, investors are beginning a selloff of US Treasuries in anticipation that they’ll lose value. The Greece crisis is near-solved and the Euro is poised to restart its march to displace the dollar as the world reserve currency. And China continues to prosper by cornering the market for green tech manufacturing. They’re competing mostly with Germany in this market, not at all with us. Meanwhile, we’re focused on protecting coal and oil profits.

Today, the word “patriot” has been co-opted by dumb crackers and “Founding Fathers” has been stolen by high school dropouts. These words now make us cringe because we know that they are used as cover for some utterly selfish argument. Real history is competing with a belief-based version that imagines great leaders and great doers were promoting not democracy, but unfettered survival of the fittest. Selfishness is exactly the opposite of what our great patriots and Framers practiced. They were defenders and creators of cooperation through government.

But I wouldn’t expect these mooks to know that. They practice a weird kind of faith-based history. It’s true because I believe it’s true. Presented with a fact, they’re reply with an “I believe…” as if it trumps as evidence. I believe that lower taxes create jobs, they say, even though there is zero evidence of that. Lower taxes didn’t break the economy, eight years of no regulatory oversight did. Lower taxes only broke the government.

House Republicans intend to default. They don’t know what they don’t know. Through the foggy lens of American exceptionalism, default has no negatives. So if default is to be avoided, it can only happen by force. The President, the Senate, House Democrats and smarter House Republicans will need to shove it down the throats of these right-wing anarchists.

American exceptionalism? It means we’re the only country heading over a cliff because we decided to believe that dumb was the new smart. Now isn’t that special…

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Jimmy Zuma is a longtime advocate for disability rights and a strong voice from the left. Jimmy blogs at Smart v. Stupid and his writing is published in the The Tucson Sentinel, DC Water Cooler, Open Salon and OpEd News.

Filed Under: economy, Guest Author Tagged With: debt ceiling

Mitch McConnell’s Hypocrisy

March 13, 2011 By mario piperni

Mitch McConnell and his fellow Republicans are on a mission. The budget has become their number one priority and they’re willing to slash spending no matter who (i.e. middle class) suffers as a result. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are all on the table. The budget fight has turned into a gam.e of chicken between Republicans and Dem and at stake is the government going into default.

Steve Benen gives a little perspective.

I’d be remiss if I neglected to mention how amusing it is to hear Mitch McConnell express concern about the debt. The Kentucky Republican voted for the Bush tax cuts, and added the costs to the national debt. McConnell then voted to finance the war in Afghanistan by adding the costs to the national debt. He then voted to put the costs of the war in Iraq onto the national debt. McConnell supported a massive expansion of the government’s role in health care, Medicare Part D, and voted to pile all of its costs right onto the national debt, and then backed the financial industry bailout, and added the bill to the national debt. All the while, McConnell had no qualms about voting to raise the debt limit.

But now McConnell is willing to risk default unless Democrats agree to a plan to help clean up the mess McConnell helped create. Fascinating.

Classic Republican strategy. Spend the country into financial crisis and then pin the blame on Dems once they took control and started to deal with the fallout. This strategy works because in tough economic times the only time frame that matters for most is now. Deregulation, wars and tax cuts got the country into this economic crisis and if the situation can’t be fixed in a week or month, the blame goes to the party in power. That’s the way it works and Republicans are quite aware.

My thinking is that they’re hoping for a government shutdown and a further tanking of the economy. It’s all about 2012 and every move Republicans make between now and then is one which furthers their chances for victory. And if that means more home foreclosures and job losses, so be it. They know who’ll get the blame.

Filed Under: economy, Republican Politics Tagged With: budget

Why Do Republicans Hate America?

February 24, 2011 By mario piperni

Less than two years ago, this is what Republicans were saying about the government bailout of GM.

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH): “Does anyone really believe that politicians and bureaucrats in Washington can successfully steer a multi-national corporation to economic viability?” [6/1/09]

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL): “It’s basically going to be a government-owned, government-run company. …It’s the road toward socialism.” [5/29/09]

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC): “Now the government has forced taxpayers to buy these failing companies without any plausible plan for profitability. Does anyone think the same government that plans to double the national debt in five years will turn GM around in the same time?” [6/2/09]

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA): “Unfortunately, this is just another sad chapter in President Obama’s eager campaign to interject his administration in the private sector’s business dealings.” [6/2/09]

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX): The auto company rescues “have been the leading edge of the Obama administration’s war on capitalism.” [7/22/09]

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ): When government gets involved in a company, “the disaster that follows is predictable.” [7/22/09]

And here’s a story from today’s NYT.

General Motors, which nearly collapsed from the weight of its debts two years ago before reorganizing in a government-sponsored bankruptcy, said Thursday that it earned $4.7 billion in 2010, the most in more than a decade.

It was the first profitable year since 2004 for G.M., which became publicly traded in November, ending a streak of losses totaling about $90 billion.

In addition, G.M. said 45,000 union workers would receive profit-sharing checks averaging $4,300, the most in the company’s history.

What say you now, Republican doomsayers?

The Center for Automotive Research has determined that the bailout to GM and Chrysler saved more than 1.4 million jobs in 2009 and 2010. If government had listened to Republicans in 2009, those jobs would have been lost forever…as would the American automobile industry.

So how will the GOP spin this one? I’m guessing it’ll be along the lines of suggesting that the profit-sharing checks to GM’s unionized workers are nothing more than government handouts. Socialists! Socialists! Kill the unions!

Filed Under: economy Tagged With: automotive industry, bailouts, Obama

Deficits, Frauds and Peacocks

December 16, 2010 By mario piperni

Ezra Klein makes the distinction between deficit hawks and deficit frauds.

The deficit frauds are the folks who use deficits for short-term political gain: This year, they’ve mainly been Republicans who opposed unemployment benefits because they’d add $56 billion to the deficit but demanded tax cuts that would add $4 trillion to the deficit. And they’ve been empowered not by Peterson’s money or even the climate in Washington, but by the fact that people get very anxious about the deficit when the economy slows, as it’s a number that they think helps explain the economic problems even as it mainly tracks them, and because a misplaced analogy to the European debt crises has made our deficit look scarier than it actually is.

Matt Yglesias prefers referring to deficit frauds as deficit peacocks. That works for me.

Filed Under: economy Tagged With: deficit, Republicans

Manana Economics

December 13, 2010 By mario piperni

The battle rages on between the White House and House Dems over tax cuts. Meanwhile, Republicans have dug in their heels with claims that here will be no further compromise from them…it’s tax cuts for the wealthy or nothing.

Fareed Zakaria asks:

So when will we get serious about our fiscal mess? In 2020 or 2030, when the needed spending cuts and tax hikes get much larger? If we cannot inflict a little pain now, who will impose a lot of pain later? Does anyone believe that Washington will one day develop the political courage it now lacks? And what if, while we are getting around to doing something, countries get nervous about lending us money and interest rates rise?

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Somehow, no matter what the economic clock says, it’s never time in Washington to cut spending or raise taxes. Call it manana economics.

While Americans screw around with politics, the Chinese have doubled their spending on education, poured billions into developing the world’s best infrastructure and have focused their attention on twenty-first century industries – alternative energy, information technology, alternative-fuel cars and the like.

It’s never been clearer that the two year election cycle has taken precedence over the nation’s long term economic welfare. Spineless, self-serving politicians are unwilling to offer up the bitter pill to a vastly misinformed electorate in fear of what cable news pundits will say. And it’s all happening before your very eyes.

Sick.

Filed Under: economy Tagged With: tax cuts