GOP is sabotaging America for the hope of political gain

The Republican party, with the help of the Teabaggers and the tacit agreement of the media, is deliberately sabotaging the economic recovery. They've blocked jobs-creation legislation, they're decried economic stimulus to the point of making it a dirty word.

They've blocked and are continuing to block unemployment benefits for the people who have lost their jobs. This means less money goes into the economy, people lose their homes. This devalues property prices and depriving already cash-starved states and municipalities of tax revenue both from decreasing property tax rolls and lost sales tax because the unemployed have no money to spend.

They're happy to let jobs languish until the elections in November of 2012 - 17 months away - in order to try to hurt the President. Have we ever had a situation where the minority party has been willing to plant bombs in our own economy and hurt our country for it's own political gain?

I believe this view of the economy echoes their environmental stance, which seems to be that it's so big (the environment and the economy) that it can't possibly be really, really, really, seriously crippled. You know, America forever, we're exceptional, yada yada yada.

And the media allows it to happen. It acts as if both sides have valid points on every issue. Except they don't. Politics has been reduced to sport: "Strasburg goes for his 4th start against the Dems tonight, let's see if he can blow further oil company incentives past the heart of that Dems line-up."

The Democrats, for their part, are too mealy-mouthed to really stand up and scream. They play the Beltway Game too, while America is dying.

Meanwhile, the largest financial collapse in history happened 18 months ago and we still have no legislation to prevent it from happening again. And the largest environmental disaster in history happened and we're arguing over whether the practices that generated it are really, truly that bad. We also gave the oil companies $38 billion in incentives while denying that same amount in unemployment to resuscitate the economy.

As the Senate discusses a climate bill, John Kerry recites the phrase that, as Ezra Klein says, should be engraved on the dome of the U.S. Capitol: “We believe we have compromised significantly, and we’re prepared to compromise further."

This is fucked up.

Public Trust in Government: 1958-2010

You really should check out the interactive Pew Poll, but here's a snapshot. I don't think commentary is necessary.

Bill Maher's Ode to Government

Bill Maher ended his show Friday with a humorous and also impassioned segment on why government is important in light of recent attacks on its place in American life. Pointing to Bobby Jindal's suggestion last week during his response to Obama's speech that government was at odds with the American people, as well as attacks on the stimulus plan as typical 'tax and spend,' Maher responded by explaining that "the people are the government": "the first responders who put out your fires, that's your government. The ranger who shoos pedophiles out of the park restroom."

Instead of wanting less government involvement, Maher said that "recent years have made me much more wary of government doing the opposite--of stepping aside and letting unregulated private enterprise run things it is plainly to greedy to trust with."

Start at 2:25

Red Kitteh asks: I can has Socialism nows?

(Bob Cesca)
I wonder if Glenn Beck and the other far-right Neo-McCarthyites are willing to give up "socialist" government-run services like:

-Public schools
-Police departments
-Postal service
-Fire departments
-Roads
-Social Security
-Medicare
-The military
-Homeland Security
-The CIA
-The FBI
-The NSA
-The Alaskan Pipeline
-National Parks
-National Historic Sites

Any other pinko services the Republicans would gladly hand over to the finely honed talents of private industries like Blackwater and KBR?

(Newsweek)
We Are All Socialists Now

The U.S. government has already—under a conservative Republican administration—effectively nationalized the banking and mortgage industries. That seems a stronger sign of socialism than $50 million for art. Whether we want to admit it or not—and many, especially Congressman Pence and Hannity, do not—the America of 2009 is moving toward a modern European state.

We remain a center-right nation in many ways—particularly culturally, and our instinct, once the crisis passes, will be to try to revert to a more free-market style of capitalism—but it was, again, under a conservative GOP administration that we enacted the largest expansion of the welfare state in 30 years: prescription drugs for the elderly. People on the right and the left want government to invest in alternative energies in order to break our addiction to foreign oil. And it is unlikely that even the reddest of states will decline federal money for infrastructural improvements.

If we fail to acknowledge the reality of the growing role of government in the economy, insisting instead on fighting 21st-century wars with 20th-century terms and tactics, then we are doomed to a fractious and unedifying debate. The sooner we understand where we truly stand, the sooner we can think more clearly about how to use government in today's world.