Fitting, the day the United States sets a record for debt in a month ($220 billion, up 14-percent from last year’s already staggering number) we get news from Greece. The Greek government is run by the Socialist party. The Socialist party spent money until it no longer could, resulting in the collapse of its economy and government, and taking down the Euro along with it. This is party why our dollar had a short reprieve in recent weeks and why gas prices aren’t $3-per-gallon yet.
With the collapse came the inevitable – Greece had to cut, and cut a lot, something its citizenry isn’t taking in stride.
ATHENS, Greece – Greek unions say nationwide strikes will shut down all public services, closing schools, customs and tax offices, halting public transport and grounding flights for 24 hours.
Greeks have been protesting the Socialist government’s harsh austerity measures, designed to curb the country’s massive debt and pull it out of an unprecedented financial crisis that has hammered the euro. The measures have cut civil servants’ salaries, frozen pensions and increased taxes, including on fuel and general sales tax.
Workers are to walk off the job from midnight Wednesday night.
Journalists, teachers, state hospital doctors and air traffic controllers will be among those striking, while officers from the police, fire service and coast guard plan to join protest rallies.
Economically, the United States is traveling a similar road. An already over-spending government is out of control, not to mention the commercial real estate bomb experts have been predicting for months, that’s before inflation comes into play in the next year or two as the administration runs the printing press full speed.
So how does this impact socially? We’re getting a taste. Jim Bunning makes one lone stand against $10 billion, he’s the subject of vilification everywhere, even in the pages of Sports Illustrated, courtesy of an epic broadside by Joe Posnanski, the usually apolitical, award-winning sports writer. Bunning, who wanted to simply re-route unemployment funding to unspent stimulus cash, is now subject to questioning by his ex-baseball teammates.
Ohio governor Ted Strickland’s approval numbers were find until he started cutting the budget. The result was angry librarians on Page A1 for weeks on end. The lesson – the media is going to punish anyone that cuts anything from anyone who can garner sympathy. Out of preconceived notions of social justice? Maybe, more likely because it’s easy, it’s sexy, it fits that tried and true “comfort the afflicted” meme that is employed rather subjectively in these times of ours, not to mention reporters love government workers.
A question I would love asked – how many private citizens a week does the average reporter interview compared to public employees? The Wall Street Journal notwithstanding.
If Republicans win big in 2010, and put enough of a coalition together to cut the government, can they?
The Bunning situation is fair warning. If anyone cuts, those at the trough will strike. It will be unions, protests (we already have college kids, armed with $100-a-month cell phones, demanding free medical care and “arresting” lobbyists), seniors mad at Medicare cuts (already have that), not to mention the army of public workers weeping on television all night for the inconvenience of those furloughs from the $80,000 a year jobs.
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So the Euro is not a very good idea for a reserve currency now.
What will be the next currency that dollar-haters rally ’round ? The Rupee ?
Unobtainium.
On the flip side, Obama’s popularity sits at 43%, conservatives constitute the largest political demographic at 40%, the tea Tea Party movement out-polls by political parties, and the ratings at Fox News trounce the next two major networks and keep improving, while major left-leaning media outlets are struggling. The question to ask is: can righteous anger overcome a spoiled tantrum? The answer: maybe.
The first requirement is to have a plan in hand. Right now, there are two leading reform platforms. The first is Paul Ryan’s Road Map for America’s Future, which claims to zero out the deficit, get entitlements under control and pay off the debt, while introducing significant free market reforms to SS, Medicare and Medicaid. It has the advantage of hard numbers, vetting and reasonably realistic goals for policy reform. You can find some recent articles here and here on Ryan
The second is still-forming Tea Party initiative, the Contract from America, which has whittled things down to twenty policy ideas to be voted on, has only one real advantage: grassroots support. What I think this means is that it won’t survive as a standalone platform, but ideas from it may be integrated into another plan; I think it may be a vehicle for the FairTax to get a serious hearing.
Ryan’s plan is not simply the only one that reasonably tackles all the big problems, it is the only one that exists. And while GOP politicians keep politely avoiding it like a moderate allergy (except for a band of hardline conservatives, which still puts it ahead of anything else), due the reforms that it makes to entitlements, it’s also the one that keeps popping up and has garnered serious attention by both sides.
With a plan in hand, it will require a lot of hard work, with everyone singing from the same song book and on the same page. There’s going to have to be a lot of aggressive marketing and a lot pounding on the bully pulpit. The tea parties are going to have the counter-protest and come up with clever tactics to expose the Left’s monkey business. Every ounce of savvy will have to be used. It will be hard, but if we can keep the focus on the facts and get the public locked into to what it happening, we have a shot.
A recent article on the tea parties. Good stuff.
And I thought I was an optimist. David, you put the “polly” in “pollyanna.”
Never said the odds were great. I just said maybe.
I know, David. I don’t mean to pick on you. I am just way beyond relying on any politician to make my life better. Their track record so far, vis a vis my personal existence, is 0 for 1,000,000.
I don’t fault you for the sentiment.
It will be hard, but if we can keep the focus on the facts and get the public locked into to what it happening, we have a shot.
The public, the public, everything depends on the public… You know, I hate to sound like an elitist or a Democrat, but I’m beginning to share H.L. Mencken’s opinion of “the public”.
To add: The current healthcare debate is an interesting lesson. The Dems actually had a window where the public, while not particularly enthused, was waiting to be convinced of what the Dems were doing. The lack of a consistent message, followed by frantic efforts to pass it, started a downward slide and galvanized opposition. What we have now is a public that is not particularly enthused about cutting government largess, but understands the budget crisis. The battle will be in keeping the public’s attention on that crisis, above the distractions created by the media.
On a side note, what does everyone think would be easier to pass, a consumption tax or flat tax?
a complete uninformed opinion (like I needed to put that intro)
I think flat tax has a better chance. The name alone works wonders with perception.
Mainly because it’s correct, and the best for the nation, a consumption tax has almost zero percent of passing. I think a flat tax has a chance, but as long as you’re taxing income it’s just postponing the inevitable. A future Congress will do something stupid, and need some cash, and it’s so easy to bump that percent up by a few points, then a few more. As long as we live in a society where people allow the government to confiscate their wages before their employer hands them to the wage earner we are toast. It’s only a question of how long it takes to boil the frog.
The income tax will NEVER be repealed. Not even the Republicans have the balls to touch that one… there would be physical violence in Congress if anyone tried to ram that through.
This is what unions do when there are no real workplace abuses any longer: destroy their employers. It doesn’t matter if it’s GM or the government.
What the left wants to do is to put every US citizen in the role of a unionized worker: utterly dependent upon government largesse. That’s what the health-care plan is all about.
Here is the scary thing. Greece’s government is spending around 12% of their GDP and it caused this chaos. Guess how much our government spent of our GDP in 2009?
Anyone?
Anyone?
Bueller?
70%. That the highest amount since post WW2.
If people knew where their tax dollars are being spent, taxpayers would be appalled. A single, female recipient receives x amount of money for food stamps. If she has a child, she’ll get x amount cash per month, plus more on food stamps. Another child, more cash per month, and more food stamps. It’s an incentive to have more kids. If she hooks up with a male on welfare, they can shack up, not get married and each keep their own welfare money rolling in. Oh yeah. It’s all tax-free income. And while it’s supposed to be a temporary solution to get work, they can extend indefinitely by not actually getting a job. It’s also a guaranteed democrat vote, if they can get the recipients to go to the polls.
We desperately need less government-run programs, not more. I’m pretty sure it’s the democrat agenda to get as many people on the dole, to insure votes to stay in power. It’s the biggest reason for pushing health care. If they wanted to fix health care, they would address the reasons it’s so high, and not shoulder the blame on the insurance companies.
On the local news last night, they said Nevada sets the highest bar to get on welfare. But if they allowed more people on welfare, Nevada would get more federal money……
Wonderful.
I, for one, am not optimistic. I think I fall in into pessimistic territory on this one. Republicans, even if they have 100% of Tea Party support, will never be able to cut anything. The public sector has too much power, too much sway over US politics. Along with that, they have intense media support and the cherry on top of pop culture support. The public sector eagerly gathers power and eagerly uses it.
Quite simply, how many private sector, “average” Americans can we count on to support the cuts we so desperately want and need the government to make? When the public sector goes on strike, unless we have every single person not part of those unions willing to go head to head, tooth and nail in support of the action, it will get repealed very quickly. I already know more than 75% of my fellow co-workers would eagerly give away their remaining financial freedom for the public cause, because they drink deep deep deep of the Kool-Aid.
And if the cuts go through what then? I do not see the public sector backing down and fisticuffs will quickly ensue.
“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!” – Ronald Wilson Reagan
And this is what scares me. When you get to the point where the citizens have voted themselves unlimited largess from the public coffers, when the debt is too high and the economy is in the tank, it’s very hard for a republic to fix the problem. But a fix must be made, everyone agrees. That’s when some Strong Man rides in on a white horse and says, “Surrender your liberties to me, and I’ll make the hard choices for you.” (See, Julius Caesar. See, Adolf Hitler.)
That’s what liberals don’t understand. They think we’ve been trying to get a Strong Man into power all along. In fact, we’ve been trying to hold him back.
Hitler rode a horse?
I’ve seen it on a poster. He was wearing a suit of armor, too.