The recent extension of the Bush tax cuts will cost the United States $860 billion, mainly borrowed from China and oil rich nations such as Saudi Arabia. I have mixed feelings about the philosophies of supply-side economics and stimulus. It’s like giving a junkie some drugs because he will get sick if he doesn’t get his fix.
The approach of Congress and past presidents on giveaways and entitlements while not addressing the debt is a cowardly way of not offending anyone in order to win re-election.
President Obama did what was popular, but not right, by giving tax breaks at a time when corporations made $1 trillion in profits last quarter. Stores like Neiman Marcus are seeing robust sales. No wonder Street Sense and other vendors consider areas like Eastern Market as potential bonanzas.
Washington, D.C., is not the only city that benefits from Congress giving away gifts like Santa Claus. I recently went to Times Square in New York. Broadway plays are not doing too badly in this rough economy. Sometimes you cannot even find a ticket for a play.
This is happening when the unemployment rate stands at nearly 10 percent and fiscal conservatives are complaining about the debt being around $14 trillion. From a poor person’s perspective, it doesn’t make sense when you see someone willing to spend $4,000 a month for an apartment and then people walking over a guy sleeping on a sidewalk like he doesn’t exist.
What is more appalling is hearing politicians defend tax cuts while complaining about Social Security and Medicare causing a drain on the budget. The sad part about capitalism and government is that neither the corporation nor the politician see or understand the human side of their decisions. They only see numbers, not consequences. There is a human side when you cut social services.
To borrow $900 billion from China and Saudi Arabia and then give it to the wealthy so they can sail around the world is unsettling. If we are going to spend government money, we shouldn’t let our politicians sell us out with this supply-side theory of giving to the rich while the masses stay poor.
As Americans, we need to be better watchdogs on how government spends our money. Americans ranked 17th in reading, 31st in math and 23rd in science, according to the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment, a test that ranks student performance worldwide.
We are to blame. More Americans know who won the Super Bowl than what is in the tax bill. In the 1960s, people rioted on the street for change. Today we have news organizations like Fox and MSNBC, which are more interested in defending an issue than reporting what is really happening.
In order to get the money back to the people who need it, rather than to the ones who are doing well for themselves, we need more activism than passivism.
