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The stock market took a header today. The manufacturing index fell 6 points in May. Only 38,000 private-sector jobs were added in May. Home prices continue to plummet. According to a prominent analyst, ‘we’re on the verge of a great, great depression’.
And the best that our Republicans in Congress seem able to come up with is to boldly insist that any increase in the debt ceiling be matched by an equal amount in spending cuts. If you borrow $2 trillion and cut $2 trillion, all you've accomplished is the addition of a few billion to the interest payments owed.
That's not an answer.
What they need to do is not mess with the debt ceiling. They need to make interest payments on current loans. They need to pay the military, and the folks on So-so security and medicaid. And then they need to slash.
Department of Education? Gone.
EPA? Severely reduced in scope.
NLRB? Gone. And they need to keep moving on down the list.
It takes guts. It takes leadership. And if they don't have what it takes, then they need to be replaced.
Too many special interests to make the needed sacrifices. Everybody's got his sacred goat. Watch the cowards running for the hills at the prospect of annoying several thousand constituents, much less hundreds of thousands.
Posted by: metro_sucks | June 01, 2011 at 06:44 PM
38,000 added nationwide? That's 760 jobs per state.
Yeah, we'll never get anywhere until we storm the capitol with torches and pitchforks.
Posted by: Chris McMullen | June 01, 2011 at 09:27 PM
Oh, I know...I'm just saying what needs to be done, not that it will be done. Private sector has no incentive to add jobs at the present time.
Posted by: Max | June 02, 2011 at 12:48 PM