I have to say that I'm more than a little apprehensive about the massive federal debt and the fact that Obama's FY 2011 proposes a $1.3 trillion deficit. I was equally apprehensive when Bush & Co. ran the debt up something fierce while claiming to be fiscal conservatives. We could have a conversation about why Obama has proposed the largest defense budget, even adjusted for inflation, since World War II, or talk about how we're going to have to eventually reign in entitlement spending. Those are all valuable conversations to have.
But we're not going to have those conversations. Yesterday, Obama said the following:
"You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college. You prioritize. You make tough choices. It's time your government did the same."
Now, one rational response to this would be "Mr. President, how do you reconcile the need to make tough choices with the fact that your budget proposes the largest deficit in history?" That would be a good question, a valid question, a question we'd like to hear the answer to. But that's not what happened.
Instead, the Mayor of Las Vegas got pissed because, you know, why should the President pick on Vegas by discouraging people from blowing their college funds there? And I turn on my fave right-wing radio and it's the same thing. I hear a guy call in and say something to the effect of "My wife and I just got back from Vegas and we had a wonderful time and I'll be damned if I'm gonna let this President tell me how I can or can't spend my money."
The next caller was - I kid you not - a woman who emigrated from Vietnam and has spent her life building a business in Vegas and wants to know why Obama wants her business to fail.
When this level of breathtaking stupidity finds a place in the national conversation, we all have reason to despair.
(If you're one of the right-wingers who only comes out to comment and tell me how wrong I am whenever I write about something political, spare me. The point of this isn't that Obama is great and Bush is bad or whatever. The point is that people will willfully misconstrue anything.)
10 comments:
I think I speak for the entire political spectrum when I say WHERE IS OUR BACHELOR RECAP?!!!?!1!!?
How awesome was it to see Corrie shitcanned? "Are you saving yourself?" Next.
And maaan, radio is the stupidest fucking medium. It really is. You should get mental hazard pay for listening. Even bullshitting in a bar is more productive cause we have shiny backlit iPhones now and can pull up graphs.
Oh, man, I have to do Bachelor recaps now? OK, here you go:
- A couple of blonde chicks said something stupid and giggled
- Jake looked meaningfully at a chick and told her that it was OK that she was a virgin
- Jake lied to her face
- Chris Harrison said that next week would be the most dramatic rose ceremony ever
- Chris Harrison lied to our face
There.
jake is gay.
Jake is boring, not gay. Were he gay it would be far more entertaining. Don't forget that a blonde chick identified Russian Hill as her neighborhood. She lied to our face. Marina girl through and through.
did you see that turtleneck he was wearing during the coit tower dinner? gay.
Maybe that's why they're shooting in SF and getting rid of girls at the most shocking pace in Bachelor history: to get to the gay part of the season asap.
and here i came to have a discussion on deficit spending, the president's budget and other macroeconomic issues.... oh well, if you can't beat them.... I found this bachelor recap on my twitter feed. i haven't read it because it means nothing to me.
http://2dyv.sl.pt
This is why we can't have nice things.
All right...
I'm right wing and I'm not here to bash the potus. Where do you want to start? David Walker, former comptroller gen. of the US, says that the total burden in today's (2008) $'s of Soc Sec, Medicare, Medicaid, fed liabilities, commitments, and contingencies is about $53 trillion. Right now, every man, woman and child would have to pay $175,000 to get out from under this. That's what I call, "unsustainable." So in radio talk, "Thanks for taking my call. I'll just hang up and listen." :)
Post a Comment