Alice in Wonderland

Remember the crazy world that Lewis Carroll described in his classical story?  Well, this is it.  It exists as a result of two major problems:  (1) This president is not the inspired leader that we need.  He refuses to stand up and tell us the real story of the corruption of our economy and the path out.  He refuses to alienate the culprits who brought us to the brink.  He compromises with bullies.  And if you know anything about bullies, that just provokes more bullying.  (2) The second major issue is the ideological catatonia that has paralyzed our government and our country.  It has eliminated any possibility for pragmatic solutions.  So we are left with a void that gets filled with nonsense.

For instance, our credit rating is downgraded by the same agency that gave us AAA  ratings on toxic financial instruments that started the financial collapse in 2007-8.  But the Republicans are trying to convince us that this president is responsible for the downgrading.  I guess they didn’t read S&P’s explanation for their decision: "because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act."  It's right there on Page 4 of the official Standard & Poor's "Research Update."  Sadly, the false accusations will stick because this president won’t call out the perpetrators. 

Just to be sure it’s the same gun that we shot ourselves with the first time, in 2010 we turned the House of Representatives over to the party that took a budget surplus to over $6 trillion deficit in 8 years because we wanted more fiscal responsibility in government.  Huh?  That’s the party of President Bush, who single-handedly increased the national debt by 44.7 percent of the total amount in the last forty years.  Don’t believe me?  Check it out.

Where were these deficit hawks when their guy was putting the finishing touches on this economic disaster that was four decades in the making?  How did deficits become so important?  Vice President Chaney told us that deficits are not important?  Something changed.  Oh yea!  They’re on the hunt for issues that will cause this president to fail.  And this president is complicit by allowing the Republican revisionist history to go unchallenged?

And then there’s the Republican’s claim that this president is a “typical tax and spend liberal.”  From conservative writer, David Frum in the Wall Street Journal, “President Obama’s only tax increases – those contained in the Affordable Care Act – do not go into effect until 2014. Personal income tax rates and corporate tax rates are no higher today than they have been for the past decade. The payroll tax has actually been cut by 2 points. Total federal tax collections have dropped by 4 points of GDP since 2007, from 18+% to 14+%, the lowest rate since the Truman administration.  If so minded, you could describe Barack Obama as the biggest tax cutter in American history.” 

Biggest spender?  Let’s see: This president tried to get a $4 trillion deal that included increased revenues by removing tax loopholes, (by the way, exactly what the rating agencies wanted) but was thwarted by the ideologues in the Republican party and he had to settle for $1.2 trillion.  He’s the biggest tax cutter in history and he tried to get the biggest reduction in spending in history.  And he is the tax and spend guy and they are the fiscal conservatives? Really?  I think I’m having another Alice moment. 

How can you believe anything that comes from the mouths of politicians who consider their “no-tax” pledge to Grover Nordquist more important than their oaths of office?  All that said, here’s the really sad part:  Nothing is about to change.  The reason?  There simply are no leaders in Washington and currently none to be seen on the horizon. 

Robert DeFilippis