Budget “Compromise” Cheered by Obama, Sen. Reid

Well, congratulations are in order to the richest and most out of touch people in the country: politicians in D.C.  After weeks and months of so-called tough negotiations, $38 billion in cuts to services to the poorest Americans was achieved.  This only came a few short months after un-paid for tax cuts were extended to the richest Americans.  That was sold as a “tough compromise” too.

I hope everybody notices who’s doing the compromising and who’s losing in all of this.  Spineless Corporate-Crats are the ones compromising the very same Americans they promise every other year to look out for.  We all know the Corporate-Cons have a deep-seated, irrational hatred for working Americans.  The poorer they are, the more they’re hated by the old white men’s club.

The problem with the federal budget is more of a revenue problem than a spending problem.  The problem with the federal budget is 2 occupations and 1 war, followed closely by welfare for the rich.  If those spending problems were halted, the budget problem would largely disappear.  As usual, the Corporate-Crats don’t want to talk about those problems any more than the Corporate-Cons do.  And because elections have become popularity extravaganzas, the pro-Corporate wing of our government is under no pressure to talk about them.  And so the situation that came to a head last night results: poor and working class Americans get their critically needed services cut.  A harsh analysis concludes that those Americans might deserve what they’ve wrought.  If they paid more attention to the type of candidates they voted for, they might not be in this situation.  Unfortunately, programs will likely be cut much further or eliminated before enough Americans figure out what’s really going on in their capital.  By then, it might be too late.

I want to hear more from the “pragmatic” crowd that gets so loud just prior to elections, when they tell the rest of us we have to suck it up and vote for the lesser of two evils, because that’s just the way it is.  That cowardly approach to politics is manifesting into more of our realities now.  When you vote for the lesser of two evils, you’re still voting for evil.  You might delay when evil takes over, but you’re ensuring that sooner or later it will do just that.  I want those “pragmatists” to tell the people who will go without the services they need that it’s for their own good; that our political system had to produce this result.  Of course, responsibility for one’s words and actions is severely lacking in today’s political world.  This situation will be no different.

The Corporate-Cons on TV are crowing about this, and well they should.  They won this first fight and they won it big time.  The Capitulator-In-Chief and the Spineless Boxer from Nevada will make sure that the next round of fights will go for the Corporatists, mark my word.  That they had to “fight” so hard to save health clinic and EPA funding is a testament to how crappy their negotiating skills really are.  There is no way the Corporate-Cons should have been able to look reasonable demanding their extremist social agenda be forced on the remainder of America.  But it very nearly was.  How much further to the right will the social extremists move in order to achieve what they want?  As far as they can possibly imagine, because it’s not like Obama and Reid have shown any kind of acumen to be able to stand up for principles.  Those health clinics will likely lose their funding before this Congress ends.  Medicare and Medicaid will be eliminated soon thereafter.  And those things are likely to occur with a “Democratic” President and Senate.  How pragmatic does that sound?

Senate Democrats Continue To Negotiate With Themselves And Not With Republican Teabaggers

I can’t say I’m surprised by this news:

Officials say Senate Democrats are considering including spending cuts in legislation to keep the government in operation after existing funding expires on March 4, the first time they have signaled they are willing to embrace immediate reductions.

After the debacles that occurred with global warming, health care and a myriad of other critical policy topics in the last Congress, Senate Democrats seem to be blinking first in the government shutdown game of chicken the Republican Teabaggers are threatening.  That makes things like this:

But if you start making preemptive concessions, all you’re doing is establishing a new baseline for negotiations. You’re not actually changing any of the fundamental dynamics at play.

a pretty weak version of analysis.

The current breed of Democrats in the Senate, especially the Senate Democratic “leadership”, a much different breed than what was available during the 1995 Republican Government Shutdown.  Today’s Democrats are far more spineless; much more likely to preemptively capitulate at the slightest thought that a Republican Teabagger might sneeze at them.  Another fine and dandy example of this is President Obama.  He actually thinks it’s a strength to preemptively capitulate because, hey, at least you’re working with the other side, right?  Wrong, dumbasses.  These weaklings don’t think they got elected for the same reason that voters think they’re electing them.  How long that continues is a function of how many policies continue their hard-right slant in the next few years.

Welfare for the rich in December?  You betcha’.

Cut programs for the middle and lower class in February as a result?  Darn tootin’.  Anybody else see a pattern around here?

I’d also recommend that voters stop using elections as popularity contests, but that doesn’t seem likely to change any time soon.  That has to come first.  Then the anger at Congress will be justified.