More: US Person can still say this in America. The President is a
loser. Not only that, he cannot negotiate worth a plug nickel. In the final hour budget deal he gave up
$900 billion in spending cuts during an economic depression for a promise from a political party dominated by extremists to consider tax revenue increases in the future. Those of you who enjoyed
Popeye cartoons will recall Whimpy's perennial promise to "gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today". At one point in the negotiations, Speaker Boehner offered $800 billion in revenue increases. Obamatron rejected that, going for "something big". What he got in the end was left holding the bag because pressure to protect worldwide financial markets became too great not to cut a deal before the artificially imposed deadline. The deficit ceiling was a hostage the GOP could never have afforded to shoot as the
Wall Street Journal glibly assessed. Obama could have asked for ceiling adjustment earlier without the pressure of a deadline in return for extending the Charlatan's tax cut for the rich which is partly responsible for the burgeoning federal deficit.
{"debt ceiling"} To achieve a last minute deal, he was forced to put Medicare cuts on the table. For now the cuts are limited to affecting providers only. Certainly the warmongers will fight tooth and nail for every dollar their golden goose spends in the promised Pentagon spending debates. Incredibly, the deal contains
an additional $50 billion for the Pentagon to spend. And in another humiliation, Democrats will be forced to vote on the
radical right's hobby-horse of unnecessarily restrictive balanced budget constitutional amendment. What used to be a
pro-forma ritual of raising the nation's borrowing capacity has been turned into a policy stick fiscal reactionaries will use to beat weak, compromised presidents into submission. When the deal is finally implemented it will be a disaster for the country, and the repercussions will be felt by Democrats at the polls in 2012.
Earlier: Ignoring the theatre of the absurd in Washington for a moment (you know that a deal will be done eventually because the government cannot afford to pay higher interest)
US Person turns his attention in this week's chart to America's growth industry, prisons. Look at the chart:
America incarcerates more of its citizens than any other nation on Earth. The federal gulag is operating at 137% of capacity, while the state with the largest prison population, California, is currently operating at 170% of capacity. Between 1987 and 2007 the national prison population tripled. America spends more on its prison system ($600bn) than it does on Medicare ($452b) or Medicaid ($275bn). Talk about a welfare program!
