I Hate Economics

You know, at some point maybe the politicians in this country will realize that it's not the "liberal communist media/academic elite" nor the "right-wing, loony, gun toting, banjo playing fascists" who are leading the country down a hole it can't dig out of, but rather each's unbudging idealism.  Both claim to believe in the principles and ideals espoused by the Founding Fathers of our land - THEN START FRIGGIN' ACTING LIKE IT!  You know why we have a country and a constitution?  Because they compromised.  And at some point everyone with hands in this deficit mess is going to have to start playing and stop passing the check to the next guy.

My leftist comrades, I'm sorry but we need to curtail spending.  Yes, I know the Right was who started spending uncontrollably in the past decade.  Yes, I know you haven't gotten to really even tried governing like liberals (thanks for that point, Bill Maher).  Tough.  Times dictate measures.  You need to stop spending so much, because this deficit is ridiculous and needs to be addressed.

Oh and don't think you're getting out of this easy either, you wolf-in-sheeps-clothes conservatives.  The lefties are right (see the play on words there?) - you got us into this mess, with your wars and tax cuts for the rich and tax loopholes for corporations.  Yeah, the Dems legislation to repair the jobs and economy of our country didn't work as well as they wanted.  Yeah, maybe it was a crappy time to do the whole healthcare reform thing, but at least they were trying to address problems in our country.  So guess how we're going to get some of that money back?  Taxes.  Time to pay the piper, you ninnies.  You helped run up the check, so it's time for you to bite the bullet and start admitting that 1) we need revenue and not just spending cuts to reduce the debt, and 2) there are some problems that the federal government does have to address, like the NATIONAL DEBT.  Not Obama's debt, not Bush's debt.  The one all of us racked up.  Put your patriotism where your mouth is - it doesn't taste so good, does it?

I'm gonna close with two things:  First, I'm pretty sure Bill Simmons (yeah, the sports guy, of all people) made the incredibly astute observation (though I'm having trouble finding it, I think it's in this piece though) that the NFL lockout, the NBA lockout, and this whole deficit thing have a couple key traits in common - particularly the stubbornness of the parties involved to see how much they are messing everyone over, and the refusal of all parties to admit that they are part of the problem.

Lastly, I want to thank Steph for bringing to my attention this quote from Warren Buffet:

I could end the deficit in 5 minutes. You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP all sitting members of congress are ineligible for reelection.

(Photo Credit: http://debtceilingcat.tumblr.com/)