Republicans and Budgets

I find myself rolling on the floor laughing at the ludicrous midnight "compromise" on the US budget. The Republicans have had long faces all week lecturing the American people that this is the hour of urgency when the deficit and debt "must" be addressed.

Gee... I remember just 4 months ago the Republicans created $1 trillion in additional debt by saying it was absolutely, definitely, must be, certain that big tax cuts be given to billionaires and millionaires or the economy would freeze in its tracks. But over the last couple of weeks the Republicans have been saying it was absolutely, definitely, must be, certain that big cuts to the budget must be made to save the country. Wow! A complete 180 degree turn in 4 months. That must be a record for politicians.

Here is a comment by Paul Krugman in his NY Times blog about Republicans and "budgets":

The Ryan plan calls for cutting the top marginal rate to 25 percent — lower than it has been at any time in the past 80 years. That in itself should tell you that this is a deeply unserious proposal: anyone who tells you that we have to face hard truths, that everyone must sacrifice, and by the way, rich people will pay lower taxes than they have at any time since the 1930s, is just engaged in a power grab.

What I wonder is this: Why do none of the media in the US point out the deep inconsistency -- the lies -- that the Republicans are telling the American people? Why do the media in the US refuse to spell out the anti-people, pro-ultra-rich agenda of the Republicans? Why do the media go along with this charade over "must have" tax cuts for billionaires and "must have" budget cuts for government services for ordinary people? Oh... and why don't they point out the absolute ludicrousness of pushing a "fight" over the budget to a midnight deadline over something that had nothing to do with dollars: cutting funds for social programs like Planned Parenthood?

From north of the border looking at what passes as "politics" in the US and I just roll on the floor laughing. This is "culture wars". This is ideological battles. This is nothing to do with normal governance or pragmatic politics. This is fanaticism run amuck. This is the McCarthyism of the 1950s. This is the John Bircher madness of the 1960s. This is the vicious white racism that bombed churches and killed little black children in the early 1960s. This is the Jim Jones's apocalyptic have them all drink poisoned Kool-Aid in the jungles of Guyana in the 1970s. This is the craziness of the militia movements and their wierd conspiracy theories and survivalist craziness of the 1980s. This is the David Koresh and the Timothy McVey crazies of the 1990s. Scary stuff. Fanatics unwilling to compromise and unable to see that they have a wierdly distorted view of reality.