The problem is that leaders of both parties have both pledged an unshakable commitment to, in the near future, make our deficit projections dramatically worse by extending all or most of the Bush tax cuts.

Let’s see…How do I state this delicately?

Fuckin’ Idiots.

Yeah, that should do it.

Crazy -

Media discussion of things like Projections of things like deficits we must fix are supposed to be based on current law – if and when when the media discusses the current problem -

yet our media insists on pretending the Bush tax cuts go on forever, so we have to screw Medicare and Social Security and Medicaid and every other social safety net program – and along the way remove union rights.

And Obama says – what?

They know exactly what they are doing. Fuckin’ Idiots.

I feel an awful swooping sensation in the pit of my stomach every time I read about this. It’s enough to make me want to withdraw and become one of the blissful apathetic but that’s what the MOTU want so I’m not going to oblige.

Obama says –

“Why yes, I would like to keep more of my current wealth, and the wealth I stand to make in the future. Let’s keep those taxes low. Also, the guys who got me here want to keep their wealth, and make more of it. Hell, that’s what they paid me for.”

No, they’re not idiots. What they are, is a bunch of whores and shills doing what they’ve been paid to do. Almost none of them represent the very “people” that voted for them. They go to DC to represent the $$ interests that paid for their campaigns past and future. Doing for “the people” never even enters their minds.

And we’ve already lost the war IMO.

The right wing media, once again, has masterfully propagandized the “debt crisis” into being a real, live, breathing crisis to overcome. Even though it’s a complete fabrication.

Between the Citizens United ruling and the right wing ownership of ALL of the media, I can understand some if they want to give up hope. Truth be told all of us, me, you and everyone else in this country, should’ve fought the right wing a lot harder two or three decades ago BEFORE they go this entrenched.

Damn I’m depressed.

It’s a mistake in your self defense to be depressed when you are dealing with thieves.

What does Obama say to the poor, working and middle class? “Hands over your head, this is a stick up!”

Yeah…and let’s not talk about up what that stick is going.

Yeah, that should do it if your goal is to do it delicately.

I’m not so interested being delicate so to spare the toobz from possible spontaneous combustion I’ll refrain from posting my description of the assholes.

How else are they going to pull off deep-sinking all those pesky government programs like EPA, NPR, SS, Medicare, NIH, Planned Parenthood…other than by convincing us that we can’t afford them.

Oops, I know that defeatist attitude pisses off some folks here. Sorry. I swear that wasn’t my intention.

Well, then that’d be a first. This groups catch phrase is “who could of ever imagined?” There is a dearth of imagination in Washington apparently.

You’re right, though. I’m depressed over all of this too.

Our options for fighting back are being subverted, one by one. Hell, they’ve even corrupted the voting process and decided elections in the judiciary. And look at what they’re doing to unions now!

We’ll keep fighting, though. We’ll keep trying. As SD says-

Never. Give. Up.

We can’t change the past, recognize what happened yes but we work for a better future. No, it ain’t gonna happen overnight. We’ve got decades of citizen apathy to overcome but it can be done.

We’re not Republicans, Democrats, liberals, progressives, conservatives, or neo-this or neo-that. We’re citizens. It takes getting other citizens to recognize it and educate them what it means and how it affects them as people.

There’s a saying concerning the rescue of animals. Change the word “animal” to “person” and live it. Become as active as one can in one’s community.

“Saving one animal will not change the world but it will change the world for that animal.”

Never. Give. Up.

The best we can hope for is that someone hacks his teleprompter and makes him say stuff we want.

Thank god. I didn’t know whether to end it all or sign up for anger management classes, OFG.

‎’Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.’ John Steinbeck

So what’s the plan then? Cut social programs now. Let the tax cuts expire. Tax cuts Expire in 2012. Social programs still cut and privatized thereafter. Laws set in place that would take decades to overturn even if Congress ever tried. So the next two years and decades to come are Kabuki. Grand theft auto. Usurpation by Oligarchy. Sounds like a plan.

makes him say stuff we want.

I’d settle for him doing the chicken dance then apologizing and resigning.

That’s a mindset we’ve got to work very hard to overcome. And we have to be blunt about it when talking to people who think that way.

LOL.

One small satisfaction — for me, at least — is that it is becoming obvious to millions that this guy is basically a fraud. Some of my friends who were strong supporters can’t even bear to look at him anymore. A small sample, yes, but meaningful because they were such true believers. They can’t decide whether he’s dumb or duplicitous. But either way, the bloom is off the rose. Big Time. While that doesn’t prevent the worst from happening on his watch, it’s a start.

Don’t worry. Obama is working out a deal to eliminate Medicare, Medicaid, Soc Sec, and make the Bush tax cuts permanent in exchange for a bag of jellybeans and an autographed picture of Elvis.

Aside from the exceptions I’ve run across, they are very imaginative crooksters. Lying, embezzlement and audit control fraud (along with all the other bankster trappings) is a specialization you see.

a bag of jellybeans and an autographed picture of Elvis.

Not even Jelly Bellys. The shitty kind. And the autographed pic of Elvis is a forgery.

For proof of imaginative crooksters, see credit default swaps and mortgage-backed securities.

But we’re still reviled because it’s easier to forgive people for being wrong than it is to forgive them for being right.

With all the casios, lotteries, Publishers Clearing House, network game shows etc. it’s only a matter of time before everyone in the country are millionaires. Is this a great system or what?

Forget Obama. We know who and what he represents. Work on Congress and your local and state elected officials. The key is organizing at the local level. Give yout local people nightmares by supporting folks who don’t support the developers and the monied elites. Make the district toxic for its member of Congress.

So the left hand knows what the right hand is doing, and both are hoping that the American people won’t notice?

Who the f*ck are these weasels working for?

It starts with a “C” and ends with a “orporate interests”.

You missed CDOs aimed at municipalities.

This is what I tell these people:

You stand a better chance of being hit by lightening than hitting the lotto, winning big at the Seminole casinos or hitting the PCH sweepstates. Even if you do it’s in the future. Until then are you gonna continue to let these assholes pick your pocket and the pockets of your family? By the time you get rich the laws will have changed or you’ll be too damn old to do anything with the money. Quit screwin’ yourself for a fantasy.

Sometimes it works, sometimes they’re really hard-headed ignorant. Can’t win ‘em all.

In fact, here’s a really good short write up of who they are working for.

Someone else said this before on some different thread(s) but the so-called “Deficit” is today’s “Terrorist” sloganeering… it’s all booga booga scary scary FEAR FEAR eeek eeeek… trotted out by the corporate-owned rightwing/fascist media because it reliably gins up a significant portion of the populace to go along with the lies, the spin & the bunkum… as we’ve seen here ad nauseum at FDL from some of our conservativer posters.

It’s all a flim-flam con-game with the same old same old result: the elites make out like the bandits that they are by *ripping off* the middle & working classes. What. else. is. new???

The whores in Congress, the White House & the SCOTUS enable and benefit directly from the fraudulent thievery.

Per the Twitter machine, Obama’s going to talk about $4 Trillion in reduction over 12 years.

Ryan’s plan is $6 Trillion over 10.

“World Banks Run On Cocaine Cash” (Apr. 6, 2011). This is not news for sometime time now: “Dillon, Read & Co., Inc. and The Aristocracy of Stock Profits” (by Catherine Austin Fitts, 2006).

Ain’t that the truth, but I’ll tell ya: I’ve definitely had acquaintances wax frickin’ lyrical about how WHEN THEY get RICH, why then, THEY do NOT want to pay any d*mn taxes, either. So there!!!!!!!!!!

And ya hafta know that these FOOLISH citizens will never ever “catch the brass ring.” They just won’t. The most they can achieve is some modicum of middle class comfort & safety net, so what ARE they doing but SCREWING THEMSELVES.

That’s why I keep saying here: keep clapping louder for Tinkerbell!

It is still amazing to me, though, how many citizens live in the delusional fantasy that some day – some day – they’re gonna hit the big time, and boy, THEN, they do NOT want to pay any of them d*mn taxes.

Fools.

Yes ~ that’s a plan that fits the circumstances very well.

Check THIS out:
PORTUGAL’S UNNECESSARY BAILOUT – NYT
PORTUGAL’S plea for help with its debts from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union last week should be a warning to democracies everywhere.

The crisis that began with the bailouts of Greece and Ireland last year has taken an ugly turn. However, this third national request for a bailout is not really about debt. Portugal had strong economic performance in the 1990s and was managing its recovery from the global recession better than several other countries in Europe, but it has come under unfair and arbitrary pressure from bond traders, speculators and credit rating analysts who, for short-sighted or ideological reasons, have now managed to drive out one democratically elected administration and potentially tie the hands of the next one.

If left unregulated, these market forces threaten to eclipse the capacity of democratic governments — perhaps even America’s — to make their own choices about taxes and spending.
Robert Fishman
I don’t think there’s any “perhaps” about it. It’s happening now; been happening for the last decade
More Shock Doctrine for the USA.

It’s rigged and it’ll never happen as they weren’t born into the club like cry baby Trump.

I just realized that I’ve lost count of all the jobs I’ve applied for this week, with whom and for what. It feels like I’m just going through the motions. Throwing shit against an enormous wall and hoping that something sticks.

I just wrote a check for my taxes and it makes me so mad to think that it will be wasted and how much good I could do with that money. With all the people who are out of work, the Treasury has to be a bit less rich this year.

o/t

can you help me ? trying to post images in a diary (yes, I’ve read Eignor’s tips for posting :D) I paste the Flickr link, highlight it, click on image in html, but no worky.my pics aren’t showing up, just the title I give ‘em

what in blue blazes am I doing wrong ?

DING! Cut them off at the (grass)roots. Watch the Cheeseheads and the Icelanders and emulate that.

david leonhard is an idiot (but we already knew that).

i’m pretty sure leonhard is assuming that the economy will recover and that is what will cause a decrease in the deficit (as a percent of gdp). well, either that or he is dishing out the neoliberal nonsense that increasing taxes will, absent an economic recovery, cause a decrease in the fed gov deficit.

argh. the stupid, it burns.

Go over here and I’ll lay it out for ya.

Nothing!

Selise, I went back and reviewed the earlier post. I have to agree with one commenter in asking you to post a diary with the real truth about deficits and budgets. It has nothing at all to do with what the citizens do or don’t do.

ok, i’ll try to do a summary diary…. thanks for asking!

p.s. i edited my comment @48 after you had replied. to give your comment in response some context, my earlier version had something like “i’m pretty sure he is assuming that the economy will recover and that is what will cause a decrease in the deficit (as a percent of gdp). please tell me what justifies that assumption.”

Never. Give. Up.

Copy. Not rolling over for these fuckers.

And for a little off-topic comedy respite…

David Dayen has a fresh cross-post up: Liveblog: Obama Speech on Deficit Reduction

Pass

x2

…according the the CBO (PDF), our deficit would drop to a very manageable 3.2 percent of GDP.

please note that the CBO assumes a “return to normal” economic forecast. in other words, quoting the CBO about future deficits is in no way justified other than to provide a critique.

this has all been explained by galbraith in his testimony to the deficit commission!

Future Deficit Projections are Generally Based on Forecasts which Begin by Assuming Full Recovery, but this Assumption is Highly Unrealistic.

Unlike the present deficits, expected future deficits are not usually considered to be due to continued recession and high unemployment. To understand how the discussion of future deficits is being framed, it is necessary to grasp the work of the principal forecasting authority, the Congressional Budget Office. CBO’s projections proceed in two steps. First, they wipe out the current deficits, over a very short time horizon, by assuming a full economic recovery. Second, they create an entirely new source of future deficits, essentially out of whole cloth. The critical near-term assumption in the CBO baseline concerns employment. CBO claims to expect a relatively rapid return, over five years, to high levels of employment, and the baseline incorporates a correspondingly high rate of real growth in the early recovery from the great crisis. If this were to happen, then tax revenues would recover, and ordinarily the projected deficits would disappear. This is what did happen under full employment in the late 1990s.

But under present financial conditions this scenario of a rapid return to high employment is highly unrealistic. It can only happen if the credit system finances economic growth, which implies a rising level of private (household and company) debt relative to GDP. And that clearly is not going to happen. On the contrary, de-leveraging in the private sector is sure to remain the rule for a long time, as mortgages and other debts default or are paid down, and as many households remain effectively insolvent due to their mortgage debt.

With high unemployment, high public deficits are inevitable. The only choice is between an active deficit, incurred by putting people to work or otherwise serving national needs — such as providing a decent retirement and health care to the aged — and a passive deficit, incurred because at high unemployment tax revenues necessarily fail to cover public spending. Cutting public spending or raising taxes, now or in the future, by any amount, cannot reduce a deficit due to high unemployment. The only fiscal effect is to convert an active deficit into a passive one — with disastrous economic and social effects.

If you can’t find a crisis for your “disaster capitalism,” create your own at home!

a bag of jellybeans and an autographed picture of Elvis.

Not even Jelly Bellys. The shitty kind. And the autographed pic of Elvis is a forgery.

Then Fox headline: “Obama promotes tooth decay and drug abuse”