butt-dribble from the mouths of politicos

the big enchilada himself, barky obambi, weighed in on the current budget deficit issues facing the US -- but as usual, the moral and intellectual deficits, which are probably the most dangerous for the nation and the rest of the world, are left un-addressed.

this is the supreme confidence of the ruling claque showing its ugly face to the public -- if only fleetingly. we can argue over money all we want. and it'll be a knock-down, drag-out affair, stretching out over the next 18 months or so. what we'll never get is an honest exercise in tearing down the absurd and obscene premises upon which this clusterfuck of a nation operates.

when it comes to the budget, however, there is still no shortage of hypocrisy and bullshit that we need to take a chainsaw to, if only to tear away the undergrowth that obscures the real landscape under the jungle of misinformation that animates our current "debates".

when a family doesn't have enough money to pay its bills, a couple of things are out of whack: there's the spending side, of course, but there's also the revenue side that has an equal relevance to where you find yourself at the end of the month -- with more month than money. even so, for the past 30 years the congresses of the US have been relentless in their evisceration of tax rates -- primarily on the most well-off -- while a tide of red ink just as relentlessly rises.

we find ourselves funding ever more costly, and never-ending wars and other military mis-adventures, along with fantastic payoffs to corporations in the way of subsidies and giveaways of public resources to private, profit-taking enterprises, and the political parties -- mostly driven by the business-friendly GOP -- continue to lavish yet more unaffordable tax cuts on the wealthiest.

this has become such a fixture in the national political discourse that it has become an anathema to mention the "T" word as a great stabilizer of the nation's financial house. it took barky obambam to finally broach the subject yesterday, in his presentation about righting the capsized financial ship of state:

"It's important that we look at our tax code and find a way to work together to not only simplify and make the tax system fairer but also that we use it as a tool to help us achieve our deficit targets," he said.
Republicans have charged Obama with proposing tax hikes that would hurt businesses and the economy.
"It's not appropriate for us to ask for sacrifices from everybody except for the two percent of Americans who are doing best," he continued. "We should ask everybody to participate in this effort to get our fiscal house in order.

as noted, however, the GOP stands foursquare against any financial prudence -- since the party seems to inhabit a sort of financial wonderland where bills are made but never to be paid. their most esteemed leaders, in fact, have piled debt upon debt, posed as great proponents of fiscal rectitude while sneering in a most unseemly way when anyone proposes paying for gold-plated stuff they dispense to their paymasters like an attack of diarrhea.

no one is more embarrassed by the performance of barky obambam in the office of the president as i have been. as a pliant tool of the banker class, who's stuffed his administration with wall street's finest swindlers and scam-artists, industry tools and neo-cons, he's about 180 degrees out of alignment with what a true man of the people, and a champion of the working person, would be -- if such existed. of course, no one is that naive. it doesn't hurt to have ideals, though.

and this is exactly what this president has so far lacked, in aligning himself with the plutocrats and the powerful against the interests of the millions of people who bought the hopium in 2008. having said all the right things, he had a mandate and the political backup to have taken solid whacks at the crooks and liars who stuff washington DC to the gills.

it would be double-dandy if there was still some fire in this man's belly, because asking the well-to-do, who've benefited so richly during the past 30 years, to help with some of the heavy lifting to keep government solvent -- and to keep it relevant in the lives of the people. not only is this a hard sell, however, but an impossible one. you will shortly see the blowback from the GOP against even modest proposals for shifting some of the tax burden back to the wealthy.

you'll see obambi crawling back to the podium with his tail between his legs, begging for forgiveness on this one before its over with. we are so lost, or leaders are so wobbly and weak and lacking in all conviction or fortitude. the shit they speak dribbles down their chins, and yet they keep talking like no one will notice -- and perhaps they're right.

i've yet to see a politician being punished for gutlessly reciting the fungoid bromides that brought the republic to its knees.