When a generation of Americans were kids, I among them, were dosed with tonics named “Father John” and “Three sixes (666),” they were always given with the assurance that no matter the aliment or malady, sustained doses of these exilirs would cure all. Now, in the green, enlightended 21st century, the President tells us, “eat your peas.” The Republicans, however, prefer the old tonic. Who cares it didn’t work when it fall off the turnip truck during Reagan’s administration? The fiction of its powers lives in the powerful political narrative of how better for some will be indisputably worse for others. In fact, accoding to Republican logic, the tonic works best for those who don’t take it!
Pharmacy Owner and Customer, Paterson, NJ. LOC.
Every formula has a thousand variations, and already new versions of why revenue should not be a part of the recovery are emerging. The most popular sugggests that revenue would be insufficient to reduce the deficit or debt, and therefore is a distraction.
That simply isn’t true. Take away the Bush tax cut and the unfunded wars, where much of the spending was guided to large, no-bid contracts or air-shipped out on pallets. (Blackwater eeriely parallels the straffing scene in “Catch-22,” where the rich understand the price of wealth is death.)
Texas Soda Fountain Counter, 1943. LOC.
Take away the private sector-caused recession that cratered the economy and the too small stimulus that “failed,” and the budget would be close to balanced. Both a generation ago and now, conditions have causes. The medicine must treat not the symptoms but the underlying conditions.
Unfortunately, Congress and the President, who seems to overlook the details of governing for the big deal and who compromises pass the point of no return, but somehow, after a review, manages to hold back the line, have been decoyed by symptoms.
But Obama misses that the tonic is a “fix,” as the GOP lumbers after power. That’s the 2% Boehner is missing and by proxy for the rich relentlessly pursues. That’s the logic in Republican illogic, the sense in their irrationality, the winning motive in their sound bites of but-it-sounds-good errors and misrepresentations. This is not your father’s food fight or bitter taste.
Black History 360* 