Working Life

The lunacy of a small group of tin-foil Republicans has caused a great deal of damage — but not in the way most of the discussion unfolded in the media. You see, the lunacy simply obscured the shellacking everyone of us will probably have to absorb in the coming months.

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The typical theme you might read in the papers goes something like this: the off-their-rocker Republicans (and they are) shut down the government because of a maniacal obsessive hate of Obamacare but the president and Democrats, particularly in the Senate, are just tough bastards and are holding the line. The problem is: the Democrats have already given in when you look at the big picture.

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Really? The White House is saying to Detroit basically “take a hike” when it comes to a bailout — but, don’t worry, pension holders in Detroit, you have a defender…the Republican Michigan attorney general. This is bizarre and troubling.

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Every day, if you pay attention, we can get a teachable moment. Today’s teachable moment gives us this: if you are a CEO of a bank, a CEO who makes millions of dollars, and you are in financial trouble — trouble of your own making — you can ring up the White House and, presto, the coffers of the Federal Reserve open up to extend you loans in the billions of dollars. On the other hand, if you are a worker making a modest income, or you are now retired, and you live in a city ravaged by the so-called “free market”, a city that files for bankruptcy, and you ask the White House for help, you are told, “sorry, buddy, you are on your own.”

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First things first: I am not at all shocked or surprised by the stupidity flowing from the White House. If you are, you have not been paying attention for the past 5-6 years, or you’ve engaged in willful denial. But, the moronic, and immoral, proposals on Social Security do give us a wonderful moment of clarity about politics and the press.

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Yesterday, I wrote that the president’s proposal to hike the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 was a meek proposal. And that it was pure rubbish to argue, as he did, that that hike would help people get ahead. Just to add today a bit more.

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Well, bravo for the president for going to fight for a rise in the minimum wage. But, let’s be clear — this isn’t going to do much to raise people out of poverty.

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I’m not a big fan of organized religion — a topic for another day perhaps — and I’m not even from the flock of the New Testament (as on old friend, activist and Rev Dyson, used to whisper in faux sotto voce when introducing me, “he’s from the other testament”). But, forgiving is a human quality. And, when you have the power to really forgive, you would think people would jump at it. Some politicians do, some don’t.

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I wish this phony debate about the debt and deficit “crisis” would be over because, truthfully, I’m running out of clever new ways to call this bi-partisan exercise the stupidity it truly is. So, sigh, here we go again — but I can leave it to others to call it by its true name.

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To make the point again, this is a very, very simple equation: eliminate the scourge of the NRA, drain the swamp of its blood money and you stop the murder of children. Period. And so the question that must be asked of at least the Democratic Party: what is the party going to do to destroy the NRA’s ability to keep advancing an agenda that promotes gun mayhem in the streets and the murder of children and other innocent people?

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