Working Life

 It’s those zombie voices again. The ones who rise up from the dead, or from a hidden policy corner, to start the drumbeat of fear about “debt” and “deficits”, all in order to block progress for the people. There is no debt or deficit crisis. We have plenty of money in the richest nation […]

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Anyone remember the talk show “Firing Line” with arch-conservative William F. Buckley, Jr., which ended its run in 1999? Well, it’s baaaaack…with a new host, my conservative friend Margaret Hoover, who visits with me to talk about reviving the iconic show, as well as the state of conservatism and the Republican Party. I, then, welcome […]

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And here is why, explained in this short video, by yours truly.  

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As regular readers of this space know, I’ve argued for a number of years that the whole obsession over the debt and deficit is just crazy. It’s a manufactured crisis and evidence just keeps mounting that the entire austerity-budget-cutting mania is just foolish and, on the facts, wrong. But, if you want to worry about the deficit, here’s a nice wrinkle that will frustrate the hell out of the “keep immigrants out” bozos: immigration cuts the deficit.

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Yesterday, after one week of silence and stonewalling, Lesley Stahl’s name disappeared from the list of Advisors to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. But, this story is not quite over. CBS continues to stonewall over the circumstances of Stahl’s service on the Peterson Foundation Advisors’ board — which was a blatant violation of basic ethical journalistic standards and CBS’ own ethical guidelines. Let us refer to this as Stahlgate — and as usual it’s the cover-up that is the worst part of this saga.

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A week ago, I wrote about Lesley Stahl’s obvious,no-brainer, significant conflict of interest. I wrote to CBS asking for an explanation. Crickets. Are we going to let this nonsense continue

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Why is Leslie Stahl sitting on the Advisory Board of an organization deeply involved in a contentious political debate? And is her service on that Advisory Board blessed by “60 Minutes”? Or were Stahl’s superiors even aware of her service? In any case, if “60 Minutes” has any inclination to adhere to CBS’ ethical guidelines, Stahl must be forced to resign from the board.

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The enduring mystery — thought perhaps it isn’t a mystery when you dig deep enough — is why liberals/progressives have never taken stock of their complete failure at taking advantage of the greatest crisis in the so-called “free market” in half a century. This comes to mind when you ponder the somewhat comical hand-wringing underway among the leaders of the progressive movement over the prospects of a “grand bargain” around government fiscal policy.

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It’s a sad state of affairs when the people have to rely on Senator “Wall Street” to stand in the doorway to block the barbarians from storming in to, once again, rob the national treasury. But, it does give us a window into how narrow the debate is over our economy — and why people are rightly pissed off.

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People complain a lot about Congress not working hard enough. For my money, and the money and pocketbooks of millions of people, I’d be happy to give the entire lot of them say a year off. Then, maybe, we could enroll them in an advanced political “recovery” program and wean them off this idiotic obsession with the non-existent debt and deficit crisis.

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