Comments on: ‘Apocalyptic Pain’ Coming Down The Pike

By: Mark Humphrey

Mark Humphrey — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 20:11:34 +0000

A True Confession: I get cheery when I think about the looming federal fiscal blowup. I don’t enjoy the idea of elderly or poor people facing difficult times. I do like the idea of a bankrupt federal government losing its power to rain destruction and murder on helpless foreign people.

Of course, no one will escape the Great Unraveling unscathed. En route, we’ll slog through terrible inflation and uncontrolled deflation–events that wreck lives. So there’s no reason to get giddy over this.

But when Washington DC loses the power of the purse, the 50 states will stop marching to its deadly drumbeat. When federal subsidy checks stop arriving, or pay pennies on the dollar, people will look to local politicans to resolve their pain.

Most localities will adopt hegemonic politics, restrained mainly by their limited ability to extract taxes. However, a few areas may move toward individual freedom and limited government.

That’s a realistic and happy thought.

By: irongalt

irongalt — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 23:28:49 +0000

Aha, 16.3% sounds alot more reasonable. Most of these are from probably from private industry getting crushed under government weight…in which case, we can expect the economy to plummet even more rapidly – it’s probably already in a runaway condition.

Lets not forget, the inflation is still coming our way from the trillions the fed recently dumped into the economy. If it wasn’t for the fact that the US can print money at a whim, it would already be “bankrupt” like Greece, Ireland, etc.

By: Myron Pauli

Myron Pauli — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 22:19:02 +0000

Dan, Ilana, et al: No doubt that Grandpa and us-eventual-grandpas will have to get stiffed one way or another (demographics dictates so) but I would think that dropping bombs on random Pushtuns 12000 miles away is not as high a priority as trying to not completely screw all the old people who (idiotically) believed the Social Security Medicare “promises”. It is why I have a hard time finding much good to say about the Republicans – they have a few good ideas but their priorities might even be worse than the (mistakenly “compassionate”) Democrats.

At least the SS/Medicare we give to Grandpa might help the American economy instead of the Afghan economy.

By: Dan Jeffreys

Dan Jeffreys — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 18:33:49 +0000

I caught a little bit of the Senator’s interview yesterday myself. Of course, he was talking about how Americans were going to have to be ready to make sacrifices and “tighten the belt” etc. In typical Republican fashion however, no mention of saving money via stopping the never ending wars. In fact, after the interview I got the usual treat of the neocons (Bill Krystol and ilk) talking about cutting social security, medicare, etc. and rubbing his hands that he was looking forward to Obama expanding the wars. Oh yay! Had to turn it off before urping my coffee.

Dan

By: Myron Pauli

Myron Pauli — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 17:23:00 +0000

I would give a little more credence to these Republican Cassandras if they would follow up their pontification by walking the walk (vs. just talking the talk). That hypocrite Fimian who ran in the 11th Congressional District of VA was beating his chest like Tarzan about the deficit until it came to anything concrete – then he refused to name anything he would cut (other than taxes which only makes the debt worse in the short term).

How many Republicans will rise up and end the War in Afghanistan and the War on Drugs and the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities? I’ll spare the rest of the laundry list but it is an immense list (of stupid and/or unconstitutional spending). Until then, it is mere political posturing.

It was Bush and the Republicans who took over in 2001 and took the Clinton-GOP nearly balanced budget and put the country into a wild bubble of deficits and housing speculation. Obama has emulated Bush in wars, bailouts, and spending. Meanwhile, the baby boom retirements are going cause the pension-retirement system to completely explode. WE ARE DOOMED.