September 2007

hey, its only (your) money

The Congress is voting on their annual budget and suddenly we have a fight. Bush is pushing for another blank check for the Pentagon plus additional Iraq spending while pushing back on any domestic funding. Apparently we can lose billions in Iraq but we cannot afford a penny more for our children's health care.

Bush has drawn a line in the sand; Iraq is on one side and America is on the other. While this is nothing new, get ready for more.

Democrats are going to push an omnibus spending bill and dare Bush to veto it. Then both parties will start finger pointing and trying to make the argument that the other side is the problem.

But before that can happen, the government will shut down without an emergency measure to raise the federal debt ceiling. To $9 Trillion dollars. Do you remember when Reagan was in office and politicians were so concerned about the $1 trillion dollar national deficit it sparked regular debate? Good thing we got that under control.

I know you are but what am I?

Two weeks ago Alan Greenspan, the patron saint of Republicans, dropped his own bombshell. Alan published a memoir and he did a surprisingly candid 60 Minutes interview.

I have never been a fan of Alan but suddenly the people who were fans looked a bit uncomfortable as Alan turned on them. Greenspan said the smartest President he worked for was Bill Clinton. He also said that he disapproved of Bush's deficit spending and criticized Bush (and Alan's "old friend Cheney") for abandoning Republican fiscal principles. Ouch.

What followed were editorials by Peggy Noonan and Dick Cheney himself (from a secure location to be sure) and others fighting back.

Greenspun was criticized for "Now you tell us?" -- instead of saying something in office, Alan went along with Bush then and now he says it was wrong? I happen to agree with this criticism but Alan basically explained it in his 60 Minutes interview: Greenspan stated that the goal in life is "to rise in social standing." In other words, he sucked up to his bosses so that he could get get better jobs, meet powerful people, and stay popular. Now that he is out of office, he can tell the "truth". While I personally find this behavior abhorrent, Greenspan saw no problem with it and it is certainly something I see every day in corporate America.

Dick Cheney himself posted an op-ed later in the week to explain that Alan was just plain wrong. Cheney's statistics "prove" that Bush is an amazing President when it comes to the economy and fiscal policy. In Cheney's opinion, revenues are up and they have repaired the military after the "drawdowns of the 1990's" - a period the rest of us call peacetime. As ever, there is Bush's world and the world. Cheney warns us of the pending "fiscal disaster that everyone knows is coming" but he never once mentions the deficits his administration has created.

So Alan was right about Bush's terrible fiscal policy and the massive debt he will leave behind for the rest of us to pay. And Greenspan's critics are right - he is an ass and he did not do anything to stop this mess when he could have.

a high-tech self-lynching

This week we have another tell-all autobiography and extended 60 Minutes TV interview. This time the topic is none other than Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, one incredibly successful, short, angry man. Who needs TV drama when we have real life.