After the orgy of income slashing which was the "tax cut extension," we will now be hearing about the need for spending cuts, The "Stave The Beast" crowd first creates yet another problem--then they make it even worse.
For decades, now, the Far Right has gotten away with playing Santa Claus with tax cuts while promising broad-based benefits for most Americans. Only the elite have gotten anything from this diabolical plot. This project has been intended to reduce the funds available which are spent in ways which cannot be attacked directly without losing significant support.
We are about to witness a charade wherein the Anti-government crowd proclaim , as George H.W. Bush has in the past, that "we have more will than wallet." Programs the Republicans have opposed all along will be the only ones They place on the chopping-block. Of course. The sacred cows will not even be mentioned. We can all fill in the list of these Untouchables. The victims are also largely predictable.
We who care should be readying ourselves for this fight. While it may look like yet another battle over the role of government the results may define the nations' future in significant ways.
Deficit reduction has a positive sound to it until people learn that it will cost jobs and eliminate help for those who need it the most. Simply in the interests of fairness we need to provide balance. EVERY scheme to slash vital programs should cause us to put a human face upon who will be hurt by their elimination (or underfunding) and also on those who have reaped the largess of the recent "tax cut compromise." We on the Left should not shy away from giving corruption a name.
To distort President Bush (the elected one), we may try to create "10,000,000 Points of Pain" for those who would do violence against this nations' men, women, and children. Every penny they try to slice off should cause THEM pain. The town halls of the "Health Care Debate" should be quiet affairs next to those of the "Destroy America From Within" variety. I don't personally support attending a political meeting wearing firearms, but the precedent was set last year. The programs which could be cut without much harm are long gone; those which remain may die a long, dirty, grizzly death--but we should not avert our gaze. And we must be prepared as voters to support only politicians who will fight for us. Rhetorically there should be only the most obvious limits. We are after all fighting for survival--our own, our families and our friends, and even the country we love. So if/when the hypocrites wail when we call their budget cutting plans homicidal, let them. Then make them look at the bodies: The child whose food they are ready to take away; the cat food eating grandparent, forced to skip health care or prescriptions.
If there are government programs which serve no purpose let them prove it, but make them fight for everything they slash--no exceptions. The more they punch themselves out the easier it will be to finish them off!
It seems we can't count on Our Leaders, so this will have to be a do it yourself deal. If a bit of monkey-wrenching can save us then let's get on with it. We are expected to resist a bit, then cave in or waffle, or grovel so we may surprise them if we JUST DON'T GIVE UP.