. . . and there is the abyss. Let's talk sequester, or the just the latest so-called cliff, crisis, emergency, whatever. First of all, it is crucial to remember that all of these crises that the government is supposedly facing are self-created. These brinks - the debt-ceiling crisis, the fiscal cliff, the sequester - are all cut from whole cloth to create false emergencies to in turn create fear and panic to use for leverage. Next, remember that they can choose, at any time, to step back from these brinks. They choose to walk up to the edge of the cliff and they can choose to step back. But they choose instead to hold the economy - our economy, yours, mine, ours - hostage to further other political goals. A metaphor:
Two guys are in a plane, but can't decide who is going to fly it. There are controls at both seats so they fight over who gets to actually handle the flying and pick the course of the plane. Let's even go further and say that they both want to the same place - let's say Disneyland - but one wants to approach from the north and the other from the south. Same ostensible goal, polar opposite methods. They fight and they argue endlessly, and the plane is flying in circles. They realize they don't have enough will of their own to come to a compromise - maybe approach from the east - so they decide to create some tension, some fear, some outside motivation to come up with a way to get to Disneyland. So they put the plane in a steep dive, headed straight toward the ground, and swear that if they can't come to an agreement they will just let the plane crash and be destroyed. That is the sequester - or any other phony brink - as a slightly tortured metaphor. Pretty stupid, right? Let's torture it some more.
First off, let's add to this that the plane is a jumbo jet and we are all passengers. If Disneyland is a booming economy with low taxes and full employment (maybe I should have used heaven instead) and the plane is our budget and spending, everyone agrees that letting the plane crash - good word choice - is a bad idea. And by everybody I mean Republicans, Democrats, non-partisan groups, us. And by bad I mean disastrous, horrible and devastating. As in the economy, which even though it is in recovery (and don't let anybody tell you different) is still very fragile and would be crushed by this.
The second is that what these theoretical pilots don't want us to know is that there is not a single thing preventing them from just reaching out, grabbing the controls and pulling us out of the dive. The legislation that was put in place in 2011 - the Budget Control Act - is self-imposed and can just as easily be un-imposed. They've done it before and in fact do it with alarming frequency.
Another catch is that the pilots would rather continue to argue over whose idea it was in the first place than find a solution. If there was any humor to be found in this, it might be in the image of bursting into the cockpit to find out why we're in a crash dive only to have the pilots say "He did it!", "Did not! He did it". Laurel and Hardy as government leaders. As to the answer to whose idea it was, yes, the President proposed a version of, and signed the final, bill. The Republicans, however, who are trying to blame it on Obama to the extent of the absurd "#obamaquester", actually altered the original proposal - removing the tax increases that would have partially balanced the broad cuts (big surprise) and voted overwhelmingly (unanimously in the House) in favor. So to say it was "Obama's idea" is disingenuous at best. I would call it bullshit.
The third catch is in the details as to who is going to be hit by these cuts. Everyone is screaming about how it will gut the military - which by the way was the Republican contribution to the bill, to replace tax increases with military cuts, shocking in and of itself - when it is in actuality far more potentially damaging to non-defense programs. The OMB figures the cuts will amount to about 13% defense and 9% non-defense. But when you compare the two - the bloated military budget versus the many underfunded programs also under the ax - my guess is that HeadStart taking a 9% hit will hurt a lot more than the Pentagon taking 13%. So what gets cut? Foodstamps, unemployment, Medicare, police, fire, air traffic controllers, etc. To be fair, they will also be furloughing many members of the military - especially in the civilian work force - but is that better? I doubt the people being laid off think so. When the plane crashes we all burn. Expect that the pilots probably have parachutes.
Lastly, the act of taking us to the brink does damage even if they don't let us go over - which they probably won't. Just putting the plane in the dive is bad. You stress the wings and engines, you waste time and fuel and you scare the crap out of the passengers. (The last one is probably the point, but another topic altogether.) The markets, employers, and banks are all already responding to this brinksmanship, and only in negative ways. Not to mention how it makes us look - like idiots - to the international community. "Who is flying that bloody plane anyway?"
Metaphors aside, the question has got be be why? Why are our leaders willing to do so much damage? Damage that will be felt not on paper, but in the daily lives of the people whom the leaders are supposed to represent and serve. Picture the family breadwinner who is on unemployment because their company downsized during the recession. Picture how much they hate receiving that check instead of working, and how hard it has been to feed their family on a fraction of what they used to earn. All bad, and we can argue over what created that all-too-common scenario later. Now picture that check being almost ten per cent smaller than it was before the leaders elected to represent them willfully and without reason took us to another brink and then let us go over. Why? I don't know, and I am not sure they do either. But I fear it is only one more manifestation of a larger truth: we have lost our way.
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