There is an unfortunate tendency within human beings to deny the truth if it is too difficult to process. Politically this phenomenon is seen most frequently when people make the acknowledgment that it would be better to sweep incumbents out of office and start over with some “real people”. When it comes time to vote, however, more often than not, every incumbent should go…every incumbent is bad…except for our own.
A currency mismanaged and inflated to the extent that a wheelbarrow of the stuff is required to buy a loaf of bread – that’s something that happens across the ocean in the distant past. Today, the prospect of financial systemic collapse and resulting chaos is an idea that is remote. Chaos and unrest is something that happens in places like Greece.
It can’t happen here.
Unfortunately, the facts are painting a different picture and the response of “it can’t happen here” seems more like denial everyday. For skeptics, The Wall Street Journal article, below, includes confirmation that chaos and unrest resulting from systemic financial problems is not the stuff of alarmists and ala Rahm Emanuel, politicians have determined not to let a crisis go to waste:
“As conceived by former White House budget director Peter Orszag, the commission [debt commission] was supposed to be a Trojan Horse for a value-added tax (VAT) to raise federal revenues…[T]he proposal would sit on a shelf until deficits led to a Greek-like crisis…”
In addition to giving some back story regarding the creation of the President’s debt commission, the article goes on to point out the many problems with the commission’s recommendations. As the article notes, the recommendations contain “much better ideas than we feared” but they will not solve our deficit problem. You can read the full article by clicking anywhere on the snapshot of it, below.
- Click to read the full WSJ article
It’s critical that we get serious about our deficit and spending issues. We can continue in our denial as we have done and accept such solutions as presented by the President’s debt commission or only slightly better, the Republicans’ proposal to roll back spending to 2008 levels. While the GOP officials’ proposal is better than that of the debt commission, it is only good on a scale of very bad. We will be dealing with scenarios worse than those seen in Greece this past summer if that is all we are prepared to do.
In the video below, Glenn Beck does a very good job of laying out how “it” can happen here. I’m well aware of the wide ranging opinion of Beck and his style. Please set that aside and just listen to the explanation. Beck and Columbia University Professor David Buckner compare the situation currently unfolding in Europe to what the U.S. is poised to experience using the relative sizes of the E.U.’s economy and that of Greece as opposed to the economy of the U.S. and that of one of it’s most financially troubled states, California. [If you are hesitant to dedicate a full hour of your time and attention to this issue, the most relevant part of the discussion regarding “It Can Happen Here” begins approximately 4:50 minutes into this segment and extends through this segment into the beginning of the following one.]
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Additional reading you may find of interest:
How IS That Whole European Union Thing Working Out?
NE Budget: Senators Hope the Feds Will Bail Us Out
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