Paul Krugman (whose name Kidglove can't even pronounce) said it, and said it well: "The real question facing America, even in purely fiscal terms, isn’t whether we’ll trim a trillion here or a trillion there from deficits. It is whether the extremists now blocking any kind of responsible policy can be defeated and marginalized."
If even the President of the United States won't stand up to them, who's going to lead the effort to "defeat and marginalize" these idiots? I've cupped my ear, my friends; the answer isn't blowin' in the wind.
What's really depressing for intelligent, visionary, progressive Americans is that the extremists of whom Krugman speaks won't be satisfied until they've destroyed and dismantled everything good the federal government has done in the last 100 years.
When Kidglove caved in on the phony deficit "crisis," he opened the door for them to destroy Social Security ("the dole"), Medicare ("socialized medicine") and Medicaid. No doubt the Cato Heritage squad is already putting the plan for this into the hands of the corporate puppets in Congress, something enabling us poor suckers to put roughly the equivalent of our Social Security payments into their beloved Market, so the hedge fund managers who pay no taxes can steal billions more.
Meanwhile, at the back door, the wolf has already entered the house of environmental protections. Goodbye, clean air. So long, potable water. Hello, cancer. Goodbye, Grand Canyon, Arches, Vermillion Cliffs and a thousand other beautiful and wonderful places owned by We, the People. Hello poisonous mining, fracking, drilling, coal burning and mountain top removal. Goodbye green landscapes, blue skies and sweet-smelling earth. Hello mercury run-off, fiish kills, oil spills and black lung disease. They've already slipped a rider into H.R. 2584 (the 2012 appropriations bill) to severely weaken many environmental regulations.
In time, they'll eliminate or emasculate OSHA, the EPA and what shred of manhood remains in the NRC. Fukushima II, anyone?
Here's a sample of what they've already got in the legislative pipeline:
--Natural gas and oil drilling in and around Arches National Park.
--Uranium mining in the Grand Canyon.
--Increased amonia emissions from power plants.
--Ending requirements for better gas mileage in automobiles beginning in 2016 and reducing limits on carcinogens in exhaust emissions.
--Allowing chemical companies to dump pesticides into waterways and publish false information on pesticide labels.
--Repealing health-based air quality standards fior offshore oil operations.
--Eliminate regulation of mountaintop removal water runoff into streams, ash from the burning of coal and hard rock mining.
There's more. Much more. ALEC, the right-wing source of Koch- and Exxon-friendly state legislation, is propagating laws to make it virtually impossible for environmental groups to sue polluters.
And then there's education. Besides cutting funding for public schools they will in effect subsidize (with taxpayer money) private, religious schools through things called vouchers. Any inducement for our best and brightest to become teachers will be doused by cutting teacher pay, benefits and pensions, a la Wisconsin.
The concept of trust-busting and regulating corporate crime is as old as Teddy Roosevelt's presidency. Deregulation, depending upon the Holy Market to regulate itself and allowing corporations to run the country is the new, raw deal.
Defeat them? Marginalize them? Not in Dr. Kidglove's U.S.A.
"Don't tell Momma I'm a journalist; say I play the piano in a whorehouse."
