Monday, September 6, 2010

Back to my day off chores

I had intended to drop some profound wisdom and sagacity here this morning about hype versus reality in this year's midterms, but I think I'll just share these quick thoughts and move on to cleaning the carpet in the family room:
1) Incumbent presidential parties always lose seats in Congress in midterms -- as sure as I'm a Colts fan (16-0 this year!), the Dems are going to lose seats in both houses. They won't lose either chamber, but they may as well lose the House because Blue Dogs will vote Republican every chance they get.
2) Obama is a disappointment so far, but we aren't halfway through his first term -- I've made my case before about how much the President has gotten done, but I share your frustration with his prediliction for bipartisanship. It doesn't exist and it won't exist in the next two years. And he needs to shove his economic team out the door and start over with Stiglitz, Warren and whomever else Wall Street loathes.
3) He needs to do something real and significant on consumer debt. Either forgive student loans, buy up mortgages or some other big thing. The problem is that you and I (the working class) can't afford to participate in the economy after paying the mortgage and utility bills. And yes, you're working class not middle class. Middle class has become a myth propagated by rich people to make you think you're closer to them than you actually are.
4) Quit visiting Politico -- the aforementioned website has made itself the place for the chattering classes to visit for nonsense to regurgitate on cable talk shows. It's not as bad as Faux News, but too much of its "reporting" is based on Beltway suppositions that falsely frame public consensus. There is no real public consensus, or at least consensus of any worth, when fully 20 percent of the electorate stubbornly clings to the false notions that the President is a socialist Muslim and cutting spending will fix the economy. Government injects money into the economy and stimulates wages and spending; cutting rich peoples' tax bills takes money out of the economy. Reagan was wrong about the economy and acknowledged as much in his second term.