Thursday, August 19, 2010

The Problems in This Country Are Pretty Obvious

From Ezra Klein's blog in today's Washington Post:

New jobless claims rose to 500,000 this week. Meanwhile:

Karin Wilzig has a hard time choosing a favorite color from among the 64 that she and her husband can use to illuminate the 14 1/2- foot, 450-gallon aquarium in their TriBeCa town house. The default is fuchsia, which turns the dozen koi a deep pink.

“Not pink,” said Mrs. Wilzig, 40, an artist and a mother of two small children. “Alan, go to the turquoise.”

Her husband, Alan Wilzig, 45, a former banker who collects motorcycles and prides himself on the orange tanning bed in his basement, goes to the James Bond-like control panel in the kitchen, where a touch of a button turns the fish — which are specially bred to be colorless — a vivid blue.

To be fair, it's actually good for rich people to buy fancy aquariums. Economic activity is economic activity. But it's odd to read these sorts of articles in a world where one of the two major political parties wants to borrow $700 billion for a tax cut for the rich but says we don't have enough money to offer further relief for the jobless and the struggling.

What I like about Ezra is that he's a lefty, but he's fair. He's spent a lot of time turning over Paul Ryan's economic proposals, examining the pros and cons, and interviewing Ryan himself. He's come out as saying most of Ryan's plan isn't workable, and Ryan's a bit (okay, a lot) disingenuous in his descriptions, but he's also out out enough information for his reader to come to a different conclusion if he's paying attention and thinking about it.

I have but one complaint with this post: "But it's odd to read these sorts of articles in a world where one of the two major political parties wants to borrow $700 billion for a tax cut for the rich but says we don't have enough money to offer further relief for the jobless and the struggling."

It's not odd; it's disgusting.

1 comment:

Charlieopera said...

It is disgusting indeed … equally disgusting (in my book) is the other party that had a 60-40 majority and could’ve rammed some benefits for workers (unemployed and about to be) down the Republican party's throat … instead, this administration gave $38 billion in tax breaks to bailed out companies. You and I paid taxes on our measly incomes, but bailed out banks didn’t.

And then there are the other choices nobody seems willing to look at (as if the two major parties are miles apart on what they actually do for the American working class) …

The Dems aren’t all that innocent in this fiasco … 38 billion isn’t 700 billion, but then again, it was a tax break for the rich …

You want real change, vote Nader or Socialist or Communist (or Libertarian if you’re of that persuasion) … but so long as you think Reps and Dems are different enough to “change” things … well, look at President Fredo of late … even Maureen Dowd and Jon Stewart are starting to T-off on him. And his spokesperson said it all last week: We're the professional left ...

Unless he meant suckers, me thinks he mispoke.

I’ll say it until I’m dead … until the left in this country walks away from the Dems, they’ll be ignored maybe a pubic hair less than the right ignores them. Maybe.