Inside The Bubble

[Zam-Zam]

Faith placed in politicians is faith wasted:



The Senate did something this past weekend it hasn't done in four years: passed a budget. The law requires the Senate to pass a budget, but Congress often ignores its own laws. For most of Barack Obama's presidency, a series of continuing resolutions kept the money -- your money -- flowing. Now the Senate wants to add a trillion dollars of new taxes, even more than President Obama seeks. Despite our growing debt, the Senate wants to fund things like the Senate barbershop, which loses a third of a million dollars every year.

It's like they live in a private bubble.

Politicians say, "I'm going to Washington to serve others." Maybe they mean to. But after most "serve," they never leave. When I visit Washington, I see politicians and bureaucrats serving themselves.

When the housing bubble burst, home prices dropped in most of America, but not in Washington. Our capital feeds off federal spending, and politicians won't allow that bubble to burst.

One result is that, today, for the first time, most of America's richest counties are in the Washington area. About 43 percent of "the 1 percent" -- the top earners leftists say they hate -- now live in 14 counties that surround the District of Columbia.

Nick Sorrentino, creator of AgainstCronyCapitalism.org, notes that average total compensation for a federal employee is now about $120,000, and the gap between government pay and private pay has been growing.

It's not that Washingtonians are smarter or more productive than the rest of us. It's that as government grows, more money flows to lobbyists, trade groups and others who live close to those who pass out your money. Government is a parasite -- but a parasite that helps its friends. The way people get rich in Washington is not by inventing things, but by being good at schmoozing and manipulating the bureaucrats who control your money.




Complete text: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/03/27/imperial_washington_117664.html


They'll tell you they care about you. And if you believe that, the jokes on you.

 

[GordonGecko]

Yet what do Republicans target when it comes to spending cuts? Their own perks....or Food Stamps and Medicaid???

 

[Zam-Zam]

Yet what do Republicans target when it comes to spending cuts? Their own perks....or Food Stamps and Medicaid???

You seldom fail to miss the point entirely. It's uncanny.


This wasn't a partisan piece. Both sides are guilty. That will be obvious to all except for the very partisan. That it eludes you is less than surprising.


It is summed up nicely here:


Government buildings are grand, too, even new ones like the Reagan office building. "It's very much like Versailles before the French Revolution," says historian John Steele Gordon. Washingtonians have become like the French nobility, who spent their lives in the palace at Versailles "and didn't know much about what went on outside that world."

"But the real royalty is not in Washington, D.C.," Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., tells me. "It's on Wall Street."
It's true that there's more wealth on Wall Street, but Gordon points out that there's a big difference between those fat cats and Washingtonians. "In the private sector, if you find a way to cut costs, you're a hero. If you find a way to cut costs in the (government) bureaucracy, you're a goat."

You're a "goat" because cutting waste hurts the lobbyists who feed off taxpayers. With trillions of dollars at stake, corporations and special interests would be crazy not to lobby. Lobbyists and taxpayer-funded special privilege won't go away unless big government does.

We could improve America's future just by recognizing what so-called "public choice" economists started to realize around the time of World War II: that government isn't just a "public servant." It's not a demon, either. But government and its employees are selfish, like anyone else. That explains most of their behavior better than occasional shifts to the political left or right.

We all tend to overspend and act lazy when we can get away with it. In the private sector, though, that eventually means that you get fired or realize you're depleting your bank account. In Washington, the Fed just prints more money.

As long as Washington spends other people's money, there will be little incentive for them to be prudent -- or humble.

 

[GordonGecko]

Zam, you're a partisan.

Or do you really expect us to believe that when the GOP House puts out a plan to cut Medicare....and it has ZERO mention of a Congressional perks cut.....you stand up loudly and protest it???

 

[NightSwimmer]

The problem is not that government employees are over-paid. The problem is that private sector employees are under-paid, and the problem has been growing worse with each passing day for the past several decades.

Government policies have consequences out here in the real world. We can't solve the problem simply by wishing that government would "go away".

Would that it actually were that simple... If it was, then I'd probably get on the know-nothing, Republican bandwagon myself.

 

[Zam-Zam]

Zam, you're a partisan.

Or do you really expect us to believe that when the GOP House puts out a plan to cut Medicare....and it has ZERO mention of a Congressional perks cut.....you stand up loudly and protest it???

I'm conservative. I also realize the folly in putting any faith in politicians. I condemn both sides for their disservice to their constituents. I doubt that you have the stomach for that.

You want this thread to be partisan. You will do all you can to make it that way. That must be how you're wired. A pity.

 

[NightSwimmer]

You want this thread to be partisan.

Good God, man... Do you even read the tripe that you post here, or do you just copy and paste it from your favorite wing-nut website?

 

[Zam-Zam]

Good God, man... Do you even read the tripe that you post here, or do you just copy and paste it from your favorite wing-nut website?

The "wing-nut website" ,in question is Real Clear Politics. If you find anything partisan in it, point it out specifically. This piece is a condemnation of what Washington has become, and there is absolutely no way in which both parties are not responsible for that.

 

[Arkady]

You seldom fail to miss the point entirely. It's uncanny.


This wasn't a partisan piece. Both sides are guilty. That will be obvious to all except for the very partisan. That it eludes you is less than surprising.


It is summed up nicely here:


Government buildings are grand, too, even new ones like the Reagan office building. "It's very much like Versailles before the French Revolution," says historian John Steele Gordon. Washingtonians have become like the French nobility, who spent their lives in the palace at Versailles "and didn't know much about what went on outside that world."

"But the real royalty is not in Washington, D.C.," Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., tells me. "It's on Wall Street."
It's true that there's more wealth on Wall Street, but Gordon points out that there's a big difference between those fat cats and Washingtonians. "In the private sector, if you find a way to cut costs, you're a hero. If you find a way to cut costs in the (government) bureaucracy, you're a goat."

You're a "goat" because cutting waste hurts the lobbyists who feed off taxpayers. With trillions of dollars at stake, corporations and special interests would be crazy not to lobby. Lobbyists and taxpayer-funded special privilege won't go away unless big government does.

We could improve America's future just by recognizing what so-called "public choice" economists started to realize around the time of World War II: that government isn't just a "public servant." It's not a demon, either. But government and its employees are selfish, like anyone else. That explains most of their behavior better than occasional shifts to the political left or right.

We all tend to overspend and act lazy when we can get away with it. In the private sector, though, that eventually means that you get fired or realize you're depleting your bank account. In Washington, the Fed just prints more money.

As long as Washington spends other people's money, there will be little incentive for them to be prudent -- or humble.

Yes, on its surface, it plays at being a non-partisan piece. But broadsides against government are more valuable to Republicans than Democrats, since Republicans push an anti-government view.

If you're serious about addressing waste and corruption in government, then you focus on specific pieces of waste and corruption that have serious costs for the taxpayers (subsidies for already-profitable industries, no-bid contracts for politically connected businesses like Halliburton, procurement of unneeded or redundant weapons systems, support for programs like abstinence-only that have proven to be ineffective or even counter-productive, as well as the "tax expenditures" that cost us billions -- special sweetheart rules in the tax code for the benefit of wealthy people and businesses, which then turn around and make that worth the while of their political servants). But that kind of SPECIFIC focus on items of waste and corruption is dangerous for conservatives. They prefer anti-government broadsides to surgical strikes on specific abuses, because if they can inspire a kind of free-floating, vague contempt of the very idea of government, that plays into their overall political strategy: shrink big government enough that it can no longer serve as an effective counter-balance to the abuses of big business.

That's why, when I read what you'd copied and pasted, I was immediately convinced, without even a little doubt, that the author was a cynical conservative hack, even though you didn't include his name. Sure enough, it was John Stossel, the quasi-libertarian braying nincompoop of Fox News infamy.... a frequent O'Reilly sidekick and a source of a never-ending stream of right-wing disinformation.

Now, there's nothing wrong with you posting a partisan piece by a standard-issue GOP hack. There is something wrong with you claiming it's a non-partisan piece, when somebody reacts to it based on what it is. This was an attack, by a conservative partisan of big business, on the one entity that can check the abuses of big business: big government. Let's be honest about that.

 

[as seen on tv]

actually, it exempts itself. senators and house members are exempt from making their workplaces accessible to the disabled; exempt for most hiring and equal/opportunity laws ("our work is to important to be threatened by affirmative action", apparently); and hourly wage earners typically work massive amounts of overtime without compensation.

i believe the impetus for the recently passed budget was some law that said that if nothing was passed by a certain date, then their paychecks would be suspended, right? that figures -the nation's travails always take a back seat to the self interest of washington dc

 

[Boltlady]

I'm conservative. I also realize the folly in putting any faith in politicians. I condemn both sides for their disservice to their constituents. I doubt that you have the stomach for that.

You want this thread to be partisan. You will do all you can to make it that way. That must be how you're wired. A pity.

Kudos to you Zam-Zam. You've pointed out something that has been true for a really long time. There are people here who want everything to be partisan. No matter how hard you try to make something a general political conversation, they will immediately move it to one side or the other. It happens in practically every thread.

You have to wonder whether they are actual shills for one party or the other or if they really are so insecure that they have a real need to belong to the 'club'. They will defend and promote their particular party no matter how devastating it's actions might be for the country. It's almost as though people don't feel complete any more if they don't have a label.

The reality is that there are good ideas and bad on both sides of the isle but compromise has become a thing of the past. The idea that one's chosen politician is less than perfect is just not acceptable.

 

[Arkady]

The problem is not that government employees are over-paid. The problem is that private sector employees are under-paid, and the problem has been growing worse with each passing day for the past several decades.

Government policies have consequences out here in the real world. We can't solve the problem simply by wishing that government would "go away".

Would that it actually were that simple... If it was, then I'd probably get on the know-nothing, Republican bandwagon myself.

Yep. Median government worker pay has continued to rise not so far below the pace of productivity advances, so that the American Dream is still alive for those within the federal government: the idea that if you work hard and play by the rules, you can have a life a little better than your parents and set your kids up to have a life a little better than you had, and that at some point before you're completely wrecked by age you'll be able to retire and enjoy your golden years. The fact that the American Dream is dead for a huge part of the private sector doesn't mean we have to bring the public sector down to that level, it means we need to bring the private sector back up.

 

[NightSwimmer]

"About 43 percent of "the 1 percent" -- the top earners leftists say they hate -- now live in 14 counties that surround the District of Columbia."


Right... No partisan strawmen in this top post...

 

[NightSwimmer]

Yep. Median government worker pay has continued to rise not so far below the pace of productivity advances, so that the American Dream is still alive for those within the federal government: the idea that if you work hard and play by the rules, you can have a life a little better than your parents and set your kids up to have a life a little better than you had, and that at some point before you're completely wrecked by age you'll be able to retire and enjoy your golden years. The fact that the American Dream is dead for a huge part of the private sector doesn't mean we have to bring the public sector down to that level, it means we need to bring the private sector back up.

Amen...

Why do so many dirt-poor Republican voters suffer from Stockholm Syndrome?

 

[Boltlady]

Amen...

Why do so many dirt-poor Republican voters suffer from Stockholm Syndrome?

Well, well, I've actually wondered the same thing for years. The only thing that I've been able to come up with is the idea that so many of them come from families that used to have their own still and the biggest enemy was the revenooers (tax men). The fact that the Republicans usually run on the idea of cutting taxes would be the deciding factor.

JMHO

 

[NightSwimmer]

Well, well, I've actually wondered the same thing for years. The only thing that I've been able to come up with is the idea that so many of them come from families that used to have their own still and the biggest enemy was the revenooers (tax men). The fact that the Republicans usually run on the idea of cutting taxes would be the deciding factor.

JMHO

So, do you think that correlates in any way with fondness for NASCAR racing?