Round 1 over–Where do we go from here?

MoonHowler

From the New York Times:

 

WASHINGTON — President Obama will call this week for a broad plan to raise revenues and cut deficits, as the battle over fiscal issues moves past this weekend’s budget deal and into a broader and more consequential debate over the nation’s long-term fiscal health.

In a speech to be delivered at a university here on Wednesday, Mr. Obama will call on Congress to join him in writing a multiyear debt-reduction plan that would depart significantly from the one proposed by House Republicans, administration officials said.

The Republican plan includes an overhaul of Medicare and trillions of dollars in tax cuts, while sparing defense spending. Mr. Obama, by contrast, envisions a comprehensive plan that would include tax increases for the richest taxpayers and military spending cuts as well as savings in Medicare and Medicaid, along with changes to Social Security that the administration says will ensure its solvency for decades — much like his fiscal commission recommended in December.

The Radical Republicans will have their targets still, like Planned Parenthood, PBS, NPR and other government subsidized entities and will go after them with a vengeance.  Education will also be targeted.  Mental health and substance abuse programs have already been targeted.  HCR will also have a nuke aimed at it.

Before the 2012 budget is considered, Congress must raise the debt ceiling.  Failure to do so will ruin any chance of recovery and in all probability will limit our ability to borrow at low interest rates.  Congressmen who try to play political reindeer games with the debt ceiling will pay for it at election time.

It is not known if the President will assume the same mediator role as he did for 2011 budget.  Little is known how the Democrats will respond.  What will be that target from either group?

 

 

Fight — Sing — Drink — Pray

MoonHowler

Jim Webb’s Born Fighting made it to TV tonight on the Smithsonian Channel.  Webb traces the history of the Scots Irish in this country.  They are the people who settled past the mountains, past where the landed gentry lived.  The Scots-Irish were the protestants who came from Ireland and really very little has been written about them as an immigration group. 

Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, in the Huffington Post contributed the following that might explain much about our present day politics:

Born Fighting Reveals the Invisible Ink on the Pages of American History

As a Southern Democratic political operative and Scots-Irish hillbilly, I’ve been asked the same question a thousand times in a thousand different ways. In the summer of 2006, the question was condescendingly thrown at me by a sitting U.S. Senator in a luncheon buffet line at a Senate Democratic Caucus retreat. She asked, “How can your people in the South be so ignorant to go against their own economic self-interests and vote Republican?” Huh? I remember thinking that surely, in the name of Jesus, this woman (Senator or not) didn’t call my people “ignorant”.

Since I had been invited to the retreat by Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer, two guys I personally like, I was all cleaned up and on my very best behavior. But candidly, I still had to lock up every brake in my soul to not respond to her question with a bombardment of backwoods, “By God”, profanity. Somewhat to my own surprise, I overcame the urge and answered, “Has it ever crossed your mind that it might not be ignorance, but instead, a more powerful force called culture?”

Flesh-Colored Crayons: The New Multiculturalism?

MoonHowler

Fox and Friends was trying to stir it up early this morning.  Flesh colored crayons, colored pencils, and markers are now available from Crayola, the crayon company.  Fox and Friends presented this coloring media in terms of multiculturalism.  Is this an attempt at social engineering by corporate America?

When I was a kid, which granted, has been many years ago, the only choice  for me was pink, even in the 64 box set, which was as big as it got.   People either got to be pink or you left the page white.  If you had brown skin you were actually luckier, you got to get a little closer.  People just aren’t pink or white. 

The colors which are white, black, peach, apricot, tan, burnt sienna, mahogany and sepia  come as thick crayons, colored pencils and markers.  You can probably find all the colors now in a regular large box of crayons, but these are conveniently separated into their  box, exclusively for coloring flesh. The 8 crayons are also more expensive than a box of 24.  It’s probably a money-making gimmick rather than an attempt to blindside our children with ideas of diversity. 

I would say its a good thing to be able to represent ourselves, our friendsm  family and others when we color.  We aren’t all the same color, even within families.  Human beings are diverse.  I see this as a good thing.  And Fox and Friends never misses an opportunity to stir the pot with a little pinch of dissension and a heaping tablespoon of ‘out to get us.’