Several people who are very close to me have strongly suggested that I should avoid the “S” word in my columns, but stupid is the truth. “Ignorant” isn’t appropriate; ignorant people do dumb things because they don’t know any better. A good number of American voters fall into this category. However, many of those with their hands on the power levers in St. Paul and Washington, D.C. right now are acting just plain stupid.
By the time you read this, those in Washington, D.C. hopefully would have come to their senses and not shut down the federal government for the sake of denying a very tiny part of the federal budget to Planned Parenthood. Shutting down hundreds of thousands of federal jobs, and stopping paychecks for those families, is not only a crisis for citizens, it is also extremely dumb. You climb out of depressions or deep recessions by creating new jobs, not ending jobs.
The best possible way to create jobs is spending on infrastructure: repairing or replacing the deficient bridges, roads, school buildings, sewer and water systems that have been neglected for too long. The American Society of Civil Engineers has pointed out that 72,000 bridges in this country are too old or “structurally deficient.” The Association of State Dam Safety Officials reports that there are 4,400 dams in this country that are susceptible to failure. The Washington Post recently reported that, “It’s cheaper to strengthen a bridge that’s standing than repair one that’s fallen down.” As my kids were so fond of saying to me: “Dah!”
I keep hearing: “The government has to learn to live within its means.” What “means” are you talking about? The income tax rates, particularly for the wealthiest in our society, were at much higher rates during the presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Carter. We had huge expansion of the middle class and our economies in those years. If we had those rates back again now, the current crises would be extremely more manageable. We wouldn’t be talking about closing small nursing homes and hospitals in Minnesota, slashing medical care for the poor, jacking up property taxes, and continuing with the Pawlenty-style ignoring of our crumbling infrastructure. And consider that borrowing now for infrastructure is a good deal because interest rates are so low. Where were the right-wing complaints when we borrowed at higher rates for billions to start a war against a country that never attacked us - Iraq?
This is a needless crisis brought on by needless greed. If the right-wing is successful in their mission, this will shred our American society even worse than it is now.
Brian Wojtalewicz
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