Balance Our Federal Budget in One-easy Step

Balance Our Federal Budget
in One-easy Step
. .

But Please Do Not Try This

By Bob Komives

The Tea Party and the Obama party can force a balanced federal budget with one step. (Well, it would take two quick votes and one signature.) They must simply decree that the federal government of U.S. America will abandon the dollar and do all its business with the Euro. Or, if that zone won't have us, with the Yen then--or, the Pound Sterling, or the Norwegian Krone. If we abandon our sovereign currency we have no choice but balance our national budget! Ask Greece; ask Ireland; ask Spain; ask California.

Yes, California, one of the biggest economies in the world, it must come begging for help  to the dollar-zone (the states united in America) when it suffers a devastating earthquake or wild fire. Why?

It's About Investment, Dammit!

It's About Investment, Dammit!

. .

Reason Four

Why Today's Balanced Budget Discussions Are Ridiculous

..

By Bob Komives

but first

let me give you Reason 4a. 

Or, I should say, let Paul Krugman give you Reason 4a. He points to facts that march boldly but unrecognized through the daily news. They show why austerity-now does not work, and worse, causes countries to fail. In other words, my words, why today's balanced budget discussions with their emphasis on not-spending rather than investment are at best ridiculous and and at worst devastatingly harmful.

Here's Krugman (March 24, 2011) and (April 1, 2011).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
now my somewhat poetic approach


Partners in Economic Development

Where is the evidence
          that scarcity models work?
Where is the evidence     

          that doing the right thing costs too much

          that doing the wrong thing is affordable

          that nations who follow these models become rich?

Wealth is our preoccupation

          --not our invention.

We do not create economic development

          --we are its partner.

Economic development is an organized invasion

          --life invades the universe.

Let us strive to be knowledgeable partner

          --practice stewardship and equity

          --learn

          --share what we learn

          --organize ourselves to foster the biosphere.

Yes,
we must know that wealth can disappear

          --species, ecosystems, languages and cultures become extinct.
We must guard against the disappearance of life itself

          --for only in life does this sphere know to be wealthy.
Prevent the destruction of our species

          --for we can learn as we survive our poor judgment.
Stop exploiting one another

          --together we partake of more wealth more quickly.
Guard against the natural and man-brought disaster

          --that destroys knowledge

          --leaving machines that no one can use

          --books no one can read

          --science no one can remember.

Yes,
we must know that within abundance there is scarcity,
yet within simplistic, dogmatic models of scarcity lie falsehoods.
Within these falsehoods lie too many lessons in fiscal irresponsibility:

          Do not provide for the welfare of the many

          --because resources for the few are scarce.

          Do not clean and protect scarce resources

          --because, well, our resources are scarce.

Yes,
we must know that between the cataclysms

          (brought by meteor, plate, and super volcano)

          life prospers

          abundance patiently overwhelms scarcities

          abundant biosphere enables civilization.
Within biosphere and civilization lie truths.
Within these truths lie our lessons in fiscal responsibility:

          Well-being requires investment.
          Good investment nourishes and improves life.
          Poor investment risks disaster.

There is no evidence

          that doing the right thing costs too much,

          that doing the wrong thing is affordable?

Evident, indeed, is knowledge of abundance
embedded by life into biosphere and civilization.


As better we know this
as better we become

          partners in economic development.

-----------------------(c) 2011 Bob Komives-----------------------------

co-posted on Komivesian Poetics

... the word "tax" is not always bad. ...

... the word "tax" is not always bad.

I suggest you read this opionion piece in the Fort Collins Coloradoan of March 9, 2011
.

Moderates need place at table to resolve impasse

.

.

They are the words of John Knezovich who calls himself a moderate Republican.
I'm not sure if John would agree, but I would call this well-written essay a plea for sanity and responsibility. Nearing the end of his plea Knezovich says simply this:
.

Most urgently, Republicans need to grasp that the word "tax" is not always bad. There are many governmental programs and services which benefit all of society. Where would we be without public safety, roads, schools, libraries, hospitals and social services?

 .
Yes, taxes are integral to civilization, and I dare say: "civility."
Thanks, John. I want to spread your word; then we can fight well over the details!

Constitution as Implied versus Constitution as Written

Constitution as Implied versus Constitution as Written

. .

Reason Two

Why Today's Balanced Budget Discussions Are Ridiculous

..

A response to a Cal Thomas holiday column in which I found no holiday spirit.

By Bob Komives, December 24,  2010

The holiday season, for many, is a time when we treat our neighbors of different political persuasion as, well, neighbors. It is nice to foster peace for a few days so that in the new year we can come out fighting without killing each other. Here it is December 24, 2010; as hard as I try, in my today's newspaper I can't ignore a column by Cal Thomas . He writes not a single phrase in the holiday spirit. Rather, he lambastes his version of "liberal Democrats" and his version of "'moderate' GOP senators" who would compromise with the liberals. In the classic of first definitions, it appears he does not like that these two groups managed a rare occasion to have intercourse. In my ample spirit of holiday charity I smiled and momentarily ignored Thomas’s lack of same. After all, his opinion was already a few days old by the time my newspaper chose to publish it. I could imagine that by the time I read this, he was indeed feeling more charitable toward those who refuse to listen to him. Unfortunately, I read on. He quotes Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma as saying, 

"We are water-boarding the next generation with debt." 

Gruesome image, but perhaps Coburn too spoke before getting into the holiday spirit. Perhaps he had already asked for and received holiday forgiveness from his open-hearted constituents.

.

Then I came to the reason why I write. Further on, Cal Thomas chooses to imply that his hatred of federal debt is in sacred agreement with the Constitution:

"Early next month, 108 new members of Congress will take the oath of office and swear to uphold the Constitution. The question is: which Constitution? Will it be the one written by the Founders, which has sustained us for two centuries? Or, will it be the one that is being ripped to shreds by activist courts and out-of-control legislators who have concluded that grand document means only what they and the judges decide it means? In families that overspend and are weighed down with debt, there often comes a ‘we can’t go on like this’ epiphany followed by a decision to reduce spending and be content with less. Not so with our government." 

Notice, while he implies that debt and unbalanced budgets defy the Constitution, he does not directly say so. Perhaps he assumes that the ignorant reader will extract that meaning without his having to lie. In a later posting, I will take up the absurdity of comparing national budgets with family budgets, but for now I only wish to point out why Cal Thomas knows he had to use patriotic innuendo in order to avoid a lie. He knows that the Constitution repeatedly supports and even mandates federal debt. 

Sovereignty versus the Zealots for Ignore-ance . .

Sovereignty versus the Zealots for Ignore-ance
. .
Reason One

Why Today's Balanced Budget Discussions Are Ridiculous
..
The core value of money
the reason why this clever invention has survived the ages:


money enables wise national governments to operate
on budgets that look unbalanced when scrutinized by bean counters.

By Bob Komives

. .

The only way to force bean counting to a balanced federal budget in the United States of America is to give up the dollar and fund our national government with euros, yen, pesos, diamonds, Honda motorcycles, !beans!, or some other item the federal government does not produce.