Category: News and Opinion

No surprise that the Post would choose to focus their self-righteous rage upon Peter Abbate rather than Marty Golden; to do otherwise would overly complicate the party (tea) line with more nuance than usually found in its pages in any given month.

But the issue deserves better.

It was not a rejection of liberalism but perhaps a rejection of America’s excesses in the late 60s and 70s whereas liberalism just happened to be in power on both sides of the political aisle at the time and so took the blame though without fault.

So this excess this hedonism gave rise to conservatism even among progressives. But it was not a rejection of a political belief but of excess.

Americans still believed in helping one another, in social security and medicare and paying taxes as part of collective whole for the benefit of all.

President Obama is going to announce his deficit ideas today during the mid-day, not during prime time. I wonder if he will talk about what no politician and virtually no political outlet was willing to talk about. The Ryan plan would have provided an even richer Medicare program for those 55 and over, Generation Greed, funded by 30 more years of rising debts. And paid for those debts with far more drastic reductions in benefits for future generations than would otherwise be the case. The Democratic and Republican politicians immediately yelled “tax the rich,” “choice and efficiency,” private vs. public, because they would rather talk about that. Than have the mostly 55 and over politicians talk about what they all agree on.

The President is from the second half of the baby boom, the first of a long line of generations (aside from the rich and retired public employees) to be worse off than the one before. He was elected primarily with the support of the young, whereas the Republican majority in the house was swept in by seniors angry about the limitations on growth of Medicare spending under health care reform. Is it too much to ask the holder of our highest office to take a moral stand, that what we can afford for those 55 and over today and what we can afford for my children 50 years from now are one and the same?

Buried within this article is news that one of the Democratic Assembly candidates (the Mayor of Maywood) in New Jersey Legislative District 38 is openly gay (And no, Asbury Park is nowhere near the district).

It would seem in this new age of draconian budget cuts and trillion dollar tax breaks for corporations and the rich that the sacrificial lambs in all of this are medicare and social security programs vital to working class and disadvantaged Americans.

Meanwhile half way around the world two wars of no strategic importance to us are sucking the life blood out of the nation. These wars, one of which should have ended years ago and the other which should never have been started, are draining the national treasure.

GATEMOUTH (1/14/11): The best place to get a slice.