America Shrieks, Part II
by digby
Blah, Blah, Blah we are diverse, everybody's represented!(Again, except those who already know that this deficit reduction scam is designed to destroy the social safety net.)
After acknowledging that they are going to spend the rest of the day talking about how to cure the long term deficit, they've allotted 8 minutes for people to talk about their greatest concerns about the economy today, so that's good.
People are saying unemployment, over-regulating, "self-serving politicians", offshoring jobs, corruption, education, education, education, "crisis will be a screen for privatizing our public institutions," end of valuable services, homelessness, affordable housing, funding for the poor, late stage imperial stagnation, regulatory framework that holds people accountable, government should create jobs short term.
Then they did some quick polling. While people were answering the questions they played some music. They asked if the economy was getting better or worse and then played the song "Here Comes the Sun." (Most people answered worse, btw.)
The next question was "How supportive are you of unemployment and stimulus for the states. The song was "Money, Money." The result was: 32% supportive, 19% somewhat supportive, 11% neutral, 12% somewhat unsupportive, 26% unsupportive
(one of the national moderators commented tha this was a very difficult problem for the congress...)
Do you think the govt should be doing more or less to support the economy?(The song was the Rocky theme "Getting Strong Now ....")The results were
Govt should do more: 62%
Less: 25%
same:16%
And that was that --- the sum total of the discussion of the current economy.
Now they are now going to ask people to talk about their values and question them.
Very clever.
Soon, everyone will understand that caring about old and sick people comes at the "expense" of the well and young people and we can start to make some important "choices."
Update: Some comments from the first part of the discussion:
"It's not constitutional for the government to take care of anybody" "When should we help someone who bought a home they couldn't afford?" "People that have the capacity to be able to pay should pay" "Get rid of tax exemptions" "We can't keep up saying that people who are successful should pay more but those who aren't successful should pay nothing" "We have a system where it's winner take all, taxes on high income people are lower than anywhere else in the world""I believe that everyone should share equally in reducing the deficit" "I don't feel our upper classes are overtaxed and I think the federal government should carry a heavier burden" "people should volunteer because this is a great country and we can do this" "everyone is responsible for themselves"
People have an instinct to try to be "somewhere in the middle" on these questions and I expect that means we are going to see the middle subtly moved over the course of the day.
And, as is usual, the bullies in the groups talking about this are the wingnut assholes.
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