Tough Love from the High Priest
by digby
So billionaire Michael Bloomberg, centrist Village dreamboat, went to DC and prescribed some tough love for everyone this morning. He called for slashing the safety net AND raising taxes on the middle class (along with the wealthy) which is just awesome. That's what the Village calls courage.
Here's what he said:
"Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people"
Oh wait. That was Andrew Mellon's advice to Herbert Hoover. But it's pretty much the same thing.
I'm guessing Bloomberg doesn't read much because if he did he'd know what has happened to the UK when they did just that. (But, hey, it's not like old Mike's personally going to run out of money, is it?) Nonetheless, he's proven himself to be a hero because he's called for raising taxes on himself, which in Washington is considered exactly as painful as old ladies having to give up eating 2 days out of 7 or disabled Vets being forced to beg in the streets. Skin in the game and all that rot.
Apparently, this is all to ensure that the budget is perfectly in balance by 2021, which I'm beginning to think is prophesized as the end of the world in the Sacred Book of the Market Gods, so significant is the date. In fact, it's so important it requires massive numbers of human sacrifices for many decades to prevent ... something.
In the world of rational people the idea that you simply must balance the budget in 10 years is arbitrary and absurd. Bloomberg and all of his cronies are playing some secret confidence (fairy) game or they're fools. Let's just hope that our dysfunctional, gridlocked government is good for something and stops this bipartisan lunacy.
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