Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) speaks for all liberals and socialists when he says that budget “cuts do not necessarily mean savings.”
Only in the world of Washington D.C. do the laws of logic, economics, physics and even simple sensory evidence not apply. This isn’t because all politicians are madmen, although nearly all of them do insane things. It’s because they’re not accountable for what they do. And they don’t have to be, especially permanent little kings like Rangel.
No owner of a business could ever say, “Layoffs don’t mean job losses.” Or: “Debt is of no consequence.” Nobody who holds
a mortgage can say, “The mortgage isn’t really debt” (unless Obama takes over the mortgage industry and outlaws all debt, of course).
But in Washington D.C., the currency is created and controlled by politicians and bureaucrats. There’s no rational, accountable check on them — such as a gold standard. If there’s not enough money in the federal budget, the Federal Reserve Chief simply clicks a computer key — and magically, there’s more. Are money and currency the same thing? Are political actions equivalent to value? No, but nobody seems to care. Are there consequences to the currency and the economy, over time, for this theft of the value of people’s money? Of course, but no matter. Federal Reserve chieftains will just click a different button when that time comes, and hope for the best.
The eternal priority is: Spend, spend, spend. Spending is not just about spending. It’s about wealth redistribution. It’s about power. It’s about people like Charlie Rangel — who, no matter how scandalous or illegal their behavior will keep getting reelected — feeling a sense of self-worth, power and virtue because they can claim, “I helped the poor by passing this program.”
Spending billions of other people’s money is, for these political addicts, a high. For politicians like Rangel, it’s no different than the high that comes from smoking crack cocaine for an addict. It’s that reckless and it’s that irresponsible. However, the crack cocaine addict harms only himself, and perhaps those who choose to remain close to him despite his problem. The Charlie Rangels of the world spend decades not helping people, but harming the economic well-being of everyone by systematically eroding and ultimately destroying our economic civilization. Worst of all, while people see and label the crack addicts for what they are, the great majority refuse to see that the Charlie Rangels of the world are the same thing, only worse. That’s why Washington D.C. keeps on spending, quibbling over a few billion here or there while much more than that is at stake.
In the same interview on Fox News, Rangel also said that ideological priorities should be fought in a separate bill, outside the budget process. Excuse me? What is a budget but a statement of priorities?! Liberals believe this just as much as anyone else. To liberals, it’s a priority for the government to spend trillions of dollars on what they call health care, education, farm subsidies, and the like. They advocate this spending because they consider it a government priority, a bigger priority than the military or defense.
Whether you’re a government, a business or simply an individual, spending always refers to priorities. The crack cocaine addict prioritizes his drug and his high above all else. Somebody else has totally different priorities and spends differently. When Rangel says “keep the ideology and budget separate,” what he really means is: “Don’t change the ideology. What I want is right, but we don’t have to debate it.” Typical liberals. When they want something, it’s “non-ideological” and therefore reasonable — in fact, outside the realm of questioning. When anyone with a different ideology wants something — something cut, for example — it’s fanatical and should at best be kept out of budget negotiations.
What’s really happening is that the Republicans are finally behaving as a second party. At least, they’re starting to do so. But the budget Titanic and (worst case) our very economy may be sinking, thanks to decades of government intervention in the economy by both Republicans and Democrats.
Throwing water overboard (using pails) on a ship that has begun to sink won’t solve anything. It’s actually a little sad. Maybe that’s what the Democrats sense, and it’s why they offer no alternative to the budget crisis other than to slam the Tea Party Republicans as “fanatical” and … keep on spending, as the band plays on.