Jim DeMint wants class genocide

If only everyone could be middle class.

 

Is everyone middle class at Lake Wobegon?

 

Indeed. Above average, too.

 

Which gets us back to the point that while there is nothing wrong with unemployment and nothing wrong with welfare, using the former as the latter is an inefficient use of resources.

 

Whether it's this issue or the opposition to the DREAM act or something like that, why do I get the feeling some people think kids need to do a better job choosing their parents?

 

What I'd love to know:
If the Republicans who've declared jihad on unemployment compensation join with liberals who think Obama short-sold the farm and kill the compromise, where does the blame go?

 

Everyone gets some blame. Maybe not in equal proportions, but there's enough to go around.

 

Obama.

It's become painfully obvious that a pragmatist can no longer be in the White House. They will get eaten alive by both sides.

 

During bad times, absolutely.

 

Someone mentioned the prospects of making a living by selling water or flowers on the side of the road, which recalled when my wife and I went to Puerto Rico for vacation last year.

Unemployment on the island is chronically high, 15-20 percent, but everywhere you go, especially on Highway 3 (the main road from San Juan to Fajardo), there are street vendors selling water, soda, fruit, vegetables, shish kabobs, flowers and cheap souvenirs.

It's a huge underground economy, and that's how they get by without jobs. I'm not suggesting that's the way things ought to go in the States, but it does show that if you're willing to get out and hustle, you can make a living of sorts.

 

"At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the gentleman, taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."
"Are there no prisons?" asked Scrooge.
"Plenty of prisons," said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
"And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"
"They are. Still," returned the gentleman, "I wish I could say they were not."
"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?" said Scrooge.
"Both very busy, sir."
"Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said Scrooge. "I'm very glad to hear it."
"Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude," returned the gentleman, "a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?"
"Nothing!" replied Scrooge.
"You wish to be anonymous?"
"I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. "Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas, and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there."
"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."
"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. ... It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!"

 

And the only "answers" that are palatable enough to pass usually involve paying everyone in the present and letting the future deal with the consequences. It's a great solution to all your problems until you realize those jack-offs from the past discovered it first and you are eating their shit sandwich right now.

The compromise will result in the U.S. government borrowing another 0.6 trillion dollars per year for two years and promising to pay it back in the future. That's another $1.2 trillion, plus interest, that will be taken out of future economies, because no one has the guts to pay for things themselves, now.