Deficit hawks say that the government should live within its means, like us. They obviously haven’t heard of auto loans, home, mortgages, student loans, or credit card debt. Americans carry trillions of dollars of debt for purchases they couldn’t afford.
The estimated total cost of the US war against Afghanistan is now running $13 trillion, enough to pay off all debts of all Americans. Why didn’t the CIA, which the media trusts implicitly these days, warn us that we’d lose after spending all that money and destroying hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides?
People need help. Banks get it instead. The only nice part is, it’s interesting to see rank capitalism, and its perverse relationship with government, exposed in all its glory.
A wag in the New York Times pointed out that the current ARM mortgage crisis owes at least as much to predatory borrowing as it does to predatory lending (which is admittedly a huge problem). I own a home now, but I can’t help wondering why renters–people who can’t afford to buy a home–should pay higher taxes to support those who own? It’s already pretty crazy that the Army Corps of Engineers spends millions to shore up beaches to save homes owned by multimillionaires.
