THE VIEW FROM HERE

A good place to start is always at the beginning or if you wish,
remember it was in 1905 that George Santayana who said, “progress,
far from consisting in change depends upon retentiveness. Those who
cannot remember the past are condemned to fulfill it.” If our
representatives in congress had remembered their history we might
have been spared the Punch and Judy show that has been playing
front and center in Washington, D. C. all summer. Someone needs to
enlighten our Tea Party members, who are shouting, “No New Taxes.
If we raise the debt ceiling the Democrats will just spend it on
new things.”
Wrong answer.
Deficit and Debt Ceiling are two different games. We have
already spent the money. That is why we needed to raise the debt
ceiling to pay our bills.
Republicans and Democrats alike, as the New York Times recently
reported, “Keep talking about reducing the deficit as if .raising
the ceiling will add to the deficit … Actually it will allow
congress to pay the interest on the money it has already borrowed
it will not cut the nation’s deficit one dollar. But it will save
us from losing our credit rating here at home and around the world,
although it is now evident that has already happened.
History tells us both the Democratic and Republican parties have
raised the debt ceiling in the past 60 years, 49 times under
Republican presidents and 29 times under Democratic presidents.
This is a fact that the newly elected, goose stepping, young Turks
fail to mention .when they are shouting “No New Taxes.”
They also fail to mention why our debt ceiling had its biggest
increase under President G. W. Bush because we were paying for two
wars and he added a drug benefit to Medicare, then cut taxes for
America’s wealthiest.
In spite of past history, and the facts, the “Just Say No Crowd”
is still pushing the trickle down theory that cutting taxes for
millionaires and big corporations benefits the working class and
creates jobs for the unemployed. When will we ever learn?
Lucie Jensen is a Healdsburg resident.