The deficit and debt are NOW a problem? C’mon!

 

Bill Knight column for 11-5, 6 or 7, 2020

 Dismissing their record of advocating for massive tax cuts that will saddle the country with enormous debt, Senate Republicans have signaled that budget deficits and the national debt will once more be a priority in coming months. GOP stalwarts including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania were fine with the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, but now are worried about spending when it comes to helping everyday Americans suffering consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the House, a similar but bipartisan approach is emerging, as incumbent Illinois Congressmen Darin LaHood (R-Peoria) and Dan Lipinski (D-Oak Lawn) co-wrote an appeal to control the federal debt. They acknowledged the need for aid during the pandemic – some $3 trillion already, adding to the overall debt of about $17 trillion – but they added, “We must act now to ensure that as soon as these crises are over, we put our country on a fiscally sustainable path.”

They suggest a yearly report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the nation’s finances, a bipartisan commission on Capitol Hill to work on actions concerning government trusts (including Social Security, Medicare and Highway), and setting debt-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) “targets” to cut spending.

As of August 31, the national debt was $20.83 trillion, and in September, the Congressional Budget Office said the government next year will run the biggest budget deficit as a share of the economy since the end of World War II.

(To clarify, the “budget deficit” refers to the annual difference between what the federal government collects in taxes and what it spends. The “government debt” means the accumulation of all those debts.)

Lipinski and LaHood were 2 of 58 Representatives (half Republicans, half Democrats) who signed a letter to House leaders asking for the three steps for transparency, a new way for Congress to be responsible, and setting goals to be more accountable.

As my late mom would say, “Oh, come ON!”

The aforementioned 2017 tax cuts will cost the government at least $1.5 trillion and were supposed to benefit all taxpayers. (Another Mom standard: “Yeah, RIGHT!”) That sum could balloon to $2.3 trillion if Congress extends the individual cuts (which are set to expire in 2025, unlike the permanent corporate breaks), according to the U.S. Treasury Dept.

“They put $2 trillion onto the national debt to give a tax break to the wealthy – 83% of the benefits to the 1%,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

At least Lipinski, a lame-duck Congressman after his loss to Marie Newman in this year’s primary, opposed the 2017 tax cuts.

Supporters of those cuts promote “trickle-down,” supply-side economics, the theory that enriching the wealthy and businesses will translate to economic growth eventually benefiting everyone else. That’s unlike the classic Keynesian approach, which holds that the U.S. economy depends on consumer spending that benefits from government investment in infrastructure, education and help for the jobless.

This summer, U.S. economy expert Kimberly Amadeo from The Balance financial newsletter said the 2017 tax cuts’ “increase to the debt means that formerly budget-conscious Republicans have done an about-face.”

Now they’re back-tracking.

Plus, elected representatives love bringing home the bacon, so concerns about spending often are overshadowed if states or districts benefit. (LaHood promoted $800,000 in pandemic relief to his district – money needed, but one wonders how a debt-to-GDP limit would’ve affected the assistance.)

Debt-to-GDP already was getting huge last year, “increasing to 79%, primarily due to the 2017 tax cuts,” said CBS News’ business analyst Jill Schlesinger, a Certified Financial Planner.

Granted, $20.83 trillion is hard to fathom. It would require someone making $10 million A DAY since the time when human beings first started writing (circa 3500 BC – 5520 years ago, or 2,014,800 days). But Robin Harding in the Financial Times commented that debt isn’t an issue as long as the long-term economy grows faster than interest rates. And Yahoo Finance reporter Myles Udland in Business Insider said debt is a problem only if it can’t be repaid (or if others think you can’t), and the United States literally can print the money it needs to repay debt and still has a high credit rating.

So new-found or re-discovered concerns are political grandstanding.

Stuart Stevens, a longtime GOP political consultant and author of “It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump,” said, “How to you abandon deeply held beliefs about character, personal responsibility, foreign policy and the national debt in a matter of months? You don’t. The obvious answer is those beliefs weren’t deeply held.”

Election 2020: resolve and restraint

Bill Knight column for 11-2, 3 or 4, 2020

This week, voters should accept the election results and embrace the democratic idea that all ballots cast by U.S. citizens in accordance with the laws are counted, and that we’re all Americans.

Also, of course, whoever wins the final tally, and their supporters, should refrain from gloating and work to unify these United States.

If the outcome is disputed before all ballots are counted, our republic will be profoundly threatened. So patience is also required. After all, mostly because of the pandemic and the health threat it poses to people in line or in crowded polling places, some 70 million people have voted early or by mail, and some states are prohibited from starting to count mail-in ballots until Election Day. (Not Illinois, which can begin counting them upon receipt.)

 Waiting for all legal ballots to be counted won’t “flip” the election because the election won’t be over until they’re counted. Bulletins by candidates or media before that point will be incomplete “our story thus far” reports, like announcing who’s leading a football game after the third quarter.

So prepare to wait for hours, maybe days, for people who followed the rules, did their civic duty, and weighed in on races and issues.

The possibility of political mischief means that some groups are preparing, too.

Already, there have been years of voter suppression, and some campaigns are apparently planning intimidation schemes at polling places and working to invalidate ballots (the New York Times last week reported 7,700 North Carolina ballots and 11,900 Florida ballot face rejection). However, as I previously reported, a Reuters/Ipsos poll last weekend showed that most Trump voters (59%) and Biden voters (57%) support accepting the results. But President Trump has stated that he may contest the election if he loses, or he could declare victory before all the ballots are counted. There also are court challenges in the works, claiming “voter fraud.” That’s so baseless even the conservative Heritage Foundation found fewer than 1,200 instances of voter fraud in the last 30 years, and even limiting that number to just presidential elections since 1992 (with some 800 million ballots cast), means about 1 possible fraudulent vote for every 615,000 ballots.

Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal (no pro-worker or radical publication) said if the election results aren’t recognized, it will be a crisis for the country.

So national unions including the Communications Workers of America, SEIU, AFT and the UAW are connecting with local “protect the vote” groups to make sure every vote is counted. AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said the federation “categorically rejects all threats to the peaceful transition of power. The labor movement simply will not allow any breach of the U.S. Constitution or other effort to deny the will of the people.”

Another effort, “Labor Action to Defend Democracy,” involves the Chicago Teachers Union, the Teamsters’ Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way, and leaders such as Carl Rosen, president of the United Electrical Workers, and Sara Nelson, president of the Flight Attendants union.

Regionally, labor councils in Seattle, Rochester, N.Y., and Western Massachusetts all have vowed to call for a general strike if there’s an attempt to prevent a fair and complete counting of ballots, and in Illinois several grassroots groups plan “Protect the Results” events if necessary.

Expecting the worst is smart, but hopefully it won’t be necessary.

What is necessary will be the patriotic devotion to voting and setting aside the campaigns’ bitterness – and even bold proposals. There are some who want “law and order” crackdowns on First Amendment rights or who believe widespread COVID-19 infections will result in “herd immunity,” despite the deaths. There are others who want to push for better health care or a Green New Deal. All that’s worth debating, but a wiser course might be postponing those conversations until Spring to let us all take a breath, see our neighbor as ourselves, and listen.

Of course, dealing with climate change can’t continue being delayed, but two things should occur: finally, effectively addressing the pandemic, and compassionately recognizing decades of value by those in fossil-fuel industries by providing compensation as well as training for the future, showing thanks to those in coal, oil, fracking and other damaging practices just as we should show respect to those with whom we disagree on politics.

Take a breath. Safely. Wisely.

Sometimes, just a couple of good ideas are enough

 

Bill Knight column for 10-29, 30 or 31, 2020

 Impresario, poet, political radical, jazz writer and rock ’n’ roll manager John Sinclair (one-time White Panther and MC5 manager) once told me, looking over the lineup of the great 1970s band Detroit he’d brought to western Illinois, “We should’ve named this guys ‘FORMERLY’.”

Detroit had Detroit Wheels lead singer Mitch Ryder replaced by Rusty Day, ex-vocalist for the Amboy Dukes and Cactus; Detroit also featured one-time Alice Cooper guitarist Steve Hunter and ex-ILMO Smokehouse guitarist Steve Gaines.

Such rock resumes and Jefferson Starship’s new album somehow reminded me of Tuesday’s election between Donald Trump, FORMERLY a deal-making billionaire businessman, and Joe Biden, FORMERLY Vice President and a Senator from Delaware.

This columnist has no idea of Tuesday’s outcome or even whether the results will be accepted (although a Reuters/IPSOS poll released Sunday showed that a majority of both candidates’ supporters favor abiding by the results). Maybe voters of all political persuasions will unite to oust Trump and give Biden a win. Maybe pollsters will be stunned again by Trump’s base (who’d vote for him even if he’d “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody,” as Trump said on January 23, 2016).

Regardless of the victor, Russians may smirk, reveling in our divisiveness.

The difference may come down to a couple of ideas, or lines – or lies.

Jefferson Starship’s new “Mother of the Sun,” their first album in 12 years, is like that. Grabbed in hopes of a distraction and a rekindled musical memory of the original Jefferson Airplane and their anthem “Volunteers” and the spinoff Jefferson Starship’s first outing, “Blows against the Empire,” its seven cuts are overall disappointing. But two tracks are out-and-out gems, so good they’re memorable and timely and worth having the whole package.

Jefferson Starship FORMERLY was Jefferson Airplane, featuring Grace Slick, Jack Casady, Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen and Spencer Dryden and helped define the late 1960s, the San Francisco Sound and more. They evolved into Jefferson Starship and soared through the 1970s until they crash-landed with goofy personnel changes (vocalist Mickey Thomas, FORMERLY with the Elvin Bishop Group) and earworm hits such as “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” (from the dismal rom-com movie “Mannequin”) and the Bernie Taupin-written “We Built This City” (made weirder with its use in Disney’s 2011 “Muppets” film).

With a current five-piece lineup led by David Freiberg (FORMERLY of Quicksilver Messenger Service and a later version of Airplane), 2020’s Starship really blasts off with two numbers: “It’s About Time” (co-written by Slick) and “What Are We Waiting For?” The former is a livewire blast that launches the album and promises a dynamic record, with muscular instruments and riveting lyrics: “Children in cages, shot dead in school./ How long before we let women rule?” The latter follows with a pandemic-era cry to stand up and stand for something: “Now, the money changers, like they always have,/ on golden thrones top the pyramid,/ merchants of suffering, profiteers or miseries,/ they’re selling you cancer, both cure and disease.”

The rest are ballads of denial, simplistic romance, hollow rhythm sections accompanying OK guitar riffs, and unnecessary cuts (a remake of “Embryonic Journey” from Airplane’s fine “Surrealistic Pillow” and a 67-second longer version of “What Are We Waiting For?”).

Meanwhile, during early voting and Tuesday balloting, some Americans are disappointed in Trump – even some conservative, military, Republican, national-security, political, scientific and faith leaders. Likewise, some who supported Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg or Andrew Yang are still disappointed in Biden.

But, just as Jefferson Starship will dishearten fans of other versions of Starship or Airplane, a couple of good songs – or in this important election, a couple of ideas, line or lies – might be enough to prevail.

Personally, I think, “It’s About Time.”

“What Are We Waiting For?”