Defining the New America

Quotes from around the American press that seem to tell us what we look like in the new, leaner, meaner shutdown America.

“Recent college students are defaulting on federal loans at the highest rate in nearly two decades, reflecting "crisis" levels of student debt and a lackluster economy that leaves graduates with bleak employment prospects… One in 10 recent borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans within the first two years, the highest default rate since 1995, according to annual figures made public Monday by the Department of Education.” Huffington Post, September 30^th.

“In the most somber part of the [just-released United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's ‘Summary for Policymakers’], the IPCC provides a truly geological perspective on the changes that we are causing. It notes that much of what we are doing to the planet is ‘irreversible on a multi-century to millennial time scale’ and that temperatures will remain ‘at elevated levels for many centuries,’ even if we completely stop emitting carbon dioxide. Indeed, the report states, much of the carbon dioxide that we've emitted ‘will remain in the atmosphere longer than 1,000 years.’” Mother Jones, September 27^th.

“Meanwhile, on Game Day, the Dallas Cowboys stadium consumes more electricity – with air conditioning, massive scoreboard, etc – than the nation of Liberia with 3.7 million people.” DCS Client Contact Bulletin, September 30^th.

“With just hours to go until a government shutdown, Congressmen couldn't seem to agree on much except the fact that drinks were in order… Reporters tweeted Monday night that they could smell booze on the lawmakers working to strike a last-minute spending deal on Capitol Hill.” Huffington Post, September 30^th.

“The U.S. government was poised to shut down for the first time in 17 years early Tuesday, after a Congress bitterly divided over President Obama’s signature health-care initiative failed to reach agreement to fund federal agencies.… The impasse means 800,000 federal workers will be furloughed Tuesday. National parks, monuments and museums, as well as most federal offices, will close. Tens of thousands of air-traffic controllers, prison guards and Border Patrol agents will be required to serve without pay. And many congressional hearings — including one scheduled for Tuesday on last month’s Washington Navy Yard shootings — will be postponed.” Washington Post, September 30^th.

“The debt ceiling is another matter. Nobody really knows what will happen if we breach the debt ceiling because it’s never happened before. And everyone worries that it will be awful because nobody’s created any legal provision for not making it awful. A breach is sometimes characterized as a default on the national debt. But it’s actually weirder than that. Normally the way things work is that the Treasury Department cuts the checks Congress has told it to cut, collects the taxes Congress has told it to collect, and borrows to cover the difference. But the statutory debt ceiling also instructs Treasury not to borrow more than a certain amount of money. When we hit the debt ceiling on Oct. 17, Treasury will lack the legal authority to borrow any more money to close the gap between spending and tax revenue.” Slate.com, September 30^th.

Average American paychecks have faced reduced buying power every year since 2000: “American households were about 10 percent better off in 2000 compared to where we are today.  Of course you need to think about the individual circumstances that have changed since that time.  We now have 47+ million Americans on food stamps.  Our national debt is now at an incredibly high $16+ trillion.  The unemployment rate although improving, is twice as high as it was in 2000 (4 percent versus 8 percent today).  The challenge of course is that for the typical Americans worker they are having to live in a free market system with all the pressures that come with it while the connected few, can take banking handouts and use accounting magic to essentially socialize losses and privatize massive gains.  Clearly by the looking at household incomes your average family is not benefitting here.” MyBudget360.com

That we have control of our lives, have choices to make and alternatives to pursue… but don’t… suggests that perhaps we, as Americans and citizens of the world, have precisely the elected representative we deserve.

I'm Peter Dekom and if you care… really… do something about it; even screaming and yelling is better than sitting on your duff feeling confused!