The Utter Stupidity of Partisan Politics
1 August 2011, 12:28 am · Politics
I nearly spit out my coffee this morning when I came across the following news--Apple, manufacturer of pretty much every computing and telephonic device that I own and use on a daily basis, is now not only the second largest company in the world by market value (behind ExxonMobil), but it also has more cash in its bank accounts than the United States Treasury.
Let that sink in for a moment. Apple, which only holds something like 11% of the PC market (including the iPad), has more money in cash (meaning that Apple could theoretically write a bigger check that wouldn't bounce) than the United States government does.
This immediately makes me think two things:
- The folks running Apple must be way smarter than I ever imagined.
- The folks running the United States government must be much, much, MUCH stupider than I EVER imagined.
Apple relies on folks like me and my employers to purchase their products. I am pleased with their quality, and I continue to purchase more items from them periodically because they work well for me and because I have a very good track record with them over the past decade. In a given year, Apple probably gets anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand bucks out of my pocket, just depending on what I need, what I want and how much I have to spend.
The United States government, on the other hand, taxes the crap out of most of us involuntarily, not only when we file our income taxes (I paid well into the five figures in income tax myself in 2010), but also in a myriad of other ways--at the pump, on imported items, etc. Yes, the government does have to supply us with certain civic benefits, but even a sixth grader should be able to look at the difference between Apple and the government and conclude that the government is doing something horribly wrong.
That something is clearly identifiable right now in Washington--it is partisan politics. Right now the Democrats and the Republcans are "debating" (note my very deliberate use of quotation marks) the debt "crisis," fearing that rating agencies like Standard & Poor's and Moody's will downgrade our bond ratings should we default on any of our obligations--at least, that's my cursory understanding of the situation. The Democrats, led by Pres. Obama, want what they're calling a "balanced approach," consisting of spending cuts and a hike in certain taxes on individuals and companies who already make a crapload of money (and, let's be honest here--in most cases, they likely wouldn't even miss the extra, but I digress). The Republicans, on the other hand, led by Speaker of the House John Boehner, only want to cut spending, and they also want to add some sort of balanced budget amendment into the Constitution--not a bad idea, but now doesn't seem to be the appropriate time for that (...but I digress yet again).
I am no economist--I (stupidly, in retrospect) declined to take even a basic economics course in college. But I don't think the situation here requires donning an economist's hat (...visor? Wait, no, that's a bookkeeper--or a poker dealer) to understand. There is a completely undefendable amount of bullheaded stubbornness going on in Washington right now. Republicans, pushed rather vocally by the "Tea Party" movement, refuse to compromise, and the Democrats obviously don't want to completely surrender to the minority party, so the struggle continues. And all of it is completely arbitrary. All of it is tied to partisanship, not a desire to solve this problem and move the country forward.
I really have no idea, realistically, what will happen to Joe Schmo should the government fail to resolve this fiscal squabble. I just know I'm tired of all of the lies, nonsense and heated rhetoric that continues to fly around, because all of it accomplishes nothing at all. Both parties are guilty of sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring hard truths--the Republicans refuse to acknowledge that Pres. Bush's war efforts and tax cuts cost us a boatload more than we could afford, and the Democrats seem more interested in finger-pointing and saying "See what you did?" than in making serious cuts and changes to turn things around.
I am deeply disheartened and disappointed by virtually everything I see happening in Washington. And I'm even more saddened by the fact that I can't see things getting better anytime soon.
