FOLLOW-UP: On the Current US Deficit and Debt Crises

I'm not even going to link to the original post, because so much has changed between then and now that it's frankly irrelevant.
Well, I'm still in my house and not in a cave, so the US and the US economy have survived the debt ceiling crisis, with Congress passing and President Obama signing into law the bill to raise the debt ceiling, in exchange for fairly substantial cuts all along the way. I won't bore you with details, but the gist is that the debt ceiling will be raised by $400 billion immediately, $500 billion in a few months unless 2/3 of both houses of Congress vote against it, and $1.5 trillion later. The first two will be accompanied by specific spending cuts dollar-for-dollar, while the third will also be accompanied by dollar-for-dollar spending cuts (or tax increases) hashed out by a group of 12 members of Congress; if an agreement can't be made in time, automatic cuts will become effective, particularly affecting defense and discretionary spending.
I'm glad the economy didn't collapse and the US didn't default. Of course, I would have liked to see tax increases, or at least the closure of tax loopholes and breaks/subsidies, but with the government as dysfunctional as it is now, I suppose I can't ask for more at the moment.

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Featured Comments: Week of 2011 July 10

There were a handful comments on a couple of posts this week, so I'll repost most of them.

The Future of Various Linux Mint Editions

Reader T_Beermonster said, "As Axel notes you can use PPA's with a debian testing based system. Obviously the problem with ppa's is that many of the packagers will assume you are running ubuntu offering only the opportuity to guess which ubuntu release is closest to your own system and so sometimes they will have a dependency on a package that is in the ubuntu repo's but not yet in debian testing. Your third point doesn't seem to be a point. The reason for switching the KDE base to debian seems to be exactly the same as the reason for switching the fluxbox and xfce base. Maintaining the ubuntu base was taking too much effort so they switched to a debian base that they find easier to maintain."
An anonymous commenter had this to say generally about KDE and Ubuntu: "Canonical has problems. Both Xubuntu and alternate panicked on my Athlon x4 (can't handle page fault) while Mint10 has no problems. If Canonical can't get it together soon they are due for a fall. And I'm seeing a surge in interest in XFCE and LXDE, so the KDE4 and Gnome groups should take heed or be left by the wayside."
Reader Glenn Greenfield said, "Personally, I had zero interest in Mint until the Debian based release came out and I hope to see all future efforts expended on a nice Debian based Mint with all support for Ubuntu dropped. Another thing...... It's unfortunate that we must continually explain this: Ubuntu and Debian are binary incompatible (Ubuntu's choice) There for Ubuntu ppa's are NOT compatible w/ Debian but they are a sure fire way to break your system."
Commenter Nick said, "If Mint moves from Kubuntu base to Debian base then I'll go back to Kubuntu straight away. Period. No negotiations. And another thing - even with the world's most used OS (Windows), upgrading is a last resort and a fresh install is recommended. You only upgrade on server systems where installed apps can't be installed again and user data is already in place etc. So Ubuntu forking from Debian often is actually preferred." I'm not sure I agree with that point about upgrading: just because Microsoft Windows does it doesn't make it right.

On the Current US Deficit and Debt Crises

Reader Lyle had this tip: "This article from USA Today puts things in better perspective: http://usat.ly/p3sRRS"
Commenter dick had this counterpoint: "What you seem to forget is that the Republicans have been in this circumstance with the Democrats before and the result has always been that the tax increases fly through just fine but for some reason none of the spending cuts get through. What Cantor and the others opposing Obama are really saying is get the cuts done, approved and in place and then we will talk about the tax increases. You need to check your history on this one. See Reagan with Tip O'Neill, Bush I with Tip O'Neill, Bill Clinton with Tip O'Neill, Bush II with Pelosi - and that is just in the past 25 years. The Democrats will talk a compromise but the only thing that seems to happen is the tax increases, never the spending cuts. In the current situation the spending cuts are the things that really need to happen. There has to be a limit on how long the nation can keep on spending what it does not have on programs that are failing before the crisis really clicks in and that is what Cantor, Ryan and the other Republicans are talking about. Besides they have seen this president in action and he truly is not to be trusted in what he says because it does not translate into what he actually does. All presidents are like this to some extent but this one is far more so than any in my lifetime and I go back to FDR."
Reader T_Beermonster said, "Lexington in this week's economist does a good summary: http://www.economist.com/node/18958711 Points 4 and 5 are I believe the most significant. Politicians find it hard to see beyond the next election - and the next election for most of them is not the one in 2012, but the primaries (which for most means only the most partisan end of their party membership)."

Thanks to all those who commented on this past week's posts. This coming week, I can guarantee at least one Linux distribution review; hopefully that'll be two. In any case, if you like what I write, please continue subscribing, commenting, and sharing!

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On the Current US Deficit and Debt Crises

It's been a long time since I've posted here about straight-up US politics (that doesn't have much to do with technology, technological freedoms, et cetera), but I felt that what's happening now deserved a post.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know that the US has a pretty big deficit and a whopping debt. The debt is so high that the US is rapidly nearing the debt limit; if it doesn't raise the debt ceiling, it will default, and the US credit rating will probably be downgraded from 'AAA' to 'AA'. Of course, this will have catastrophic consequences for the economy, which until recently I didn't really understand, but now I sort of do. Many government workers, probably including myself (in my summer internship at NIST) and someone in my direct family will be laid off at least for a while. Interest rates will shoot up. Elderly people will stop receiving Social Security and Medicare, at least until this whole thing can get straightened out again. And the reason why this hits home is because if government workers do get laid off, I may not be able to attend college again until my family has income again to pay for my education. It's a scary and saddening thought, and it's certainly not something I thought I would ever have to worry about in my four years of undergraduate education.

Just for a quick rundown of what's happened so far, President Obama has been trying to bargain and compromise with Republicans in the House of Representatives and Senate in order to actually raise the debt ceiling. These negotiations stalled thanks to Republicans, especially House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, repeatedly walking out of these talks. Obama has moved steadily to the right to try to court Republicans, promising $5-6 in spending cuts, even in things like defense and entitlements that traditionally haven't been touched, for every $1 in tax increases. Recently, House Speaker John Boehner seemed to be agreeable to such deals, but that all fell apart, probably under pressure from Cantor.

Just this week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell came up with a last-resort plan to raise the debt ceiling, if all else failed. This would involve Congress passing a resolution against raising the debt ceiling, which Obama would veto in order to raise the debt ceiling. For the veto to stand, 1/3 of the representatives and senators would need to block attempts to override the veto. This would happen in all likelihood, and this would have the effect of Obama unilaterally raising the debt ceiling without Congress's help. This would be done in conjunction with trillions of dollars in spending cuts, and this would be repeated 2 or 3 times, once every three months. Most people in Congress have supported it as a last-resort measure, yet Cantor still opposes it, despite it coming from a Republican senator.

There are so many problems with this whole thing, it's unbelievable. Leaving aside the mechanics of the actual debt and deficit reduction plans for a moment, let's just focus on the behavior of the people in DC. Obama and Boehner have been the most agreeable people here for actually seriously considering solutions to the problem, even risking disapproval from members of their respective parties. Cantor has been the No-Man here, saying no to any deal here. In fact, Cantor has had the gall to say that even choosing to negotiate with Obama and the Democrats is itself a compromise. Hello? Last time I checked, negotiation is a prerequisite for compromises to be made. If your idea of sticking by your principles is sticking your fingers in your ears and screaming, people are probably going to give up trying to reason with you. Sadly, you're endangering the economy at the same time by choosing to do absolutely nothing.

And the McConnell plan strikes me as almost as ridiculous as Cantor's stance. It's obvious this is done so that Republicans can place the full blame of raising the debt ceiling on Obama. (As if saving the economy from survival is now supposed to be a shameful act...) This is in response to Obama rightly calling out Republicans on refusing to do/going back on things like closing tax loopholes, ending subsidies for ethanol, and ending tax breaks for toys for very wealthy people. In effect, this also places the blame on Republicans should the US default due to Republican obstinacy. Yet Republicans, more focused on staying in power than actually serving their country and constituents, would rather not act to prevent the US from defaulting by putting the whole burden of raising the debt limit on Obama. I suppose it's marginally better than no plan at all, but the overtly political nature of the stunt is frankly disgusting.

(All for what? To please a guy named Grover Norquist, who has never himself been elected, and who said on The Colbert Report that grandmas should die at the hands of terrorists before taxes can be raised. Yes, he really said that, and judging from the genuinely taken-aback expression on Stephen Colbert's face upon hearing that, Norquist was serious. So really, it's Norquist holding the economy hostage so that his whims may be pleased. What's worse, people paying small portions of their income for the public good, or people losing their jobs, possibly to never get them back? It's insane, but I slightly digress...)

It's sometimes amusing to watch the antics of politicians, and to watch them act like screaming 4-year olds. It's no longer fun when the economy, my college education, and loved ones' jobs are on the line. I think I'll stop before I puke repeatedly and before I get a prescription for hypertension medications.

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