Sometimes other people seem to put in great words the very thoughts that I have myself been trying to put together into some form of coherency. Over at politicsusa, rmuse makes some good sense of how we got into the debt mess we are are in and who is ultimately paying the penalty. If you have been paying attention at all, you know that the ones who have run the debt up to high heaven (that would be the Republican Party) will not only not be the ones paying the debt, but will block every attempt to make the economy better and will slough the payment off to the poor and middle class.

I harp on this a bit, but we must never let the country forget how we got into such a sorry state; it was a choice by the Republican Party to run the debt up so high. The ones who ran the debt up should in no way have a say in how the debt is resolved. No – we need sober, sane leaders who do not look at governing as a chance to steal the public blind. Some may forget, but at the end of the Clinton administration a commission was actually formed to explore the question of what would happen if the USA were actually out of debt – which would have happened in 2009 at the rate of pay down in 1999.

Here are some excerpts from the article. It is a relatively short article, but really lays out the truth. To read the whole article go here:

“Republicans became debt and deficit sensitive in January 2009 just as President Obama was being inaugurated, and they embroiled the entire country, including Democrats, in their single-minded reduce the deficit mission. However, Republicans exempted those who benefited from the debt of any repayment, and are attempting to rob Americans’ health and retirement accounts, domestic programs, and government services to repay the debt and give more “free stuff” to the debt creators. It is important to note that the people who caused Great Recession were bailed out by taxpayers, and are reaping 93% of the recovery and if Republicans have their way they will give more to those responsible for the Recession.

If Americans understood what Republicans are doing with this debt and deficit hoax, and that they are willing victims of the greatest scam on the people in the nation’s history, they would riot in the streets and dismantle Wall Street brick by brick. First, Republicans gave the defense industry, the wealthy, and pharmaceutical industry borrowed money that racked up the deficit, and demand the people repay the debt with domestic cuts, Medicare, and soon, Social Security. That is bad enough, but those responsible for the Great Recession; banks, financial institutions, and Wall Street are clamoring for more “debt and deficit” reduction paid for by the people after the people bailed them out and while they are reaping profits from the Recession they created.

The 2011 debt ceiling crisis that jeopardized the full faith and credit of the United States perfectly illustrates the outrageous scam Republicans are perpetrating on the American people. To raise the debt limit to pay for Republicans’ two wars, tax cuts for the wealthy, and prescription plan that benefited big pharma, Republicans demanded spending cuts equal to the amount needed to repay their war, tax cut, and pharmaceutical debt all while refusing to raise taxes on the debt creators. For the third straight year, Paul Ryan is proposing a budget that cuts spending on programs for the people, ends Medicare, and takes food from the poor, children, and seniors to pay down the debt Halliburton, the defense industry, and wealthy incurred and profited from.

The greatest outrage should be at the financial sector that crashed the economy, was bailed out by the people, reaped nearly all the recovery, and then calls for raising the Medicare and Social Security retirement age because as Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein says, “we just can’t afford it–people will just have to work longer to help pay down the deficit.” First, Social Security has no effect on the debt or deficit, and people being told to pay Wall Streets’ debt gained absolutely nothing after they crashed the economy and killed millions of Americans’ jobs. Blankfein’s company, Goldman Sachs, helped crash the economy, was bailed out with $12.9 billion plus $5.5 billion from AIG, gave executives $11 billion in bonuses, and is reaping huge rewards as the economy recovers; now Blankfein says “we” cannot afford Medicare and Social Security and the people have to pay down the deficit. Through their Republican facilitators, corporations and Wall Street have the temerity to demand the people repay their debt and it begs the question; why are Republicans (and some Democrats) not demanding Wall Street and corporations repay their own debt? Many of the largest corporations and Wall Street firms pay nothing in federal taxes that contributes to the debt, and yet Republicans and Democrats fight to reduce their tax rates even more.”