DougJ at balloon juice writes:
the iraq war came about because a group of terrorists, using low-tech items like small knives and box cutters hijacked a bunch of planes and used them to kill almost 3,000 people. somehow this low-tech attack using knives turned into hysteria about high-tech weapons of mass destruction, a different problem altogether, and had war hawks push the u.s. into a war against a country that had nothing to do with that original attack. the "solution" completely failed to address the original problem. in fact, it arguably made the original problem worse by giving al qaeda linked groups a new failed state to thrive in.
the current financial crisis currently facing the u.s. is the high unemployment rate. again and again americans (and even a majority of republicans) are telling pollsters that the job situation is the most pressing economic matter facing the country. somehow this economic uncertainty is turning into hysteria about the deficit, a different problem altogether. and so we are seeing austerity hawks push the u.s. into severe belt tightening that is likely to do nothing to improve the employment situation but rather as one of the leaders of the austerity hawks admits is likely to make the job situation worse.
as DougJ notes, the war hawks and austerity hawks are largely the same people. and once again those people are pushing this country into ignoring the real problem and choosing a "solution" that not only doesn't address what needs to be addressed, it is also is likely to only make things worse.
The same people who pushed the Iraq War on us are now pushing fiscal austerity. Can you name any austerity hawks in this country who were not big Iraq War supporters? The arguments are similar too. We needed to invade Iraq to ward off the looming danger of WMD and spread freedom; we need to cut our budgets to ward off the bond vigilantes and teach ourselves discipline.which is funny because over the last few days i have been mulling over a slightly different parallel between the iraq war hawks and current austerity hawks.
the iraq war came about because a group of terrorists, using low-tech items like small knives and box cutters hijacked a bunch of planes and used them to kill almost 3,000 people. somehow this low-tech attack using knives turned into hysteria about high-tech weapons of mass destruction, a different problem altogether, and had war hawks push the u.s. into a war against a country that had nothing to do with that original attack. the "solution" completely failed to address the original problem. in fact, it arguably made the original problem worse by giving al qaeda linked groups a new failed state to thrive in.
the current financial crisis currently facing the u.s. is the high unemployment rate. again and again americans (and even a majority of republicans) are telling pollsters that the job situation is the most pressing economic matter facing the country. somehow this economic uncertainty is turning into hysteria about the deficit, a different problem altogether. and so we are seeing austerity hawks push the u.s. into severe belt tightening that is likely to do nothing to improve the employment situation but rather as one of the leaders of the austerity hawks admits is likely to make the job situation worse.
as DougJ notes, the war hawks and austerity hawks are largely the same people. and once again those people are pushing this country into ignoring the real problem and choosing a "solution" that not only doesn't address what needs to be addressed, it is also is likely to only make things worse.
