Mr. President, what are you thinking?

Not since the biblical Job rent his clothes and covered himself in ashes has there been such a weeping and gnashing of teeth as is now going on among astute watchers of United States politics. All manner of pundits; political, economic, social, right leaning and left leaning, are bewailing the so-called “compromise” that allowed our government to avoid “default” and proceed on with their bickering business. 

I am left bewildered, but not yet ready to shower myself with ashes or dress in sackcloth. Reporters, columnists and bloggers of all stripes are in hyper mode, but I find myself staring into what appears to be devastating events with questions as well as terror. My hope is that I am able to process the questions prior to being overtaken by the devastation.  

A short explanation:

I am a retired working man who now relies on Social Security and meager savings. I was raised in a working man’s household and was deeply influenced by historical studies of the industrial revolution and the writing of Emile Zola. I guess you could label me as left (forward) leaning. I am diametrically opposed to the thinking of the Koch brothers, many of today’s Republican governors and the Tea Party in general. It is not that I would label their thinking wrong, but very different from what I believe to be of worth in America; and that is very much indeed.

Back to the subject:

William G. Gale of the Brookings Institute writes, “Low- and middle-class households have seen stagnating or declining earnings over the past few decades, and they have been hit hard in the Great Recession by the housing market collapse and the job market collapse. Now, they are being asked to shoulder—via spending reductions—all of the fiscal reduction agreed to so far.”

Summarizing a list given by George Zornick, writing in The Nation, the debt deal can be divided into who is helped and who is harmed.

Among those harmed:

Veterans—nearly half of the cuts come from “security spending”. This includes the Department of Defense, but also Homeland Security, the State Department and Veterans benefits.

Graduate Students—Elimination of the interest subsidy on student loans for almost all of them.

Seniors—the super-committee may impose across-the-board cuts on Medicare.

The poor—Medicaid is subject to cuts by the super-committee. Federal housing assistance is a likely target for cuts.

Among those helped:

The wealthy—there will be no increase in their taxes.

Super rich Wall Street traders—No increase in their taxes that are  now figured as capital gains; a much lower rate than if figured as income.

Oil and gas companies—their current unwarranted tax breaks are preserved.

Then there is the not-so-often talked about removal of the American people from the democratic process, a development that places our entire system of government at risk. Is this the start down a slippery slope from Democracy to who knows what?

There are also those who believed that without this “compromise” Wall Street would crash. Then, on August 4^th, the Dow lost 512 points or 4.3 percent of its value. Was this just a fender-bender or the first bang of a chain reaction?

Discounting our economy during major wars, our deficits went inter hyper-mode beginning with President Reagan’s attempt to build up our industrial-military complex (though cautioned against by another Republican President, Dwight Eisenhower). 

Then, as if the increasing rate of deficit spending was not enough, George W. Bush seriously and, it could be said wantonly, cut taxes in 2001. This serious hole in our nation’s income, as debt continued to increase, was due to expire last year, but for prejudicial and ill-thought-out reasons, did not. It is due to expire again in 2012.

Officials in the White House have stated that President Obama will veto any attempt to extend these cuts again. However, he has issued threats before.

As I continue to stare at what may be impending disaster for all Americans I can only hope that our President and his advisers have a game plan; one that cannot be shared at this point in time, but will surprise everyone when it is implemented. Beyond that, as a citizen of a democracy I will continue to watch carefully, speak my opinions loudly and in the final analysis exercise my vote.  I pray that by then citizen votes will still mean something.

Mr. President, you are a very intelligent man. Please do not keep us waiting too long. What are you thinking?