Certain

"Why is it the stupid are cocksure and the Intelligent full of doubts?"


Every day, I listen to people who cleave to beliefs which fall into all sorts of disparate categories: There are beliefs which sound as if they are correct: Like the idea that the federal government is  spending more than it brings in and this means we are headed for certain disaster; there are beliefs which sound right, initially but then you said, "Wait, what?": Like the Republican/Tea party/Rush Limbaugh mantra that deficits are the fault of the Democrats and if only the Republicans controlled the Senate and the White House, we would proceed forthright to the promised land.

But then I ask, how does that heckler I heard on the radio know with such certainty that government spending, such as we are currently doing, is sending us down that slick tube to perdition and destruction? When you listen to other people who just might have some grasp of the numbers, as I did last Sunday when Paul Krugman, an economist,  said actually we are not spending at historically high levels and we might actually be better off, in the long run, spending more, creating jobs and infrastructure which are in fact an investment in the future, it makes me wonder how that heckler (who had gotten herself to a town meeting with some unfortunate Congressman) how did she know about government spending and its dire consequences?

As for the deficit, which John Boehner assures us is the fiery abyss, then why is he unwilling to tax the rich, tax the oil companies, in short, take steps to increase the government's income?

The Republicans are always comparing the economy to our household budget, always put us at the kitchen table with the bills and the pay stubs--they make it all so simple.

But when times have been tough at home, I went out and sought ways to increase my income. There was a certain amount of spending we either could not reduce or which did not seem prudent to reduce, so I earned more.

And that's what the Republicans seem to so blithely not be willing to see: Need more money? Raise taxes.  Add new taxes. Get us out of the recession, and people will have jobs, pay more taxes and then we can cut back on those individual taxes because the tax base will have expanded.

But somehow, this does not seem a possibility to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. It does not fit into their belief system.

So there we have it:  Unshakable beliefs are the immovable object. But what do the Democrats have in the way of Irresistible force?