The Debt

From the Austin American Statesman “Commentary” page, “Special Contributor” John Young remarks: “…anybody should be concerned — OK, alarmed to the point of hair loss — by the deficits facing this nation.” But don’t be fooled by his seeming conservative lean, he has a lot to say about the damages done by former president Bush’s “reign” and his “favoring of the 5% minions.”

Published on September 22^nd, “Young: Nation keeps spending as if cost doesn’t matter” may appear like it is packed full of emotional gusto, but there are many solid facts in Young’s witty, yet crass argument. The most poignant statement in his article is that ex-president Bush ran up the deficit just as high as President Obama may. The only difference is that Bush used close to $900 billion on a war. This war is now exhausting our resources (people, money, tolerance and more money). President Obama will be using our $900 billion to give back to our nearly broken country.

I could not find anything out about the author, John Young, except that he writes in the “commentary” section of the Austin American Statesman regularly. I did a little research about the deficit due to our recent “warring” in Afghanistan, and previous “spats” with Iraq. The site which John Young cites did not look credible when I went to it. It is not a government site, nor a scholarly site, but is a simple “.com” website which could be subject to bias. So, I did take some time out to look at a couple other sites. In example, there is a site that focuses on "debt and deficit" which appeared to be legitimate, but that is not for certain either, though the numbers look convincing. I also found several commentary sites, and some simple facts about George Bush’s tax cut plan (1.3 trillion dollars), among others, which, because it is a “tax cut”, was passed on to the Obama administration by the simple fact that when you cut taxes in a country, the money needs to come from somewhere. This could be from other countries, trust funds or other sources, which raises our national debt even more (ironically, while we’re enjoying our tax cut, half of which went to the top 5% of the U.S.!). In simpler terms, because of the tax cuts we are even more in debt then before Bush was in office.

Young appears to be reaching out to the more liberal-minded of America. He curtly reminds the reader that at the recent Tea Party protest, the people attending hadn’t “missed many meals” and that their attention was directed to “the buffet table throughout the Bush administration.” Performing a little of my own research, I found that a majority of people revolting against the government (in this Tea Party) consider themselves Republican. What they are revolting against is President Obama’s spending habits. What is not often stated in more conservative web-sites is that he is spending the money on (drum roll, please) the middle class! What a travesty! Where were the Republicans to start a Tea Party when Bush ran a tab of billions of dollars which flowed into the “war” in Iraq? This money was used to impose our laws and ideals and to extract our interests via force and, in my opinion, possible behind the scene manipulation.

This commentary obviously fits well into the title of “commentary”. I think that Young needs a few more facts from more reliable resources. There are plenty reliable sources and they have recorded similar numbers as the sites Young retrieved his information from, so there’s no excuse. The number “$900 billion” seems to be the golden one everyone is talking about, though there are other “numbers” less spoken of which are just as shocking and important to know of, both in the “Bush years” and now with our current president. Young’s opinion seems to me to be most valuable for entertainment purposes, but also for passionately engaging others of like mind. Well, since it is geared to those who want to reform health-care (i.e. me and the rest of the middle and lower classes) it may also be entertaining and ego-feeding for them, I admit. But some things just can’t be denied, or some numbers: $900,000,000.

That Pesky Gay Thing...

The article I chose from The New York Times twangs a personal string, which is why I chose it. This piece speaks about a, mainly, religious organization called "The National Organization for Marriage." This group has fought other state legislatures and courts that passed a bill allowing gay couples to be married. Having success in California (as it is illegal now for a gay couple to get married in California) the group has directed their focus on Iowa. Camilla Taylor, an attorney who defended many gay couples and helped to legalize marriage in Iowa, has confidence that this organization will not have success in Iowa. The process to ban a law seems to be a long one, too. Even selections of Republicans who are against gay marriage think it "would be a mistake for the GOP to put too much emphasis on the issue."

I truly enjoy the general brush-off Christopher Rants gives the issue. As if gay marriage is not a priority at all, just a minor annoyance for him. The other aspect I find fascinating is that gay marriage and other personal identity topics are made a public opinion and that the intimate lives of people are held under a microscope and judged by the nation and often the world populous. People of hierarchy get to decide whether or not those being acutely observed are "good"-in their generally non-gay, non-transgendered, "normal" opinions. It's too easy to compare much of the anti-gay mind-sets to those of earlier prejudices of our nation’s ancestors. Once upon a time, many Americans believed black people were "marked by the devil" and were a tool of Satan's ruse to destroy humanity in some demonic fashion. Henceforth, black people were only worth anything as slaves. We still backslide into out-dated beliefs to justify slandering and repressing gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people (and other categories of the repressed) who work hard in the country. Many of whom strive for what Americans would view as a "normal" life.

I always feel deeply saddened when I discover groups like this that are actually spreading a message of hate in a country that, I always assumed, was founded on an urge to escape such hatred from it's tyrannical king, George the III. Didn't are ancestors once seek equality and recognition for such inborn rights?

That there are people like Brad Clark and Camilla Taylor striving for my equal rights makes me believe that I might one day be safe in my own country. That I might, one day, be able to marry the woman I love and have it be recognized as love--nothing less-- has me pondering remaining in the country for a while. Perhaps I’ll even speak out one day for people like me. People who are, after all, people too.