The Last And The Ludicrous

Unless you’re one of those people who think movies with sound are just a fad and yearn for the days of Rudolph Valentino or Charlie Chaplin, you’re familiar with The Fast And The Furious, the movie about young people and the state of the art in street racing.  Heavily modified Hondas and Nissans and Toyotas and Mazdas and even a Volkswagen or two are featured in the movie.  There was a scene at the end where a supercharged 1970 Dodge Charger couldn’t take a 1995 Toyota Supra Turbo in a drag race.  What can you expect from Hollywood?

But it occurred to me that if The Fast And The Furious was about the cutting edge of something new, The Last And The Ludicrous should be about things that are staid and as dull as a rubber knife.  I know some people will disagree with me but no where is the label The Last And The Ludicrous is more applicable than with the many politicians who appear to be trying to make a name for them selves at the expense of the stimulus plan being put forth at the federal level.

Conservative congressmen are fighting for the public’s attention as they fight for the limelight and beat their chest to prove how strongly they embrace their new found fiscal responsibility against deficit spending in the first sixty days of this new administration.  These congressmen talk about deficit spending as if it is some new phenomenon that was developed by President Barack Obama’s administration.

The last few years of deficit spending with no bid contracts for global conglomerates with strong ties to the previous administration were ignored like so much fiscal rain.  Tax breaks during a time of military activity was a new phenomenon during the administration of President George W. Bush.  There was never uttered a single peep from the conservative peeps.  And now that they have gone from positions of total political control in the federal government to yesterday’s cliché, these people want to reverse their position of fiscal leniency that saw the federal deficit double from five to ten trillion dollars in eight extremely long years to a position not approving a dime of a deficit.

And the earmarks!  I have to laugh to keep from crying and roll my eyes to hear these people talk about all the pork in this stimulus bill.  The last number I heard was that there were nine thousand pork projects in this bill.  Everything from volcano research in areas that have the potential to suffer significantly from a volcano eruption to the funding of studies for a number of bugs and pest is included in this bill.

However, I was watching Meet The Press With David Gregory when South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham was complaining about the stimulus bill, regurgitating the same argument made constantly and consistently without much in the way of deviation.  Mr. Gregory pointed out to the Senator that his fellow Republican, Senator John McCain, mentioned a pet project of Mr. Graham that made it as part of the stimulus bill as one of the many earmarks.  Mr. Graham didn’t blink as he said something to the affect that he owed it to his constituents to fight for every penny that he provides.  The hypocritical message is that earmarks are awful for everyone else and only Mr. Graham’s constituents are the only constituents that deserve them

Chest thumping and earmark attacking aside the global economy is in a jam.  Somebody likened this to a situation where a patient is sitting in the operating table of the emergency room while two quacks argue over the best way to proceed with saving the patient’s life.  Neither one wants to listen to the other as they bicker over the patient’s treatment and the nurse wheels the dead as a doornail patient away.   The doctors are last to realize the patient is dead and ludicrous for their less than helpful approach to servicing a person in need.

If people have a better way of approaching the mess we’re in then by all means they should step to the plate, stop the presses, and present their groundbreaking strategy.  But the idea of saying no just to be saying no is hardly responsible right now.  Tax breaks that target the well to do, saving my five bucks a week in the process, won’t do a thing for getting things back to doing well.  I heard a guy on the radio say that a tax break isn’t going to help his business if he doesn’t have customers to keep his business going.  Somebody figured it out that we’ve already tried the tax cuts thing.  It didn’t work.  In fact, it’s part of the reason we’re in the fix we’re in.

Anyone who continues to adhere to this faulty strategy in order to get us back to fiscal health is truly one of the last and the ludicrous to understand what’s going on.  Unable to try anything new people want to stay the course like lemmings over a fiscal cliff.  The last and the ludicrous would never do anything different.