We're days away from a federal default on debt, whether it be on bonds or delaying payments to social security recipients. I still very much doubt that will happen, but in the meantime things are beginning to get dicey. We have Minnesota shutting down their state government for 20 days. We have recall elections taking place in Wisconsin in the wake of the rape of the public worker's collective bargaining rights.
And now we have federal agencies bracing for a lot of pain. In fact, the Federal Aviation Administration shut down its tax revenue collection offices at midnight last night. Please explain to me in what world when we're facing record budgetary shortfalls, it's at all acceptable for the government to stop collecting revenue? And of course, in response airlines raised their rates to take the savings from consumers and increase their bottom lines. Greedy corporations will nearly always do what is best for their bottom line - not what is best for the individual consumer or for society at large. The notable exceptions - the airlines that have at least temporarily passed the savings on to consumers are Frontier Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and Virgin America. Kudos to them. They deserve special mention when the rest all raised their rates an average of 7% overnight.
This is only the beginning if the debt default were to actually happen. We've got children, idiots, and madmen running the country. It's time for a big change. Kick the bums out. Start with every single Republican who has signed the pledge not to raise taxes. Their ideological purity fails the minute it is faced with the realities and responsibility of running a country.
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