By Jim Hoover

It is unmitigated idiocy to be cutting the federal budget now with over a 9% national unemployment rate. We need more investment spending on infrastructure, education, and manufacturing technology.

Miscreant Republicans are controlling the debate on this topic. They know that sitting presidents normally have difficulty being re-elected with unemployment over 8%. Curiously, the mainstream media knows this too, but yet is overwhelmingly acquiescent to the Republican budget cut steamroller.

Having considerable support among the people against spending cuts, Obama is figuratively cutting his own throat by compromising with deficit cutting plans of the Republicans, even considering once sacrosanct programs like Medicare and Social Security. Any sane economist knows that the Republican position is cynical, self-serving, and disingenuous, and that more stimulus is needed.

Republicans and their corporate media have left no room for intelligent debate, let alone the certainty that budget cuts will kill the feeble economic upturn and guide unemployment upward again.

Even if we do not have a default on our debt, a lunacy that would cause global turmoil, raise interest rates and put us in a hole for decades to come, trillions in budget cuts will cause the economy to crater anew, the vulnerable will suffer even more, progressives will be further alienated by Obama cowardice, and unemployment will rise above 10% again.

Future historians will see us all as an unkind people with totally incompetent leaders – half misanthropes and half cowards. History, if allowed to be written objectively, will depict the rich as abusers of power, users of government, and puppeteers of elected representatives of the people, thus deeming our republican form of government a sham.

The new poster boys with the “Robber Baron” mantra will be the Koch Brothers with inherited wealth, who seem to figure in attempts to engineer right-wing Supreme Court votes, like that of Thomas, Scalia, and Aliota; in “tea party” schemes to defeat Obama, and health reform; as puppeteers of Republican governor lackeys and attempts to kill unions; and in the Republican House leadership’s plan to weaken or destroy EPA regulation. I am sure I have missed other endeavors.

Republicans, Wall Street and the rich in general spend their time, their money and the money of the people to enrich themselves, harm the people and destroy our futures.

That is a truth that annals of the past 40 years have documented, evidenced by the progressive decline of middle class prospects.

Like beggars through a store window, we can continue to watch a drama we pay for, produced by a media owned by the rich, featuring shining celebrities and the filthy rich driving their Maybachs, like the one featured above, a car we’ll never own?

Unfortunately, it is becoming real life, but slowly enough that most of us, somewhat placated, choose not to notice.