This is Literally Not a Metaphor. Seriously.

Before you read this, a note from dictionary.com:

met·a·phor   

[met-uh-fawr, -fer]  Show IPA

–noun

1.

a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our god.” Compare mixed metaphor, simile ( def. 1 ) .

2.

something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol.

That is all. Thank you.

What if we’re not broke?

By E.J. Dionne Jr.,

Sunday, March 13, 7:49 PM

“We’re broke.”

You can practically break a search engine

Who here actually believes that E.J. knows how the internet works?

if you start looking around the Internet for those words.

673,000 hits showed up for the phrase “we’re broke.” It took me .11 seconds to check this. Just by way of contrast “numa numa” clocked in with 1.36M hits. 

Mercifully, I didn’t break Google.

They’re used repeatedly with reference to our local, state and federal governments,

Also personal finances, foreign government finances, corporate finances, general slang, political commentary, financial commentary and virtually anything that has to do with money (1.51 trillion hits).

almost always to make a case for slashing programs — and, lately, to go after public-employee unions.

Unless this column is going to make the case for slashing programs or rail against Richard Trumka, (which we all know it isn’t) you are clearly misunderstanding the usefulness of search engine hits.

The phrase is designed to create a sense of crisis that justifies rapid and radical actions before citizens have a chance to debate the consequences.

I have a theory. Look at what liberals accuse Republicans of doing, and 9 out of 10 times, they’re actively doing the exact same thing. Everyone knows by now the “never let a crisis go to waste” mantra of the Obama administration. It’s not like I need to dig deep to come up with examples, either. Obama’s entire first year in office was passing unnecessary bills under the guise of an emergency. The stimulus was a prime example. Even Obamacare was billed as an emergency. Faulting Boehner and the Republicans for invoking our dire financial straits when credit ratings agencies are seriously considering downgrading the US debt is the height of hypocritical bickering and mindless partisanship, especially when the alternative is tap-dancing along the edge of a cliff. The federal government’s gold-plated armor is that AAA- debt rating. Any chink in that armor will accelerate all of the government’s financial problems by raising the cost to service debt. It will also throw the financial markets into turmoil—which is why international financiers are pushing a decoupling of the dollar from international markets—and almost certainly lead to another recession.

Just one problem: We’re not broke.

Behold the benefit of being able to print money.

Yes, nearly all levels of government face fiscal problems because of the economic downturn.

Well that’s certainly news.

But there is no crisis.

The deficit is at 10% of GDP. That’s a crisis.

There are many different paths open to fixing public budgets.

1)      Lower interest rates (not possible)

2)      Infulx of overseas capital (not possible at the scale needed)

3)      High GDP growth (helpful, but highly unlikely, given how high this would need to be and that the United States claims a mature economy)

4)      Raising taxes (undercuts #3) or cutting spending (most attractive)

5)      Inflation (Weimar Republic, anyone?)

6)      Defualt (Looking more attractive every day)

In truth, only a mix of 3, 4, and a (hopefully little) bit of 5 is really going to get us out of this.

And we will come up with wiser and more sustainable solutions if we approach fiscal problems calmly,

You can look at this as calmly as you want; I listed every option out of a debt crisis. “Remaining calm” has no positive impact on finding a solution. We know all the possible solutions. This is just a buzzword for those advocating procrastinating from the painful realities of our problems.

realizing that we’re still a very rich country and that the wealthiest among us are doing exceptionally well.

This idiot still thinks that we can tax the rich to prosperity.

Consider two of the most prominent we’re-brokers, House Speaker John Boehner and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Consider them considered.

“We’re broke, broke going on bankrupt,” Boehner said in a Feb. 28 Nashville speech. For Boehner, this “fact” justifies the $61 billion in domestic spending cuts House Republicans passed (cuts that would have a negligible impact on the long-term deficit). Boehner’s GOP colleagues want reductions in Head Start, student loans and scores of other programs voters like, and the only way to sell them is to cry catastrophe.

They could also argue the inherent and blatant immorality of siphoning off private money to augment the private wealth of others, but the “we’re broke” line is working, I suppose.

Walker, of course, used the “we’re broke” rationale to justify his attack on public-worker collective bargaining rights.

Mad props, big ups or whatever the kids are saying these days.

Yet the state’s supposedly “broke” status did not stop him from approving tax cuts before he began his war on unions and proposed all manner of budget cuts, including deep reductions in aid to public schools.

I’m sorry; I see neither the contradiction nor the hypocrisy. Passing tax cuts in the wake of a major neighbor (Illinois) passing tax increases is just a good idea. If Wisconsin is able to form a business-friendly atmosphere (admittedly still a work in progress) then why shouldn’t businesses migrate from Chicago to Milwaukee? Aside from getting used to Packers fans and fending off the occasional skirmishes with ax-wielding Canadian-sympathizers from the north woods, it’s pretty much the same thing. Well, it’s vaguely similar. Work with me.

In both cases, the fiscal issues are just an excuse for ideologically driven policies to lower taxes on well-off people and business while reducing government programs. Yet only occasionally do journalists step back to ask: Are these guys telling the truth?

Actually it happens all the time. Then they see that our national debt is about to surpass GDP, collectively shit themselves, and realize that we are, in fact, broke.

The admirable Web site PolitiFact.com examined Walker’s claim in detail and concluded flatly it was “false.”

I’ll see you’re PolitiFact and raise you a PolitiFact. Mine has the distinct advantage of Politifact explicitly saying that Rachel Maddow’s argument that Walker was manipulating the crisis for political gain is “wrong”

“Experts agree the state faces financial challenges in the form of deficits,” PolitiFact wrote.

“But they also agree the state isn’t broke. Employees and bills are being paid. Services are continuing to be performed. Revenue continues to roll in.

Jesus, even bankrupt companies are still hiring in A/R and collections.

 A variety of tools — taxes,

Why would you increase taxes when the money will simply feed public union largesse? (Keep in mind, the revenue-generating capacity of the individual states taxes are vastly different from the revenue-generating capacity of federal taxes.)

layoffs,

The whole point of this was to prevent layoffs of public workers. Walker even billed it as such. Repeatedly. It was an admirable—though soft—goal.

spending cuts,

Word.

debt shifting

Oh that sounds productive.

—    is available to make ends meet.

And isn’t that the situation that we all want to be in? Debt shifting to make ends meet?

Walker has promised not to increase taxes. That takes one tool off the table.”

We’ve been using that tool for decades. Force-feeding a gluttonous leviathan doesn’t bring prosperity, stability or any of the other hallmarks of good governance.

And that’s the whole point.

What, that Republicans reject the one-size-fits-all happy-go-lucky tax-til-they-drop free-for-all of the Democratic-led Keynes-a-palooza? (Once I saw the single-sentence record for hyphen usage, I just went for it.)

Bloomberg News looked at Boehner’s statement and declared simply: “It’s wrong.”

Bloomberg, as in Mayor Michael Bloomberg (D-New York City)

As Bloomberg’s David J. Lynch wrote:

Great, now I’m arguing with the outside help. Fine. This Lynch guy is equally foolish and/or unscrupulous.

 “The U.S. today is able to borrow at historically low interest rates, paying 0.68 percent on a two-year note that it had to offer at 5.1 percent before the financial crisis began in 2007.

This financial wizard does understand that the interest rate on a T-note is controlled by the Fed, right? Monetary policy is far more political than market-based, especially in the era of Bernanke.

Financial products that pay off if Uncle Sam defaults aren’t attracting unusual investor demand.

Well that’s vague. Yes, if the United States’ ability to raise capital through debt had been impaired, you’d know about it. Everyone would know about it. Deaf-mutes living in caves in southern Mauritania (4^th grade geography win!) would know about it. The market for treasury securities is among the most sophisticated and heavily traded in the world, but the majority of those trades are institutional, as T-bills, T-bonds, and T-notes back virtually every security in the market. These rates determine the yield curve against which all state government, local government, and corporate debt issues are priced. The 30-day T-bill rate is the most frequently used substitute for the risk-free rate. This underpins the CAPM, which is used for everything from the discount rate on capital financing projects to stock pricing. The risk-free rate is used in derivatives pricing models, and the t-bills themselves are often used as checks against arbitrage opportunities. If the derivatives market were undermined by a major blow to treasuries, the resultant correction and capital freeze would make a stock market crash feel like the kiddie-coaster. It would also realign the entire world financial system away from the dollar. The point is not that the rate has already fallen. The point is that the unresponsiveness of the ratings agencies has led to a market inefficiency with the US government bond ratings that, when corrected, could have crippling results.

And tax revenue as a percentage of the economy is at a 60-year low,

Very true, and yet we haven’t raised taxes at all, which should be tell you that, if only from conjecture, that income tax rates and tax revenue as a percentage of GDP have no discernable correlation.

meaning if the government needs to raise cash and can summon the political will, it could do so.”

Exactly the opposite. Far from showing that government has control over its revenue, this year’s low revenue show that the government is at the mercy of the economy, as revenues very rarely show great variance from their mean around 18% of GDP.

Precisely.

I’m glad you agree with your own hand-picked quote.

A phony metaphor

Being broke isn’t a metaphor. It’s not a simile. It’s not an analogy or an epithet or an allusion. It’s on an oxymoron or alliteration. The word you’re looking for is hyperbole. And you’re still wrong.

is being used to hijack

Pay attention to verbiage. What was the last context in which the word “hijack” was used. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that this is more coincidental than nefarious.

the nation’s political conversation and skew public policies to benefit better-off Americans and hurt most others.

How does a massive collapse of the American financial system comparatively benefit the poor?

We have an 8.9 percent unemployment rate, yet further measures to spur job creation are off the table.

By which, you mean a third stimulus. Why third? Because the first two were miserable failures.

We’re broke, you see. We have a $15 trillion economy,

Actually $14.6 trillion.

Keep in mind that we also have $14.234 trillion national debt that’s growing by 10% this year. 

yet we pretend to be an impoverished nation with no room for public investments in our future

When you say “investment in our future,” I envision labor officials diving into a swimming pool filled with gold coins like Scrooge McDuck and playing fish out of water with the leaders of the DNC.

or efforts to ease the pain of a deep recession on those Americans who didn’t profit from it

There are about 1,000 people nationwide who profited from the recession, and that’s only because they had the foresight to know that there was a bubble. If they had waited until credit ratings agencies told them that Lehman Brothers was a financial basket case, then they would be as bad off as the rest of us. You see where I’m going with the credit ratings agencies thing, right? I’ll start talking about treasury rates again. I’ll do it! Don’t make me!

or cause it in the first place.

I’m not going to have this argument again. You know in the Star Wars trilogy where Senator Palpatine starts wearing a really creepy robe and creeping around? And in the movie theater, people are screaming “Palpatine’s responsible! It’s all Palpatine’s fault! He’s the emperor!” Yeah, the people still blaming the trade federation were Democrats.

As Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) pointed out

I literally can not imagine anyone less credible. That’s not true. Joe Morgan. (Posthumous FJM Shout out, y’all. Goodnight, sweet prince.)

in a little-noticed but powerful speech on the economy

I’ve read this article three times and I still can not read this part without audibly scoffing.

in December, “during the past 20 years, 56 percent of all income growth went to the top 1 percent of households. Even more unbelievably, a third of all income growth went to just the top one-tenth of 1 percent.” Some people are definitely not broke, yet we can’t even think about raising their taxes.

Since when is it alright in this country to target citizens for taxation based on their successes. This is downright deplorable. That wealth was not stolen. They did not manipulate the poor to make what’s theirs. They took risks. They provided market-based solutions that people want. The competed, and won. These are not the types of people who are to be feared or lamented. They are the sparks that drive the pistons of our economic engine.

By contrast, Franken noted that “when you adjust for inflation, the median household income actually declined over the last decade.”

Considering that you’re probably (I’m definitely not going to take the time to look this up) taking a peak at the top of the tech bubble and comparing it to an economic trough, that statistic is a complete throw-away.

Many of those folks are going broke, yet because “we’re broke,” we’re told we can’t possibly help them.

Here’s the more important question: why should we help them? Economic stress encourages a reassessment of risk-tolerance and a rapid realignment of economic resources. By dragging out the misery, we are convincing 55 year old men who used to make $85k as middle-managers that they can find another job like that. They can’t because the economy can’t support it. Reinvent yourself. Start a business. Get another certification. Move to Wichita or Boise or Mobile. Start over. It’s difficult and painful, but these difficult decisions are, more often than not, why the rich are rich and the middle is middling.

Give Boehner, Walker and their allies full credit for diverting our attention with an arresting metaphor.

IT’S NOT A METAPHOR!!!

The rest of us are dupes if we fall for it.

No. The rest of us are dupes if we continue to read a newspaper who’s most prolific editorials writer and the editorial page editor are to fucking dumb to know what a metaphor is! I can’t believe I still read this shit. I'm going to yell at some school children until they develop body image issues.