Coming home to roost

Suddenly, the press and the business community is discovering that maybe all that stuff about cutting the federal government is, well maybe, Bad For Business.

Gosh, who would have thought? (Answer: most economists.)

If Americans don't have jobs, or are underemployed, or are afraid of losing the jobs they have, they won't be buying a lot of the products that American businesses need them to be buying. If state and local governments see tremendous shortfalls in their budgets, they are going to be laying off police, firefighters and teachers. Surprise: unemployed folks don't buy much and don't pay much in taxes. As Robert Reich recently said, "this [part of economics] isn't rocket science."

A lot of the business community -- as represented by the Chamber of Commerce -- and a lot of the "wealth" community has been cheering and financing the Tea Screamers. They saw this as a way of using their movement as a front for cutting their taxes and regulations; in other words, as a way of making more money and keeping the money they have. Of course, they said it would be "good for the country"; it's what they always say.

With the stock market tanking and the outlook bright for a double-dip recession, they are maybe thinking it over (or maybe not).

As I've said before, many self-centered business people (like Grover Norquist) and the Party for The Rich (formerly GOP) have created a monster in the form of the Tea Party, and that monster has gotten out of control. There are some among them who knew better, but greed or cowardice prevented them from speaking out. Now, with trillions on the cutting block and the economic outlook looking less rosy each day, they are starting to whine.

The unemployed (and soon-to-be-unemployed) are under the bus. The voodoo economics that was used to justify tax cuts for the rich and program cuts for everyone else is, with each passing day, losing more of its mojo.

I'd be looking forward to them losing their shirts as we careen down the road to third-worldism, if it weren't for the fact that the rest of us will lose our shirts first. I think Mr. Obama may get his wish for "shared sacrifice" (Good Grief, he's still saying it!) in a way he didn't intend.