Written on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 6:26am by Alan Bedenko | 5 Comments

The Wolf is At the Door

That’s the conclusion of this post by the Albany Project’s Phillip Anderson.

Global economic activity fell off a rather steep cliff about 6 weeks ago and the signs that it will rebound shortly are awfully scarce. This recession could quite easily become another Depression and it will definitely get worse before it gets better.

That’s what makes the situation in DC – where we are essentially rudderless with a numskull ideologue at the wheel – and in Albany, where one could make a compelling case for aggravated legislative malpractice and dereliction of duty, all the worse. In Washington, we are forced to wait for real leadership at east until January 20th. Not much we can do about that, though the fact that we are for all intents and purposes in a holding pattern during the most acute economic crisis of most of our lifetimes has certainly got me worried. The time for big, bold action is right now.

But the folks we send to Albany to do the People’s business have no such excuse. The absolute abdication we witnessed this week should be impeachable. This crisis is real and the state’s budget needs to be adjusted to reflect that. Yeah, there are many hard choices to be made, but that’s no excuse for throwing their hands in the air and punting.

And this is bigger than budget cuts versus revenue increases. I personally think that the Governor’s plan is flawed by it’s reliance solely on cuts on the backs of the poor and middle class. I think a modest increase in taxes on those who can most afford them is perfectly reasonable if not prudent given the nature of the challenges we face. That said, I believe now is the time to take a much more comprehensive look at the way we finance state government here in New York.

Wall St is taking a vicious beating right now, but it will eventually come back. It will never be the Wall St of the last 15 years or so again though. New York was able to avoid hard choices (or even wise ones) for so long because we were able to milk the Wall St cow for so long. Those days are over and most likely are gone forever.

We need to seriously restructure how we pay for government and what it is we pay for. It’s time to put all options on the table and to get serious about how we pay for what we want going forward long term – not just over the next fiscal year.

I’d suggest a radical overhaul of the public authorities to start. But, then again, I don’t make $90K a year to do the People’s work part time. We already elected a bunch of folks to do that for us.

The Failboat hasn’t just set sail, it’s well on its way.

(Cartoon courtesy Marquil @ Empirewire.com)

Tagged with: , , , ,

5 Comments

  1. Mike In WNY says:
    November 21, 2008 at 10:40 am

    I nominate Philip Anderson as the new captain of the Failboat, he certainly knows the direction to more Fail.

    What we need to do is rediscover the human spirit and stop relying on government to wipe our noses every time we sneeze.

  2. Timothy Domst says:
    November 21, 2008 at 8:47 pm

    Yeah, I agree with Mike, Philip Anderson goes over how serious the problem is and then what does he do? He says the solution is to raise taxes on the wealthy. That is standard NYS dysfunction.

    I’m not wealthy and never will be, but there are big problems with this. One is that many wealthy people just lost their jobs or at least their bonuses. Trying to make up the huge shortfalls with the few people in the high tax brackets won’t succeed, and next year this issue will come up again.

    NYS needs to cut everything, all over the place. Paterson is exposing the Senate and Assembly for what garbage they really are. They have the unions in the forefront of their consciousness, and their fear stinks all the way from Albany to my house, I can smell it. They are showing that they will sell out everyone in this state to preserve the unions and anyone else with powerful lobbying groups.

  3. rastamick says:
    November 23, 2008 at 5:11 pm

    Haaaaaaaaaaaaaa ! I knew when I saw the word “unions” in the cartoon Tear Drop Tim would be here ranting and raving and trying to make the anti-union case on behalf of the people who will deny him benefits, outsource his job, cut his pay and throw his ass in a debtor’s prison if only they could have a few more terms in Washington. Why people who claim they will never be wealthy but insist on parroting the anti-union rhetoric of billionaires is a true Sphinxean mystery. Oh I think I know what it is – jealousy.

  4. Timothy Domst says:
    November 23, 2008 at 5:21 pm

    I have a lot of company with people not as brain-dead and robotically programmed as you, people who see through the bullsh*t about unions as the repressed downtrodden. Your bad, broken record is not going to help you in a bankrupt NYS, and your subsidizing of the most powerful in Albany won’t help if they’re gone.

    This article is about New York, but of course with your befuddled, sound-bite choked mind you start talking about Washington. You are an idiot to whom the difference between NYS and the Federal government is a “Sphinxean mystery”.

  5. rastamick says:
    November 26, 2008 at 5:12 pm

    Did you have to look that one up T-bird ? All politics are local asswipe have you ever heard that Tip O’Neilism ? Yeah you are one to speak of sound byte choked minds with your endless bitching about unions and taxes and blah blah fucking blah. Read this : That’s what makes the situation in DC – where we are essentially rudderless with a numskull ideologue at the wheel – and in Albany, where one could make a compelling case for aggravated legislative malpractice and dereliction of duty, all the worse. In Washington, we are forced to wait for real leadership at east until January 20th. Not much we can do about that, though the fact that we are for all intents and purposes in a holding pattern during the most acute economic crisis of most of our lifetimes has certainly got me worried. The time for big, bold action is right now.

    Did you see the words Washington D.C. in there ? Oh I forgot you probably can’t see that well, I had lasiks eye surgery as part of my negotiated benefit plan that my union helped me to earn. Or was it just your inability to see anything other than what you want to see because you are a Rush Limabugh flunky who believes everything he’s told on rightie radio by blowhard like Bauerle and Sandy Beach. You keep fighting your fight with low pay and shitty benefits hating everyone who’s doing better than you are and see if you feel better in four years. I am sure I will. Shit I feel better all ready. Keep doing the Massah’s bidding for him and he’ll be sure to reward you with yet another whipping. Some of you guys won’t ever learn and refuse to be listen.

 

You need to log in to vote

The blog owner requires users to be logged in to be able to vote for this post.

Alternatively, if you do not have an account yet you can create one here.

Powered by Vote It Up