Marie's Picnic

Things don't always turn out the way we plan. For example, when we began putting together Friday's 'Daily Felltoon', some of our normally reliable online tools weren't quite their usual, fully-functioning selves (If you missed Friday's cartoon Click Here, or Friday's commentary Click Here).

When it comes to the jobs numbers and the economic situation in the United States, the Obama administration is learning a hard lesson about those plans right now.

The lesson isn't what some currently are saying - that America just can't pull itself up by its bootstraps right now. As we pointed out last Thursday, the problem isn't that Americans aren't willing to do the hard work to pull our economy back from the brink.

Our political leaders, however, are a different story.

From the left, the excuse that's heard most often is one that resounds with a story of fatalism - a story we're frankly tired of hearing. As Paul Krugman pointed out over the weekend, we know exactly what the problems are, and we know how to solve them. It is true that we don't have access to some tools to help pump up demand - for example, we can't cut short-term interest rates because they're basically zero. So that tool for driving demand isn't available. But that's NOT the only tool in our toolbox.

As Krugman also states, "We should be using fiscal stimulus; we should be using unconventional monetary policy, including raising the inflation target; we should be pursuing aggressive measures to reduce mortgage debt. Not doing these things means accepting huge waste" - waste, something modern conservatives claim to hate almost as much as taxes.

No, the problem on the left simply lies in not having the political will to do what's needed. Yes, House Democrats are claiming they'll push for more infrastructure spending and other stimulus measures in the face of Friday's jobs report. Sadly, their claims are reminiscent of those many on the Left made during the poorly-handled health care reform debate - too little, too late.

On the right, the sad fact is that they simply don't care. The compassion-free attitude of modern so-called conservatives, as Charles Blow noted over the weekend, is the real problem. The richest of the rich have been able to con many poor into thinking that someday, they'll be rich too - so the rich should never have to pay any more taxes, if we're going to repair our economic standing.

As Mr. Blow also noted, that's a false choice. We've said it repeatedly, as has anyone else who understands the economic problems America faces: BOTH sensible tax increases - especially on those who can most afford it - as well as sensible spending cuts are THE ONLY way to get our economic house in order. BOTH - not either/or.

Yet those on the right - even when they grudgingly admit corporations are swimming in cash and don't need big tax breaks, as Bill Kristol pointed out over the weekend - still insist that tax cuts WITHOUT additional sources of revenue are the only way forward. As Nicholas Kristof pointedly noted, if Republicans and conservatives are so set on finding a country that meets their current ideology of how things should be, they should move to Pakistan.

Unfortunately, this lack of courage on the left and lack of concern for others (and acceptance of reality) on the right are putting most Americans in the position of ants at a picnic, scrambling for scraps, while our so called leaders still feast, seemingly without care.

It's highly recommended that both sides change their tune, and stop focusing on their own pieces of cake before the 2012 elections - or they could find themselves politically headless come November 2012.