. . . think really, really hard about it.
The Houston Chronicle supports Obama, Occupy, virtually every proposal from the left to take more dollars from taxpayers (or borrow it from our grandchildren) and spend it on God knows what, and, of course, most all proposed new state and federal regulations. But once a month or so, the most conservative guy . . .
. . . in the house -- a center-leftist who whose job it is to balance the radical leftists -- gets to editorialize about how the debt and deficit are really big issues.
And the proposed solution is always the same: not to reverse the policies favored by the Chronicle that drive up the debt and defict, but to listen, listen, and listen, and think, think, think about doing something.
So it was on November 17:
Two of the most noteworthy voices bringing warnings about the risks [of the failure of the supercommittee] . . . belong to Eskine Bowles, the former Clinton chief of staff, and Alan Simpson, the former Republican senator from Wyoming.
The two men's views deserve an especially close listen. . . .
Okay. Listening is good. But what should we do? The Chronicle answers that question with another question:
Why shouldn't [the default on failure of the supercommittee] be a revisiting of the goals proposed by Simpson-Bowles? We believe it should be.
Notice that the Chronicle does not propose to enact Simpson-Bowles. The Chronicle proposes "revisiting the goals" of Simpson-Bowles, whatever in the world that might mean in the world of action. The editorial ends with a ringing call to fresh lookism:
Failure is not an option. A fresh look at Simpson-Bowles should be.
(Editorial, "Let's take another look at Simpson-Bowles," Houston Chronicle, November 17, 2011)
By contrast to the namby-pambyism on the debt and deficit, the Chronicle donned its feathered headdresses and Spandex disco rags for a victory dance Saturday to celebrate federal spending -- specifically, $900 million borrowed from the Chinese to help build more Metro choo-choo trains for Houstonians to stay away from in droves. (Editorial, "Metro gets its money [read taxpayers' money] (finally, $900 million)," Houston Chronicle, December 10, 2011)
So that's the Chronicle's formula. In the abstract, something's gotta be done about the debt and deficit. In the specific, the here and now -- borrow, borrow, borrow; tax, tax, tax; spend, spend, spend.
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