The U.S. defeated the Fascists, built the Interstate Highway System, put a man on the Moon, and heralded in the end of Communism and the spread of Democracy. These were major undertakings, but they were successfully completed, and with a lot of government help to boot! These days, however, all we hear from Republicans is “No We Can’t”. No we can’t raise the debt ceiling. No we can’t put people back to work. No we can’t fulfill the promises we’ve made to seniors. Enough is enough.
You’ll notice that the defeatism has something in common: it’s coming from the Republican party. No, we can’t raise the debt ceiling, even though Reagan raised it repeatedly and the consequences of not doing so would be catastrophic. We can’t put people to work even with 9+% unemployment because the inadequate stimulus didn’t work, much like giving a person a quarter of a chemotherapy treatment doesn’t cure cancer. And we have to cut Social Security and Medicare and limit our federal government spending to some arbitrary number…well, just because. And once that is done and we cut taxes so much our deficit doesn’t go down at all, then the Jobs Unicorn will give us all jobs again!
So enough of this negativity. We can afford to fulfill the promises we made to workers through Social Security and Medicare, and that means we can’t afford to cap spending right before Baby Boomers retire. We can put people back to work improving our nation’s infrastructure and education. We can raise the debt ceiling while getting our deficit under control without plunging the country into another depression.
I shudder to think what life would be like today had this negativity gripped the country in the past: We can’t defeat the Axis, Japan destroyed our navy and Germany has almost defeated the Soviet Union! We can’t build a nationwide road infrastructure, it’s too expensive! We can’t put a man on the Moon, the Soviets beat us to space! The Iron Curtain will never fall, Solidarity is a flash in the pan, and the Soviet Union will never crumble!
That’s not the attitude that made this country what it is.