Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/29614
Join the staff at Up & Coming Weekly & Kidsville News! Now hiring a Bookkeeper. Full-time, must be pro cient in QuickBooks and MS Of ce, AP/AR, payroll. Looking for a self-motivated team player to start immediately. Uvrvwrvv2$# '1' 2%$1 Political Pulp Fiction by PITT DICKEY If you liked the recent shut down of the government budget ballet between our fearless leaders in Washington, you are gonna love Dancing With the Debt Ceiling coming soon to a Congress near the Potomac. This upcoming classic moment in democracy reminds me of Quentin Tarantino’s excellent fl ick, Pulp Fiction. The movie was fi lled with excitement, danger, anxiety, crushed hopes and splattered brains. The plot was very similar to what the Congressional ruckus over lifting the debt ceiling promises to provide as entertainment for the masses. Bread and circuses, Tea Party goofi ness and the fi rst ever default by the U.S. government on its debts. The federal government is going to fi le a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. It’ll be the greatest show on Earth. I can hardly wait. To refresh your recollection, Pulp Fiction starred two hitmen, Jules played by Samuel L. Jackson and Vincent played by John Travolta, who are in the employ of Marsellus Wallace, an assertive and philosophical mob boss. Marcellus, in a different context, made a statement that could apply to the national debt: “Congress is fi lled to the brim with unrealistic goofballs, goofballs who thought the debt would age like wine. If you mean it turns to vinegar, it does. If you mean the debt gets better with age, it don’t.” In Pulp Fiction we had Marcellus battling Butch played by Bruce Willis. In the defi cit-raising battle we have Republican Congressdude Paul Ryan battling President Obi. Ryan has proposed a new improved Republican budget plan that uses a pair of pliers and a blowtorch to get medieval on Medicare, Medicaid and poor people. President Obi is trying to rise above it all and let Harry Reid duke it out with the Republicans. Jules would describe President Obi’s vision of himself in the coming debt dance as “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfi sh and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the fi nder of lost children.” Curiously, President Obi has to get an increase in the debt ceiling he voted against while a Senator. The Prez is beset on all sides by the raging Tea Baggers who claim to be conservative as long as the government doesn’t 8 UCW APRIL 20-26, 2011 fi ddle with their personal medical care. Ryan’s plan doesn’t mess with Medicare for those over 55 who coincidentally make up the majority of the Tea Party. They got theirs, to heck with the rest of the lost children. The Republican plan wipes out Medicaid and gives more tax breaks to the wealthy. The poor will always be with us, just not as long. They’ll just be sicker and die quicker in a Republican future. Ryan’s budget plan reminds me of a disreputable song, “They say there is a natural order to things/The most deserving end up with the most/ That the cream naturally rises to the top/But I say poop fl oats.” Once upon a time, President Obi had Rahm Emanuel as his political hitman to whack Republicans. As Jules would say, Rahm, “will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is Rahm when I lay my vengeance upon thee.” Rahm could take on the Tea Baggers and their wholly-owned subsidiary, the Republican party, and smite them back to 2008. But that was yesterday and yesterday’s gone. Now Rahm is off in Chicago registering dead voters for the 2012 Presidential election. He can’t get medieval on the Tea Party to help out Obi. Obi is all alone. President Obi in a quandary. Can he stop the Tea Party from sending the U.S. into default? Will he have to get his hands dirty? Should he imitate Jacob rassling an angel and get into a knock-down, drag-out fi ght with the Tea Baggers? If the Republicans put the kibosh on raising the debt ceiling and the U.S. defaults, how much poop will actually have to hit the fan before the debt limit is ultimately raised? Do we care if other countries stop buying American bonds? Do we care if the credit markets seize up like they did in the Great Recession? Do we care if adjustable mortgages adjust into the stratosphere? Does it matter if Social Security payments don’t get made? Does it matter if the Army doesn’t get paid? As Jules once said, “If my answers frighten you, then you should cease asking scary questions ... Mind if I have some of your tasty beverage to wash this down with?” PITT DICKEY, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? editor@upandcomingweekly.com WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM