The Grandpa Moishe School of Gin: Plan Ahead

My Grandpa Moishe's yahrzeit began at sundown tonight. He left the building 44 years ago and a day doesn't go by without my wishing I could tell him something or other. He was my dad's BFF and mine, too. He started married life driving a horse and delivery wagon for Blum Folding Box where he would work for the rest of his life...for a long time with my dad. Several summers were spent at Blum where I could drive my dad crazy and my Grandpa to lunch. But that's not why I am invoking Grandpa Moishe's name. I am more interested in one of the great lessons I learned from Grandpa, a lesson that continues to be at the center of my thinking:  Always Plan Ahead

Life lessons were taught during our endless games of gin. I was a card sharp at 6. Playing gin with Grandpa was an ongoing event. We never kept score, we never knocked, but we played to the death. I am a graduate of the Grandpa Moishe School of Gin....confound and confuse your opponent until they can't think straight but closely watch the second and third throw, then the six and the seventh. He believed that everyone had a tell and exploiting the tell was the surest way to win. (I'm not sure that's really true, but it did work on making Ziggy, my grad school dorm friend, crazy....crazy enough to want to marry me, but that's a story for another day)

That lesson is one rarely taught, at least not to those clowns who hold elected office in both houses of Congress. In all this debt ceiling brouhaha, I have yet to hear the GOP side of what to do when they slash the social welfare net. Back in October of 2013, during another debt ceiling debacle, I wrote:

The shutdown of this government coupled with the pending refusal to service the debt ceiling is not exactly a covert attempt to topple this nation. Just like in Libya and Egypt, the cabal is plotting to overthrow the president and not necessarily with an election. When the shutdown fails, they will attempt to impeach him. They will attempt to do whatever it takes to get President Obama out of office. They assume they will wrest power from whomever, but here’s the thing: once they have it, what are they gonna do with it?

If you wanna play scary for Halloween tricks, try thinking about this for a while. In all their talk of repealing Obamacare, did you ever hear them mention an alternative?

In all their talk about killing programs like SNAP and WIC, have you ever heard them propose what to do with low wage earners who can no longer afford a roof AND food?

In all their talk about illegal immigration, have you ever heard them discuss who is going to do the agricultural scutt work that Americans don’t wanna do?

And in all their talk about job creation, have you ever heard them mention what kind of jobs they’re creating while they’re shipping more and more manufacturing overseas?

If the Republicans want to negotiate, they’d better start showing up with plans in public. Let We, the People decide who has the better long range vision for this nation.

My dad, a staunch Republican, read that episode and immediately called. Of course, he called me alarmist...which he often did...but then told me I was right about no plans ever being laid out to deal with the havoc default would wreck. We had a long talk about this, and he invoked his dad's philosophy. "They don't look ahead, much less plan ahead." He went on to explain that his father believed that governments rarely planned ahead; they only waited for disasters so they could fix them to make themselves look good. 

Right now, that jackass Speaker McCarthy is only interested in keeping his job. He will sell out most of We, the People in order to do that. His ultra-right wing cabal dangles the speakership over his head like some kind of misanthropic Damocles' Sword, waiting to slice him in half should he wander from the party line. His position has nothing to do with what is best in terms of good and welfare for the We, the People, it's only about retaining power; the rest of us be damned. 

I suspect a deal will be reached in the next 24-48 hours because that's how brinkmanship plays out. Whole sectors of America will be screwed while others with have fatter wallets.  And do not think this is between President Biden and just Congress. Governor De Santis, a congenital idiot at best, threw in his 2¢ on May 9th, saying:

I think the idea that you would just raise [the debt ceiling] without anything is ridiculous. And we were $21 trillion in debt like five years ago, and now we’re $31 trillion in debt. And I think Joe Biden’s position is you just keep spending like no end and eventually it’s going to solve itself. 

What they’re spending now is significantly more than what Obama’s budget his last year of President projected for this year, and even with what they’re doing to reduce. So I just find it ridiculous that you would have Biden taking the position that there should be no reforms whatsoever to what the government is spending. I think what they’re doing [hard-line position taken by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy]  to me is common sense. I don’t know why you would want to continue going the direction they were going. 

Eventually, this is all going to cause major, major problems, you haven’t seen, necessarily, the crisis that some people predicted. But I don’t see how you could go on this trajectory and not see something bad.

Huh? Did anyone notice he completely skipped over the deficit increase during Feckless Loser's administration? As if the GOP actually helped things? Even Charles Durning's SIDESTEP was clearer than this.

But it keeps coming down to the same set of issues I've been harping about for year. If you want to cut programs to save money, what are you putting in their place?

Or are you really expecting people to die off because they cannot afford to live?

This is not a specious question. IF you are reading this AND you are a GOP supporter, point me in the direction of what comes next when the social safety net is gone. I sure can't find it. I can find bleak references to cutting spending, but not who's gonna take care of grandma at home while everyone is at work. Grandma can't afford a nursing home or private care to stay in her own home, so it's either your house or a box under a bridge.  

These are not the BIG problems that CongressClown McCarthy wants to talk about. These are the small, everyday problems most of us face on a daily basis. I did. I had my father-in-law with me for the last five years of his life, but I was lucky; he was in okay shape until the day his heart stopped. One of my friends, however, is a prisoner in her own home because their household income on paper doesn't qualify for help with nursing home costs OR in home health aides for her rapidly deteriorating husband. She can't work, she can't leave her husband alone even for an hour, and she pays exorbitant fees for someone to come in while she runs to the grocery store or drug store. Don't get me started on what she pays for meds for him. They will run out of money eventually, sooner if there is no Social Security. They thought they had planned ahead...insurance, 401Ks, IRAs, and Social Security. But their spending has increased exponentially...and not on vacations. They just downsized again in hopes of saving energy bills and other expenses. Debilitating illness does not discriminate against those who can and cannot afford reasonable care. 

But the GOP wants to cut Social Security and Medicare to save costs without any sort of plan in the wings.  At what cost to We, the People?

No one holds their feet to the fire on this. And if We, the People don't start demanding that they come forward with their health care plans, drug plans, and affordable housing plans, We, the People are just as guilty as they are. 

2 Clowns McCarthy and Graves

When asked what it would take to break the apparent negotiating deadlock, Speaker McCarthy said, "June 1st." I think that means the US will have to default for both sides to negotiate. You gotta wonder what they're planning for?

Three playground bullies, Congress Clowns McCarthy, Graves (R-La), and McHenry (R-N.C.), holding an entire country hostage. How much more disgusting can it get?

As usual, silence implies consent. Try to remember that as you begin to plan ahead for your alternative futures.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Take a hard look around your present circumstances.

What happens to your quality of life if there is a default and the market crashes?

Do you have a contingency plan in place?

You should.