For the children, we must spend more on education, etc.

I posted this to Brad DeLong's blog today (corrected below):

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2011/03/obama-made-a-substantial-unforced-error-in-choosing-deficit-arsonist-alan-simpson-to-co-chair-his-deficit-commission.html

If we cared about our children, we would be building renewable energy and sustainable transportation systems as if we were fighting WWII. We would be investing maximally in education and zeroing out unemployment.

We would stand for the principle that Social Security is not merely a government program (with it's own dedicated tax, and triggered pocket change increases to deal with potential shortfalls) but a social contract which will not ever be reduced, even at the expense of restoring sane taxation on rich people. It's supposed to be "secure", get it? That is for the children too, get the rich old retired so the next generation can learn the ropes and look forward to getting their own.

But apparently the only children we care about are the children of the giga rich, except that their lives are not going to be spared the consequences of our capitulation to antidemocracy.