By Charles P. Pierce , Esquire’s political blogs 

IMAGE: This is how it happened.

First, Barack Obama hires the rancid flotsam of Wall Street to command the economic team tasked with salvaging the nation from what the equally rancid jetsam of Wall Street had done to it.

Not surprisingly, these people pivot the administration towards “deficit reduction” rather than balls-out stimulus as the solution to an economy gradually being cored out by nine-percent unemployment and the inevitable crash in demand that resulted from that. At which point, the administration appoints the Simpson-Bowles Commission, a pathetic collection of Beltway has-beens and, in the case of Alan Simpson, one mummified relic of an earlier age who was notable only for the fact that he apparently was born full-grown as a bitter, nasty old prick and only has gotten worse with age. At one point, Simpson memorably replied to a concerned constituent:

And yes, I’ve made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. You know ‘em too. It’s the same with any system in America. We’ve reached a point now where it’ s like a milk cow with 310 million tits! Call when you get honest work! Continue reading »