ESPN says Reyes to stay in New York I say, great news



Jose Reyes,
ESPN photo



The Mets apparently are going to make a run at keeping Jose Reyes. While there is no guarantee that they can sign him at the end of the season, they have to make the effort. He is the face of the franchise and the perfect fit for Citi Field.

The problem is money. The Wilpons’ financial woes are well known, but the return they would get for him at this point is not worth not taking a run at signing him, as the Beltran market indicates. The trade market more generally might be depressed this year. Consider what Buster Olney has to say:

So keep him and make him the cornerstone of a new era.

  • Send me an e-mail.
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Let’s talk about jobs

Ben Bernanke demonstrated a political split personality this week, first saying job-growth is the issue and stimulus is probably necessary and then following with a “maybe, not now, later, soon.”

Washington is stuck on the debt ceiling debate and the dangerous push to slash and burn the federal payroll, which will mean lost federal jobs and more state jobs flushed down the toilet. In South Brunswick. There were more than a hundred school jobs cut. Other districts did the same, as did municipal governments without anyone talking about the reality that public jobs are still jobs and that cutting these jobs does nothing to improve our debt situation (fewer workers means fewer taxpayers) or the economy (fewer workers means less money around to spend on consumer goods or housing or w en necessities).

This approach is not goin to u us to fiscal or economic health, but continue the downward spiral.

I say this all the time, but it bears repeating hers: end our multiple wars now, bring the troops home and slash the military budget. Use some ofthemmoney to pay down the debt and the rest for infrastructure and aid to states and towns. That will create jobs and create lasting improvements on which our future e onomic health can be built.

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The debt debate should be a war debate

Has the president finally gotten a spine? According to Sam Stein at The Huffington Post, President Barack Obama told House Majority Leader Eric Cantor not to call his bluff, promising to go to the American people to get something done on the debate over the debt ceiling.

And yet, why don’t I feel like the president has the back of the American people. Maybe it is the second part of his threat that has me worried:

“Eric, don’t call my bluff. I’m going to the American people on this,” the president said, according to both Cantor and another attendee. “This process is confirming what the American people think is the worst about Washington: that everyone is more interested in posturing, political positioning, and protecting their base, than in resolving real problems.”

Translation: Both sides are wrong, Washington is the problem and principle is not all that important.

Stein reports that the two sides were arguing over just how much to cut from federal spending, though he does not say what programs might be on the table.

According to several attendees, negotiations stalled from the onset over the same issues that have proved irresolvable. Working off of talks that had been spearheaded by Vice President Joseph Biden, the president said he would be comfortable signing off on northward of $1.5 trillion in discretionary spending and mandatory spending cuts. With additional negotiations, he added, he could move that figure up to $1.7 trillion, and with a willingness to consider revenue increases and tax loophole closures, lawmakers could get to over $2 trillion. His preference, he said, was to continue to push for the biggest package possible, so long as it was balanced.

What is missing from this debate is that the cost of two (some, myself included, would say three-plus) wars and a bloated military budget — along with the recession — has driven the debt up dramatically. End the wars, create jobs and let the Bush tax cuts expire and we have a good start toward righting our fiscal ship.

  • Send me an e-mail. 
  • Read poetry at The Subterranean.  
  • Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here. 
  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
    Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.