Can We Get Out Of This Mess? Part Two

Going back a few years, virtually all of the so called “experts” didn’t see the problems of the truck gathering speed coming down the highway toward the economy. The drum beat of “free markets” seems to have warped their minds. Like fanatics in anything, they put their minds into suspended animation and allowed themselves to be blinded by their total belief in the system that had been concocted in their imaginations. Further, they were so disconnected from what was happening to real live Americans, who were basically unassociated with Wall Street or corporate board rooms, that they couldn’t grasp the hardships that were befalling many of their countrymen.*** When signs of economic trouble began to become more apparent, they chose to hide behind the nonsense of their free market slogans. They said to those who tried to sound the alarm, that they were nothing more than like “Chicken Little,” claiming that the sky was falling. Thus began the “period of denial.”

Denial led many of the “experts” to underestimate what was and is going on. This whole process continues, as, in my own opinion, even the new Obama Administration doesn’t quite get it. They get it more than the Bush Administration, but the sky could have fallen on Bush, and he’d have probably seen it as some new signal from God. Beware of people who claim to hear from God or gods. We can excuse the religious writers from ancient times for claiming to hear from deities, as they didn’t know any better. Folks, today hearing voices and getting secret messages from a deity is called “mental illness.” That’s the name for it. At least when Bush was drinking, he’d have had a better excuse. And Bush claimed to be fighting against “Muslim religious extremists,” which they are, but it also takes one to know one.

So far, Obama permitted the “stimulus package” to be crafted outside of his own oversight. While I understand the big picture, it doesn’t mean that the Republicans and some Democrats didn’t have some very valid points about some silly parts to this package. For such an important piece of legislation, and one that may well go a long way towards defining his presidency, Obama let this one get away from him. The idea that $10-$15 more a week in most people’s pay (due to tax cuts) will somehow save the Republic from the catastrophe we’re in, is nonsense!!!^^^ And to get the tax cut, you have to have a paycheck; something millions of American workers no longer have!!! Do you want to smack Pelosi and Reid, or do you want me to do it?

Obama’s basic premises are correct, in my opinion; that is, rebuild American infrastructure, give a major boost to renewable energy sources and expand this energy segment into a major job producer, upgrade the electric grid, provide financial aid to states so that they don‘t have to layoff workers and cut services.+++ The bill that went through Congress was pretty much lacking in imagination, except for pet projects by many Democrats in Congress. There needed to be far MORE money, for example, for infrastructure, as most of the folks who have made studies of America’s infrastructure problems say that it will take 2 to 3 TRILLION dollars to bring the country up to some acceptable standard.

While I didn’t exactly expect all of that in this bill, it only provides about a cup of water in a five gallon bucket. Now, they can always come back later and say, “The original bill was just a down payment, and we need....(fill in the amount) to do more.” That’s not to let the Republicans off the hook. After the bill passed, a couple of Republican congressmen released statements to their constituents about projects in the package for their own districts, while failing to note that they had voted AGAINST the bill. Talk about having it both ways!!! Okay, these are politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, and that’s what they do, and we shouldn‘t be surprised by it. The idea that somehow politics will be transformed because of economic calamity is wishful thinking. Which brings me to another political situation that has garnered much media attention...bipartisanship.

I think its good that the president tried to court Republicans, but this can only go so far. They were able to peel off the three moderate Republicans in the Senate,~!~* but House Republicans remained united in opposition to the bill. I’m not naive, and there was lots of political positioning by both sides during the whole process. Again, the bipartisan outreach can only go so far, as some Republicans, especially those many on the far right, will NEVER go along with Obama’s proposals. We saw this during the Clinton years. Clinton was far from some leftwing ideologue, and many of his proposals were not what a number of Democrats in Congress really favored, but the Republican rightwing opposed the plans anyway. Polls show that Americans want the politicians to work together, but there are major philosophical differences at times, and bridging that gap, unless absolutely necessary, may cause more problems that what it would be worth.

Anyway, down the highway comes that speeding truck. So far, the response has been “Let’s throw some orange barrels in front of it to stop it.” The Obama Administration is proposing a way to help on foreclosures and another way to help the financial system. It remains to be seen exactly what the proposals are, and their potential to stem the onrushing truck. To me, if they don’t get out of the economic orthodoxy, and quit the free market malarkey, and start thinking outside the box, they may not be able to stop that speeding truck from running over all of us.

The Bush Administration, along with Fed Chairman Bernanke, fooled around with these banks far too long. They ended up taking the step of partially nationalizing some of the most troubled banks, but every time we heard how things were fixed, another crisis arose. The time has come (long since, in my opinion) to nationalize the banks. If the government is just going to keep throwing money at them, take the damned things over!!! Later, when things stabilize (I hope that’s not wishful thinking on my part), they can be sold off again, in whole or in part, to private investors. All of this crap to try to preserve some semblance of free market capitalism has done little to halt that speeding truck. I guarantee the free marketers, if the banks are nationalized, I WON’T wear a little red socialist flag on my shirt. We’ve had this hand wringing by the capitalists before in our history, for instance, when Roosevelt closed the banks in a “bank holiday.” The world didn’t end, and Americans didn’t don little red flag pins then either.

Well, this is going to require a "Part Three," if not "Part Four," (Hey, what can I say? I'm verbose!) but I promise to post the word histories first, hopefully by tomorrow.

***My absolute disdain for these people leads me to offer the opinion that they wouldn’t have cared what was happening to their fellow Americans anyway, as they were/are focused on one thing and one thing only...their self gratification at mo’ money, mo’ money, mo’ money!!!

^^^I hope I’m wrong, and I’ll be more than happy to admit such in the future when we can evaluate something of the effects of this package.

+++Take note, Obama and his people have basically been careful to say that the package will “create or save” 3 to 4 million jobs.

~!~*There was more political posturing here, in my opinion, as the idea that shaving off about $50billion from the bill will save the country from financial disaster is ludicrous, especially when the income tax cut was lessened. I thought that’s what Republicans wanted, more tax cuts. The original proposal, which was pretty much Obama’s campaign promise tax cut, was whittled down in the final bill. So help me, you can’t take your eye off of them for three seconds, and I mean people in both parties. That’s my bipartisanship for today. Franklin Roosevelt didn't worry much about the discredited Republicans of his time. In fact, as to the wealthy, he made reference to them in a somewhat famous speech where he mentioned how they hated him, but that, "I welcome their hatred!!!" That's the attitude we need now, and I echo FDR's sentiment!!!