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Recently, the bond rating
agencies that gave junk derivatives triple-A ratings threatened to downgrade US
Treasury bonds if the White House and Congress did not reach a deficit reduction
deal and debt ceiling increase. The downgrade threat is not credible, and
neither is the default threat. Both are make-believe crises that are being hyped
in order to force cutbacks in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social
Security.
If the rating agencies
downgraded Treasuries, the company executives would be arrested for the
fraudulent ratings that they gave to the junk that Wall Street peddled to the
rest of the world. The companies would be destroyed and their ratings
discredited. The US government will never default on its bonds, because the
bonds, unlike those of Greece, Spain, and Ireland, are payable in its own
currency. Regardless of whether the debt ceiling is raised, the Federal Reserve
will continue to purchase the Treasury's debt. If Goldman Sachs is too big to
fail, then so is the US government.
There is no budget focus
on the illegal wars and military occupations that the US government has underway
in at least six countries, or the 66-year old US occupations of Japan and
Germany and the ring of military bases being constructed around Russia.
The
total military/security budget is in the vicinity of $1.1-$1.2 trillion, or 70%
-75% of the federal budget deficit.
In contrast, Social
Security is solvent. Medicare expenditures are coming close to exceeding the
2.3% payroll tax that funds Medicare, but it is dishonest for politicians and
pundits to blame the US budget deficit on "entitlement programs."
Entitlements are funded
with a payroll tax. Wars are not funded. The criminal Bush regime lied to
Americans and claimed that the Iraq war would only cost $70 billion at the most
and would be paid for with Iraq oil revenues. When Bush's chief economic adviser, Larry Lindsay, said the Iraq invasion would cost $200 billion, the
White House Moron fired him. In fact, Lindsay was off by a factor of 20.
Economic and budget experts have calculated that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars
have consumed $4,000 billion in out-of-pocket and already incurred future
costs. In other words, the ongoing wars and occupations have already eaten up
the $4 trillion by which Obama hopes to cut federal spending over the next 10
years. Bomb now, pay later.
As taxing the rich is not
part of the political solution, the focus is on rewarding the insurance
companies by privatizing Medicare at some future date with government subsidized
insurance premiums, by capping Medicaid, and by loading the diminishing middle
class with additional Social Security tax.
Washington's priorities
and those of its presstitutes could not be clearer. President Obama, like George
W. Bush before him, both parties in Congress, the print and TV media, and
National Public Radio have made it clear that war is a far more important
priority than health care and old age pensions for
Americans.
The American people and
their wants and needs are not represented in Washington. Washington serves
powerful interest groups, such as the military/security complex, Wall Street and
the banksters, agribusiness, the oil companies, the insurance companies,
pharmaceuticals, and the mining and timber industries. Washington endows these
interests with excess profits by committing war crimes and terrorizing foreign
populations with bombs, drones, and invasions; by deregulating the financial
sector and bailing it out of its greed-driven mistakes after it has stolen
Americans' pensions, homes, and jobs; by refusing to protect the land, air,
water, oceans and wildlife from polluters and despoilers, and by constructing a
health-care system with the highest costs and highest profits in the
world.
The way to reduce health
care costs is to take out gobs of costs and profits with a single-payer system.
A private health-care system can continue to operate alongside for those who can
afford it.
The way to get the budget
under control is to stop the gratuitous hegemonic wars, wars that will end in a
nuclear confrontation.
The US economy is in a
deepening recession from which recovery is not possible, because American middle
class jobs in manufacturing and professional services have been offshored and
given to foreigners. US GDP, consumer purchasing power, and tax base have been
handed over to China, India, and Indonesia in order that Wall Street,
shareholders, and corporate CEOs can earn more.
When the goods and
services produced offshore come back into America, they arrive as imports. The
trade balance worsens, the US dollar declines further in exchange value, and
prices rise for Americans, whose incomes are stagnant or
falling.
This is economic
destruction. It always occurs when an oligarchy seizes control of a government.
The short-run profits of the powerful are maximized at the expense of the
viability of the economy.
The US economy is driven
by consumer demand, but with 22.3% unemployment, stagnant and declining wages
and salaries, and consumer debt burdens so high that consumers cannot borrow to
spend, there is nothing to drive the economy.
Washington's response to
this dilemma is to increase the austerity! Cutting back Medicare,
Medicaid, and Social Security, forcing down wages by destroying unions and
offshoring jobs (which results in a labor surplus and lower wages), and driving
up the prices of food and energy by depreciating the dollar further erodes
consumer purchasing power. The Federal Reserve can print money to rescue the
crooked financial institutions, but it cannot rescue the American
consumer.
As a final point, confront
the fact that you are even lied to about "deficit reduction." Even if Obama gets
his $4 trillion "deficit reduction" over the next decade, it does not mean that
the current national debt will be $4 trillion less than it currently is. The
"reduction" merely means that the growth in the national debt will be $4
trillion less than otherwise. Regardless of any "deficit reduction," the
national debt 10 years from now will be much higher than it presently
is.
