Thursday, July 21, 2011
exclusive for Truthout/Buzzflash.com
http://www.gregpalast.com/its-not-default-of-obamajail-gop-deadbeats-for-debt-crisis/
Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist gave debtors' prison a bad rap. Too bad. I'd say that locking away GOP Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a penitentiary for deadbeats seems like a darn good idea.
Bush reads from My Pet Budget Let's talk about how we ended up in this pickle, bucking up against the "debt ceiling." From 2001 to 2008, a Republican President took an annual surplus of $86 billion left for him by Bill Clinton and ran up the budget deficit to over half a trillion in a year ($642 billion in 2008). Altogether, George W. Bush blew up the national debt by over $3 TRILLION--then left the bills to Barack Obama.
For eight years, Bush spent like a drunk monkey. The world was the GOP's Bergdorf's and they had our credit card. If there was a shiny new war on the shelf, they just had to have it: Iraq, Afghanistan, and let's not forget the Fantasy Wars, the half a trillion dollars a year on fancy-ass weapons for a war that won't happen. (Example: the Virginia Class submarine. The V-class was designed to attack Soviet subs. There are no more Soviet subs, but Bush ordered three dozen anyway--at $1.8 billion each.)
And tax cuts? Don't get me started!
The Bush Administration acted just like Sarah Palin when she was set loose in that Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis--grabbing whatever she could carry because Sarah could put it on someone else's account.
The GOP's fattened frat boys feasted--but when the waiter arrived with the bill, the belching rich kids looked around, pointed at some poor schmuck sweeping the floor, Mr. John Q. Veteran, and said, "THAT GUY will pay."
By the way: Congressman Cantor, the guy leading the Republicans' refusal to lift the debt ceiling, voted for the V-class sub as well as Bush's bogus scavenger hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. But now Cantor doesn't want to pay the bill.
Y'know, Congressman, maybe you think my parents were fools because they taught me: If you buy it, you pay for it.
Apparently, that's not the rule at Cantor's country club.
The sick assumption of this entire debt ceiling debate, as we hear from talking heads whether on Fox or PBS, is that this is our deficit; as if you and I got a tax break or Amazon delivered that submarine to our door.
And the flapping lips on TV also assume that there must be some kind of "compromise" in which the spending spree by the rich must be paid for by the working class. The Washington elite agree we must pay for tax holidays for hedge funds by closing health clinics.
Of course, the GOP is right abut one thing. President Tiger Wuss will do just that: make the poorest among us pay the debts of the richest. Here we have a bunch of economic terrorists--"Agree to all our demands or the economy gets it!"--and Obama's idea of leadership is to offer the berserkers three-quarters of what they demand.
Thank the Lord and Michele Bachmann that 75% isn't enough for these greedsters.
Solution: Don't pay the banksters
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