These dubious expenditures are also not in the U.S. public interest for they will undermine democracy in Egypt and uphold dictatorship. In the case of Israel, the money will help uphold racist authoritarianism, ethnic cleansing and religious bigotry. All of which (including the aid to Egypt) has been successfully encouraged by the financial power of the Zionist lobby.
Part II -- John Boehner's Bipartisanism
According to House Speaker John Boehner, the 2015 federal budget is a product of bipartisan compromise: "Understand all these provisions ... were worked out in a bi-partisan, bi-cameral fashion." However, this can hardly be the whole story. Boehner's statement implies that there were only Republicans and Democrats in the proverbial back room where the budget was worked out and that everyone was practicing sweet reason so as to come to a compromise that benefits the nation.
In truth, looking over the shoulders of those representing both parties were numerous lobbyists who had given a lot of money to all these politicians and now wanted something back for their investment. As a result, we as a nation, as a community, were thoroughly outbid by the trucking industry, the bankers, agribusiness, and a good number of conservative ideologues who want the right to gut the federal government (particularly the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service) while monopolizing funding of our two major political parties. They want to do this so that, among other things, they don't have worry about regulations or pay even a reasonable amount of taxes.
Part III -- Conclusion
The ultimate conclusion we can draw from this "bipartisan" process is that there is no sense of national interest, and damn little sense of community, in the American political system. Both concepts have been superseded by the particular parochial goals and sense of solidarity of groups and subgroups with the deep pockets necessary to buy legislators and legislation. This is what happens when democracy allows itself to be captured by an increasingly unregulated capitalist ethic -- an erosion of any politically based sense of a need to work for the common good.
The really depressing part is that for most of our national history it has not been very different. In the mid nineteenth century President James Polk, himself a man of questionable integrity, observed, "There is more selfishness and less principle among members of Congress than I had any conception of, before I became President of the United States." Well, the problem persists, and given our political way of doing things, it may never be fully overcome.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
2
