The American people were held in utter contempt by the Bush Administration, and treated as fools while the banks and their political allies engineered the final transfer of wealth into the hands of those who essentially demanded that taxpayer money be given them to repair an industry they broke themselves. The money was not so much given them, as it was taken.
Congress gamely argues that transparency into the workings of the Federal Reserve is a public right. That is non-negotiable and Congress should not feel it necessary to belabor the abundantly obvious fact that the public essentially owns the Federal Reserve. There are sound political reasons for keeping the Federal Reserve apart from public scrutiny. Federal Reserve Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky says, "The eventual, total price tag for all the government's bailout programs could reach 27.3 trillion dollars, if the economy continues to flag." Barofsky added, his office examined over 300 banks that did not use their bailout money for its intended purpose - to circulate the money through the economy by lending. Instead, the banks used the taxpayer's money to pay off debts, hold on to for a rainy day, and of course reward top officers for their part in bringing down the economy.
Congress postures and orates grandly as the American people are bled dry, and the banks remain aloof to any regulations or minimal standards of social and economic behavior. The republicans have accomplished their long held goals. They have finally succeeded in bringing down a nation that had once seen social justice as a central tenet of its value. The republicans have reduced the U.S. to a scratching, begging entity, that must plead day to day for more handouts from foreign lenders.
Americans richly deserve their fate. They have ignored all the warnings and caustically dismissed anyone who tried to caution them of the impending economic collapse. Limbaugh, O'Reilly and the Fox News crew assured intellectually vacant Americans that only Liberal Democrats were to be feared. Today, as the states fall like dominos, Wall Street investment houses report record profits, and jobless claims, foreclosures and falling corporate profits contribute to the nation's falling economy. Americans, smugly ensconced in their self righteous and simple minded political convictions, have succeeded in shooting themselves in both feet. Almost half of the electorate turned out for Mr. Deregulation McCain in election 2008, plainly demonstrating the entrenched ignorance of an electorate not bright enough to stay away from the stove after having already been burned.
The rural, or red republican states, are the source of much of the ignorance that has visited republican majorities and Right Wing Presidents upon the nation. South Carolina is one such state. Mark Sanford, its Governor, was quite taken with the recent tax protests referred to as "Tea Parties." Mark went very publically refused the millions of dollars in state aid that Obama sent him as part of the stimulus plan. But Mark, being the fiscal conservative that he is, flew away to Argentina on his state's dime to see his girlfriend. When Mark disappeared without explanation his staff decided it best to reveal Mark's enthusiasm for the great outdoors, and went on to explain he went hiking along the Appalachian Trail. When Mark returned from his tryst, he wept copiously as he confessed his great sorrow and remorse. In South Carolina the Governor, even if he is a lunatic, can get away with this. Mark did not resign his office, and South Carolinians did not demand his resignation. Hell. They'll probably re-elect him!
Obama's much vaunted National Health Care plan could have been paid for many times over with the money stolen by the bankers and Wall Street. Nonetheless, Obama yammers on about his plan for National Health Care. Congress explains why it is impossible to bring universal heath care to Americans. Any such plan must be approved by the Health Care Industry Lobby because any successful health care plan would put the current for profit Health Care Industry right out of business. Perhaps Congress should read the U.S. Constitution and compare the rights of Americans with those of corporate lobbyists. So health care reform will fall into the general category of fixing education, cutting the waste from defense, and introducing campaign finance reform. Obama and Congress pretend to seriously address health care reform, while accepting more lobby money for their re-elections. Obama knows why and how he was elected, and it had nothing to do with health care, or any other kind of social justice.
Political victories come in various forms. They are rarely beneficial to the broad interests of any given population. Politicians will serve those who reward them. Devotion to public service is a claim that no one can seriously believe. Any politician who declares himself a devote servant of the public is hiding something, or lying for advantage. Politicians are useful only insofar as they are able to negotiate with enemies, or influence the populace to work together or apart. They are nominally useful in other respects, but any consideration of them as unselfish arbiters of peace and prosperity exaggerates their usefulness, and invites their contempt. Politicians consider themselves well above the fray of common men. Any positive contribution they make to the society of which they are a part is incidental to the advancement of their own interests. Americans have, for some time now, fully prescribed to the republican philosophy by which they believe the nation should be governed - "it's everyman for himself."
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