Tempest in a Teapot

When does Debt, Become Debt?
The recent “Tea Parties” called nationwide to protest the huge debt that the nation has incurred are interesting, because the people who are calling them are of the party that created most of the debt, the GOP. GOP leaders, local, state and national are wailing and moaning over the debt crisis like it came to light on January 20th of this year. I guess they are hoping that people have a short memory and have forgotten that 99% of our present debt burden occurred on the watch of President George W. Bush. In 2001, shortly after he came in office, he passed with the help of a GOP lead House and Senate, a 1.3 Trillion dollar tax cut that largely (over 48%) benefited the top 1% of our society, with the bottom 60% getting a so-called rebate of $600 that turned out to be an advance on your 2001 return. That September 11th, we entered a new era of our epoch with the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, our nation was at war with an abstract idea, called Terrorism.

Unlike other times in our history when we went to war, we fought them and paid for them with increased taxes at the same time. In this war against terror, we did not raise taxes or even restore the 1.3 trillion dollars in tax cuts enacted earlier in the spring, but raised spending for war aka defense, from 380 Billion to over 500 Billion, not counting what we were spending in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2002 we passed another $380 Billion in tax cuts, again favoring the top 1% of our society. Meanwhile, the war on terror crept into our daily lives with the passage of the Patriot Act and the creation of monolithic government agencies, who under the guise of “Homeland Security,” listened in on our phone conversations, e-mails, purchases and the books that we checked out of the library without cause. The war that began with our invasion of Afghanistan in early 2002 was escalated in 2003 by the invasion of Iraq to prevent the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) by the Hussein regime. The WMD were never found and never there, but we still are there, spending billions each week to spread democracy and freedom to a people whose only wish is for us to get out of there. This war was and is still fought by selling debt, as the House and the Senate authorize over $1.2 Trillion dollars in discretionary war spending each year that dwarf’s our total spending on social programs for the people. The debt buyers are the Chinese, Japanese, Saudis and others who want to park their money in the safest place in the world, the US.

From January 20th, 2001 till the 19th of January, 2009, there was no mention or protest from the party of Conservatism, the GOP, about out of control deficit spending by the Administration and the leadership in the House and the Senate. Now, the GOP have taken up the cry of the budget with a vengeance, citing the stimulus bill as wasteful spending, even though it represents a lifesaver being tossed to Americans drowning in the seas of financial insecurity. The Trillions of taxpayer dollars being spent to “bail out” the banks and financial houses were represented last fall, as necessary as the financial community was said to be “too big to fail.” At the same time, the millions of Americans were slipping under the waves of a financial tempest induced by allowing the foxes (AIG, CitiCorp, and the Bernie Madoff’s) to run the financial hen house. This scenario was caused by the repeal of a law, “Glass-Steagle” that had been in effect since the Depression to keep banks from becoming involved in riskier financial entities, like Hedge funds, and Derivatives. It was repealed with GOP and Democrat votes in a US house and senate influenced by Phil Graham, Mitch McConnell, Robert Rubin, and Larry Summers, then signed into law by Bill Clinton in his final months in the White House.

So if we are to protest, call a Tea Party in the real spirit of those dissenters who dumped his majesty’s tea in Boston Harbor. Don’t be political pawn, who is used to take a shot at the current administration, but do your own research and blast all of the usual suspects, GOP and Democrat, who cleared the way for our present situation, where the top 3% control 60% of the economy.