Wrong

Let me see if I have this straight, two of the most pressing priorities facing our nation are job creation and reducing the deficit. President Obama has just agreed to a deal that will do little or nothing to create jobs and will also substantially increase the deficit. He did this without bothering to consult either House or Senate Democrats. Now he thinks Democrats are being unreasonable because they are upset about this and don’t want to support it. I hesitate to say it, but President Obama, YOU SHOULD HAVE YOUR HEAD EXAMINED!

Some are buying into the explanation that Obama actually got more out of the deal than he gave up. At least one person seems to think this was a clever ploy by Obama to get a 900 billion dollar stimulus bill but the logic here escapes me. The major explanation for this strange agreement seems to come down to a form of Republican blackmail, whereby they threatened to hold up everything until they got these obscene tax breaks for the filthy rich. I don’t buy this and I believe Obama and the Democrats could have achieved tax breaks for the middle class and not for the upper 2% had they stood their ground and just refused to go along with this travesty. There seems to be some Democratic movement in this direction now that is probably too late to do anything but perhaps make some cosmetic changes in this terrible pact with the Republican devils.

If they had just allowed the Bush tax cuts (that never should have been allowed in the first place) to expire, taxes would have risen for most everyone including the middle class. This is widely considered to be highly undesirable if not a terrible disaster. I have heard people say that middle class taxes would have risen by thousands of dollars. Somehow I doubt this. Taxes would have risen to the levels of the Clinton administration (when things really weren’t too bad). Besides, if one goal is to reduce the deficit we could have used the money, and why should not everyone share the burden (they might even have come to their senses and realized their tax money is being wasted on completely unnecessary military adventures around the world). If this sounds callous I would like to hear the facts about how much taxes would have actually increased. One Union leader today said he didn’t think his members would notice much of a difference. I don’t know exactly what to think at this point. What is clear is that Obama has truly alienated his base and they are more than just mildly upset. I suspect this will end up as little more than a slap on the wrist for Obama and perhaps some minor tinkering with this terrible agreement that will allow Democrats to claim they actually made a difference.

Given my primitive grasp of economics and capitalism I cannot understand why anyone thinks we are going to create “good paying jobs” in America when all the manufacturers can get things built elsewhere for less. If there are no laws about shipping jobs overseas what will prevent them from doing what they have been doing all along? I know there is talk of giving tax breaks to corporations to keep jobs here in the U.S. but I won’t believe it until I see it. Furthermore, given the amount of money saved by shipping jobs overseas, the tax breaks would have to be considerable. This strikes me as having to bribe American companies to do what they ought to be doing in the first place, little more than a modern protection racket. As long as profit alone is the overwhelming goal of business there is no reason to suppose good paying jobs in the U.S. are on the horizon. There are, of course, some things that could be done only here at home. For example, we can’t fix our schools overseas, or our highways or dams and other infrastructure, but so far this doesn’t seem to be much of a priority (anyway we can’t afford it, you know, because we have to at least pretend to fix these things in Afghanistan and other countries).

The sad fact is, as is often acknowledged but never acted upon, the idea of government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” (or however it is described) is a thing of the past. It probably never completely existed in pure form at any time but has now simply disappeared entirely. Our Congresspersons and most everyone else that has to do with government are bought by the corporations and do their bidding, government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations, is the reality of American politics and government. Nothing much is accomplished for the “common good” because that is no longer a goal that motivates our leaders. Indeed, the only time things have been accomplished for the common welfare are when a strong leader does what is “right” in the face of often overwhelming opposition. Think of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, Teddy Roosevelt taking on the robber barons, FDR starting Social Security, Truman integrating the military, and Lyndon Johnson and Civil Rights. Would any of these important achievements have come about if they had depended exclusively on compromises? There are times when compromise may be in order, but there are some things that should not be compromised, some things that are just fundamentally wrong and are demonstrably not in the public interest. Tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans may not be the most important example one might think of, but as they do not create jobs and do increase our scandalous national debt, they are clearly wrong and should not have been allowed under any circumstances. It doesn’t matter what Obama might have got in return, they are still, under the prevailing circumstances, obviously wrong.

Unfortunately there seem to be no real sanctions to prevent political wrongdoing in the U.S. I think what the Republican Party has been doing for the past two years, deliberately saying “no” to anything Obama attempts, for the admitted purpose of destroying him and his administration, is clearly wrong. As I have said before I think it even borders on treason. Nothing can be done about it short of eventually voting these undesirables out of office, but there is no guarantee even of that, especially when they control the media, the judicial system, and most of the nation’s wealth. The only hope is to get money out of politics entirely. Good luck with that.

LKBIQ:
Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.
Malcolm X