Man oh man, doesn’t any of these so called experts who bloviate
on the tube get it. Really you would
think that if you were being paid to have an opinion you would least understand
things. First and foremost, the current
deficit didn’t arise in past four years.
There is a fundamental teaching in Buddhism that goes, “If this, then,
that.” A simple concept to be sure and easily
understood. This follows that.
To hear
the neocons and the blowhards on Fox, you would think that Obama created the
budget deficits. Let get with the facts,
when Bush was handed the presidency by a bias court, the budget was
balanced. He then proceeded to propose
and get passed a budget with a substantial tax cut. Then his vice along with the secretary of
defense proceeded to plot and plan their adventures in the Middle East. September 11th gave these dark and
nefarious “evil doers,” the opportunity they were waiting for. Two things about the misadventures in Iraq
will illustrate my thesis. It was a
greedy grab by two disreputable curs to 1) get the oil and dump American crap
like Wal-Mart on the Iraqi people and the rest of our toxic capitalism and 2)
give Halliburton open access to the US Treasury. This incursion into the Middle East was
really costly, but the Bush Administration with a budgetary sleight of hand was
able not to budget for the war. How that
happened is a mystery but how the Democrats let it slip by is
unpardonable.
When you
have a structural deficit, it means simply one is spending more than one is
taking in. Most states are required by
law to balance the budget. So if you
hear an ex-governor, like Romney, speak of his experience of balancing a
budget, remember it is the law that does it not him. Of course, governors can fudge the law by developing
authorities and other such things, but this is not a discussion of public
administration. Suffice it to say, the
federal government is unique because it can print money. So, here you have these Fox knuckleheads
screaming about the deficits when it is their asinine positions responsible for
the deficits. The irony of ironies is
that these collections of “No-Nothings” scream their craziness on a supposed
business channel. Only in America, well,
not true, this scenario could be played out in Wonderland, because it is very,
very curious.
Where
are the Democratic apologists? Where is
the President? When talking about the
deficit, they, he needs to put it to them.
Of course, the “No Nothings” never deal with facts or reality when
confronted with an opposition to their inane policies, practices or acts, they
merely scream some untruth or resort to name calling all the while adopting
some smug know it all demeanor. That
people actually buy into this bull never ceases to amaze me. Of course, Obama has a hand in this fiscal
debacle.
When
Obama was awarded that Peace Prize he should have quoted both Gandhi and King
and proceeded to effectively stop the wars.
That act would have been both a political and budgetary act worthy of
his campaign. To have bought into the
military BS that a surge was needed was to adopt the policies of Bush and the
nefarious characters he had surrounded himself with. Second, he should have opened an
investigation in the actions of the vice president and his cohorts and
uncovered the rat’s nest that that office had created. What I am saying is Obama’s election was a
seminal event in this country and the world, his actions from day one should
have rose to the lofty historical event.
Unfortunately, the wheels of mediocrity and bullshit spun like it always
had.
Once
there was an opportunity to truly part ways with the so called tried and true
practice of governing. There was a
window that would have allowed this country to forgo its insane jingoistic practice
of economic colonialism. We should have
tarred and feathered the crooks on Wall Street who flagrantly put our economy in
the throes of a recession. To employ a line from “On the Waterfront” and to
paraphrase, “We could have been a contender” in the ring of a truly new order
where the lives of our greatest minds and their dreams could have shaped our
actions towards a world order often talked about but never seen. Alas, the moment has passed and we are stuck
with choices. We live in a world
confused and befuddled with moguls strutting about proclaiming their greatness
when in fact like us they are bounded by the limits of being human. To look into the world and not see the
absolute horrors that abounds and to blithely assert that there is super class
of entrepreneurs who know how to get things done is to close one’s eyes to the present
and not have a clue of how we got here.
We are stuck in the bog of our past, chained to positions that make no
sense, guided by forces of greed and entitlement. That the job of president might just be a
ceremonial office of bounded by an inability to do what one wants is a reality
that might be at the heart of our difficulties.
J.K. Rowling on the Daily Show commenting on the state of our political
system suggested that perhaps we should reaffirm our allegiance to the Queen
and adopt a parliamentary form of governing.
Because, perhaps, just perhaps, this grand experiment of governance has
meet its match in partisan bickering where truth is buried in ideologies, and
incompetence reigns supreme, and where knowledge has no place in the face
ignorance, and where high ideas are jettison in the pursuit of nonsense.
Our
political parties are merely shades of grey.
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