Last year’s campaign slogans were Hope and Change, and I voted for both of those. But it simply isn’t enough to hope for change, change demands action.
There are two critical changes that need to be made now.
The first is to stop spending what we don’t have. It’s time to cut up the credit cards and pay down the debt. With our national debt scheduled to reach almost 13 trillion dollars this year, we have almost reached parity with our GNP. Without a plan to reduce that debt, it can only increase at our current levels of spending, and our spending is growing every year! What will happen when the payments on our debt reach the point that they take money away from vital government programs? What will happen as a result of putting off infrastructure repairs and maintenance to spend money on special projects? What will happen when social security becomes bankrupt and Medicare and Medicaid consume ever larger chunks of the public pot? If we continue to borrow, we will soon be at the point where we can’t afford the payments and at that point everything crashes. We will suffer the worst economic meltdown ever. If we default on our debts, it could even lead to war with foreign debt holders!
The second is to quit giving public money to the rich! In the last 18 months we have seen a massive handout to the wealthy of America as public funds have been thrown here and there to rescue those deemed “too large to fail”. CNN Money estimated this past December that the total amount handed out to the rich was almost 8 Trillion dollars! This is not counting the 1.2 Trillion dollars in “toxic assets” which was “purchased” by the Treasury department this year (that was not borrowed, it was stolen - by printing more money and “expanding”, the money supply. Expanding in this case is the same thing as diluting – diluting means that the money we have is now worth less than it was before).
An interesting side note: there was quite a fuss this year when it came out that the federal government had made deals with AIG executives to give them fat bonuses to try and rescue the company after the big meltdown last year. The bonuses promised to the AIG workers (none of whom were responsible for the problem, but who agreed to step in and try to fix it) were nothing compared to the bonuses owed to executives of the banks rescued by the Treasury department last year (these are the executives who presided over the failures of these banks)! The Wall Street Journal estimated the executive compensation packages at the rescued banks to be around 40 Billion dollars. That’s considerably more than the pensions for all the other employees of those companies put together, and a lot more worthy of protest as these bonuses are going to the people responsible for the melt down (and if they had been allowed to fail, we wouldn't be liable for their executive compensation)!
Last year I sent a note to my congressman protesting the 700 billion dollar handout congress gave to the rich. He told me they were too big to fail. I say it’s time to change: we need a new congress, one that can say no to the rich and quit robbing the working classes of America of their future.
I'm listening; let me know what you think.
I agree whole-heartedly with your assessment Edward. People seem to like those simple buzz words (hope & change) but, they seem to reject the one thing that will actually make change happen: ACCOUNTABILITY. Yes, it is a more complicated concept. Most of us are so spoiled in this society that we want everything to just work out. We set up automatic payments for our personal bills. We use a debit card and most people don’t even keep the receipt. We send our children off to schools and expect they will be taught the basic educational concepts like reading, writing and arithmetic. If we don’t check our bank statements on a regular basis, if we don’t check our kids homework and report cards, we are just waiting for disaster. We elect people to represent us in our government. We send them off to Jefferson City or Washington and hope they actually represent us. They get sucked into the black hole of politics. We need to find representatives that will reject “special interests” and vote for OUR interests. I know it sounds impossible but if we could eliminate ALL political campaign contributions except from individuals, and limit those to say $500, that may be the only thing to save our system of government. Whatever your view, write or call your representatives. Make your voice heard!
Posted by: John Gabris | September 12, 2009 at 12:25 PM