A little Confidence and Thought Please

It is really hard to formulate a confident outlook after watching the recent squabbling in the legislative bodies over what amounts to wooing Tea Party and independent votes. It is doubly hard with the current financial news that is a direct result of that squabbling. All our congressional and senatorial mainstream council can’t seem to hit their ass with both hands because they are tied behind their backs. Their hands are tied by Tea party ideals that will not work by themselves, at least at this time, and they are tied by companies through all parties who stand to lose with the reforms Obama wanted to see like insurance and credit card strangleholds, banking reforms, oil subsidies and even subsidies to other countries.  We have the vote but really big business has the money and our vote is being influenced by their money and in the form of digital rhetoric.

                Even before Obama was elected it was a well-known fact that he wanted to reform the amount of control these big companies have on the American people. He wanted to get this country to thinking renewable energy so that we could get out of the Middle East eventually and he was looking to mend our foreign policy void with the Middle East countries that are spawning terrorists who attack us. However, the lobbyists took charge to make sure that he was discredited to save their financial interests and are now doing what they can to make sure the economy does not succeed, for if it fails, so shall he. I say: if he fails, so shall we. So, my question to American is: if we elected him to do all those things as we did, why are we letting the goons tell us that doing those things is bad for us and similarly driving this country into the ground in the name of winning?

                It is interesting to me that people have not even noticed that Obama has done quite a bit to make the government more lean including trimming the numbers of some departments and asking every employee what he or she thought would help their own departments to shed a few pounds of bureaucratic fat and then acting on it. He has nudged the BLM into more of a local agency by allowing field offices to make decisions on a neighborhood basis instead of a one size fits all policy. The military has cut some really fat projects that were only there to satisfy one legislative district costing us billions in some cases. Those are just a few  of the things accomplished, but they go unnoticed because people who stand to gain from failure have kept people stirred up over ridiculous, frivolous things to the point that many have taken their eye off anything to do with policy.  

                In my thinking there is a definite need for reform in our government and there are parts of the Tea party ideals that are important and in fact necessary, but you cannot run a household without income, and the lost revenue from taxes is killing us on our blind side. There was a reason for Bush to set those tax cuts up to expire…because they were not sustainable. In my thinking, there is also a bit of an “agenda” underlying with the Tea Party that is no different than the fun loving support for the oil companies or the mega-farms and unions of the other two parties. Indeed the Tea Party leaders have put together an agenda of zero tolerance including for the aging “baby boomers” and their ownership of Social Security and Medicare.  Both programs need some revamping which is something Obama wanted the health care bill to address, but they are now being called “entitlements” like we are all beggars for our own money. They are insisting that we are too controlled, yet they want to control our right to an abortion, marriage, education and religious practice. I heard one Tea Party Representative say recently that they are not there “to compromise” and that caused me to shudder to tell you the truth; my way or the highway?  Is democracy not all about “compromises”?

                We untied the apron stirrings with England in the 1600’s for a reason and it had little to do with Tea and everything to do with the church in government and individual freedom. For some reason the story of our American heritage has been taken way out of context of late and people have failed to understand that the constitution was written to be a guide and gives provisions to flex as those "founding fathers” knew it would need to.  People are crying foul of government as if the problems just started two years ago; in reality, they have been going awry for decades. We did not fall off the path of democracy recently as some would have you believe and we certainly are not seeing political tactics like the debt ceiling increase for the first time. What we do see these days in government policy is the takeover of politicians by lobbyists hired by the insurance companies, oil companies, churches and food companies to make sure their businesses are considered first when it comes to legislation…period. They do not consider the American people, just like they did not consider us when they were stretching the debate out on the debt ceiling, when ideology took precedence over the economics of the here and now. They did not think of the millions of 401k’s or retirement accounts that are going to suffer with the turmoil over whether to pay our bills or not.

                I know some are not fans of hearing that Bush inherited nearly a trillion dollar budget surplus from Clinton and healthy economic growth, but it is a fact. It is also a fact that Bush put forth the first economic stimulus package that we borrowed for after dribbling the failing economy along with tax refunds, lowering interest rates and tax cuts primarily for the rich. All of the measures were too little too late, forcing the incumbent President to react to the horrible economy, banking practices that were the height of greed and two wars that were being funded without economic cash flow. Now, the stimulus monies have run out for the most part, Obama’s opponents have convinced Americans that he is a Muslim witch Dr. from Kenya, and the economy has suffered heavy losses three months in a row while the rich are paying the lowest taxes in 80 years. While everyone is blaming everyone else in the legislature there is literally trillions of dollars waiting in the private sector for nothing more than a positive economic climate and a little optimism.  They were on the verge of investment across the board until this latest political stunt to run the ship aground.

                Economically at this time we cannot afford to step up to the ideals of the Tea party leaders and continue to cut without investment. It would be great to get this fat cat government to go lean, but doing an crash diet now will break us, and by the look of it today we are headed for another recession or worse and perhaps globally. We are in need of investment and interjection if we hope to regain the economy we had even four years ago let alone after Clinton got done shaping it. We were on the verge of righting it but our confidence was undermined by those who stand to gain from failure. The best thing we can all do is hold our leaders accountable in the legislature by telling all of them to work for us, stop taking the politicians and the media rhetoric to heart and get behind this President and tell the politicians to do the same.  A little thought on information you hear would also go a long way toward healing.