|
|
Republican 2.0
It was bad enough to see John McCain - a man I held in greater esteem than any
other Republican in the last two decades - flipflop like a landed trout during
his campaign.
Let me return to the respect point for a moment. I would have considered
voting for McCain in his first Presidential bid. If you know me, you now
understand the gravity of the situation here.
But he flipflopped. And we're not talking about a billion for education or a
couple billion for the space program - we're into what Senator Everett Dirksen
called 'real money.' The bailout programs that have been flying around our
government like so much material in the chimpanzee exhibit were the objects of
love of both parties. I was shocked to see them in anything remotely
approaching agreement. Bipartizanship when more than five bucks is on the line
is just unheard of.
McCain's flipflop was from: "No, I do not believe that the American taxpayer
should be on the hook..." to the rhetoric of "But there are literally millions
of people..." Remember: these two quotes are gapped by less time than I am
consious for a straight run. And I'm not talking about my grad thesis years,
either.
Seeing a single politician cave is one thing. No-one in their right mind denies
the kind of money that gets thrown at these guys, and it isn't surprising that
a percentage of them would take, well, a percentage. Seeing a presidential
candidate flip - well, he probably read his contribution numbers that night and
realized that sticking to his guns on this one was going to mean sticking to
his senator's seat. So - no surprise.
But the ENTIRE F-ING REPUBLICAN PARTY?!?!?! These are the same guys that were
standing in one line to hand your money to billionaire CEOs who came flocking to
Washington to stand in the other line. Where was their voice of dissent then?
If you'd told me in October that the Democrats were going to be fighting the
Republicans to give money to big business, I would have laughed in your face.
It was the only thing the two sides seemed to be agreed upon.
Governments are supposed to spend to curb recession and save to curb inflation.
Unfortunately, that means that you have to operate as close to debt-less, on
average. I think that a $10,000,000,000,000 (count the zeroes) debt, along with
the kind of economic shrinkage we saw in the last quarter of the Bush
Presidency, is absolutely crippling. We got here by planning from election to
election. As long as these assholes are still more concerned about their own
jobs and their wallets than they are about the well-being of 300,000,000 human
beings, we're stuck in this mess.
This country has little left to export but military power. If we have to
rebuild our economy on borrowed money, make damn sure that we can see a return
on that investment. It's your money. Actually, if you pay US taxes, the US
debt after the Bush Presidency (I always choke on the phrase) is over $30,000.
That's not your family, that's not your houshold, that's YOU. The slice of the
pie for the average US family (3.14 people) soars over $100,000.
No, really. The $10 Trillion is gone. We're talking about upping that ante by
another 10%. Make sure it's a good one. Make sure it is done wisely. Don't
hand it to CEOs who've already shown they can't be responsible. Build. Learn.
Teach.
TEACH! By the time the current classes graduate, over 90% of the world's PHDs
will be in Asia. (Former Singapore ambassador to the UN and government
minister, Professor Kishore Mahbubani)
|