The Zombie Presidency

THE ZOMBIE PRESIDENCY
by Ian Masters

A majority of Americans breathed a sigh of relief when the Bush/Cheney regime ended, but has it? Like the zombie banks, the era of government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich lives on, with massive transfers of wealth from the poor to the rich continuing, as beleaguered poor and middle class taxpayers bail out the banks we are told are too big to fail.

Unfortunately for those of us too small to succeed, the American dream has to be deferred as our children and grandchildren get saddled with the debt we are piling up in the hope that Main Street will be stimulated once the gamblers and bookies on Wall Street come clean and get paid off with more of our money. Unwitting taxpayers are angry they rewarded bonuses to the insiders who created a rigged casino and manufactured their own chips to bet the house then bring it down. But they have focused their outrage on only one thousandth of just one shakedown, AIG, while the real scandal is the "cash for trash" transfer of what's left of the treasury to Wall Street's big banks who will end stronger as Main Street gets boarded up.

This Robin Hood in reverse phenomenon is not new. It began when Ronald Reagan declared he was taking the handcuffs off the millionaires and putting them on the welfare queens. Since then wages have remained stagnant as working Americans have maintained their standard of living on credit from banks who get cheap money from the Fed they then loan back at usurious rates.

Meanwhile productivity has soared, with the benefits going to capital, not labor. Under George W. Bush the transfer of public money to private hands accelerated as lobbyists and revolving door Congressmen, cashing in on public service for private gain, captured Washington to the extent that most politicians today represent special interests, not people. 
 

When Reagan cut taxes for the rich while rewarding the Military Industrial Complex with billions from the remaining overburdened poor and middle class taxpayers, the resulting deficits his budget director David Stockman warned him about ballooned. Reagan's deficit also became an extra burden on those unfairly taxed, since the servicing of the resulting debt, which was largely owned by the rich, had to be paid by the poor. 
 


About the only voice of outrage back then in the Congress came from Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who railed against this double jeopardy. Mercifully, Moynihan did not live to see what George W. Bush managed to pull off after Clinton paid down the debt and left a surplus for Bush.

With a self-proclaimed mandate from his "War on Terror", Bush opened up the treasury to the usual suspects and then some. In a spree of corporate socialism he invited crony contractors to embed themselves at the government trough, in effect taking money from the Post Office to subsidize Fed Ex and UPS. However these "Beltway Bandits" who hung up their shingles did not have to deliver services, as long as they offered private jets to their political patrons. Meanwhile the rest of us have become POW's in the class war Bush successfully waged against America's poor and middle class.

So here we are, America the screwed, and we only have ourselves to blame since you get the government you deserve. Now the question is, does the populist rage out there get focused on political action with millions phoning, emailing and marching on Washington, or do we sullenly pay up and hope the stimulus works? The last time this happened, it was not solved by the top-down largesse of FDR, but rather from the bottom-up outrage of the American people that was felt in Washington, forcing politicians to act with a New Deal. We've had a bad deal for the last thirty years, now it's time for a fair deal.
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Ian Masters is the host of "Background Briefing" and "Live From The Left Coast" Sundays 11 AM to 1PM on KPFK 90.7 FM radio and at ianmasters.org

Comments

[sofloridafan]

No doubt we want to see more populist action from the PROTUS..ho­wever we do need to give him a fair shake and some time to work. As someone who does business witth the Govt.... the average person has no idea how bad the prior administration has messed up the day to day running of various Govt. departments and they are still sabatoging same where republican leadership has not been replaced. The only time we notice this is when a big issue comes forth such as FDA oversight of peanut manufactures. The idea of conservative small goverment is a non-working Govt. and takes it leadership from executive appointments. Many of these appointments from the prior administration are still in place and it will take some time for change. It is especially frustrating as I see job creation opportunity being wasted.

[Gidster]

Hey Ian! and you too jerry,

It's been 2 months. 2 months of Republican obstructionism, 2 months of corporate largess.
I am sure President Obama is very sorry that he has not managed to turn everything around yet.
I am sure that President Obama is flagellating himself over the fact that he did not repair, repeal and remove all taint of the Bush administration in his first 100 hours!

All of us Democrats are real sorry that we collectively have not made your life easier, and the change we voted for was not instantaneous, and that corporate greed, so entrenched for the last 30 years and emboldened by 10 years of targeted deregulation did not eagerly get on the straight and narrow.

Obviously the Obama Administration has failed so there is no point in continuing for the next four days let alone four years.....­......

Is it really that hard to wait for results?

[Lemeritus]

A bad decision is a bad decision, whether it's made in the first 60 days of an administration or the last. The towering difference is that a bad decision made early can be corrected. There are many who feel that Geithner was a mistake -- to say that he was chosen because Wall Street was "comfortable" with him was hardly the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for which we were looking. I, for one, have serious reservation about Geithner's "cash for trash" plan. But here we sit -- with a President we pray will succeed and a Treasury Secretary we fear will fail.

It is not heresy to speak out - whether in the first 60 days or the last. We will not be like Bush's supporters and chant "USA! USA!" until every last voice is drowned. Goes with the territory, I'm afraid.

[Gidster]

Fair enough!!!

[jerrypl]

Ian you are so right!!

What I am sick of is the Nothing Factor. The Obama Knights at the Roundtable are performing their act for the audience, pretending that the tricks are real. We thought that the Change poster prior to the show was real, but we only have seen the illusions. This is all an act to dull the senses, except there are more and more gathering outside the Big Tent protesting the fraud. They paid for Change but got none.

Now, the backers of the Big Tent and the show, they got the more- of-the-same kinda Change. The Bush change. 8 years of mega-banker crime syndicate arm twisting. All the proceeds from the show are going to the bankstas, and not the people.

To believe Geithner is nothing by the Trojan Horse for the mega-banking crime syndicate is to have had too much Kool-Aid.

We will see if Obama and Geithner's bet at the casino gaming table pays off. It is a very different hand than the one Roosevelt played to pull the nation from the Depression. If they fail, then Geithner is the next Sarah Palin, and Obama has a GOP war on his hands.

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

[mab2579]

President Obama has already said that if he does not live up to his promises then he will be a one term President. I feel sure that in the next four years Mitt Romney will be the President that you and the author of this post deserves.