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November 4, 2008, Will Be A Day Of Reckoning

By Arthur Lukas  Posted by Chris Rice (about the submitter)       (Page 1 of 3 pages)   1 comment
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"Big money and big business, corporations and commerce, are again the undisputed overlords of politics and government. The White House, the Congress and, increasingly, the judiciary, reflect their interests. We appear to have a government run by remote control from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute. To hell with everyone else."

Bill Moyers - PBS Commentator

During the first week of October, while thousands of American citizens and voters were calling their so-called congressional representatives requesting a NO vote on the Wall Street bailout (at a reported rate of 100 to 1), first the senate (74 to 25), and then the house (265 to 174) voted a resounding YES for the bailout.

While over 90% of Americans were saying NO to the giveaway, the 0.1% of Americans who sit on top of the money heap in this country were telling their bought-and-paid-for representatives in congress to vote YES. It was a striking example of just what Bill Moyers had said—the overlords had spoken, congress acted, and "To hell with everyone else."

This is not the first time that Democrats and Republicans in congress sold out the American people. As George Carlin said:

“The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they’re an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They’ve got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They’ve got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying - lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else.”

Bill Moyers and George Carlin speak in very different styles, but it boils down to the same thing—the 0.1% own this country; when they speak the congress listens; when the other 99.9 percent of the American people speak, congress suddenly goes deaf.

For the last few decades congress has been doing the bidding of the 0.1%. Congress has presented them with huge tax cuts. Congress has created tax loopholes for the one-tenth of one percent so they pay even less in taxes. Congress has deregulated every corporate structure in this country, allowing the rich to bankrupt America (the 99.9% who aren't in on the scam). Congress has, not just allowed, but has encouraged and enabled the looting of the 99.9% by the owners of America.

From the 1970's on, the primary job of congress has been to perpetuate the robbing of our country, take from the workers and give to the rich. Congress has opened the spigots full bore—ensuring the money flows with ever-increasing speed from our pockets into the banks of the one-tenth of one percent—the owners.

And now, just one month before the congressional/presidential elections, congress has spit in the face of each and every one of us by once again turning a deaf ear to the American people—giving $850,000,000,000 to the Wall Street bankers. The congressional leadership said, after the initial defeat of the bailout in the house of representatives on September 29th, we have to sell this to the American people. They don't listen to us, but they sure as hell want to sell us a bill of goods with nothing down and an interest-only loan to pay for the rest of our lives. Where have we heard that one before?

There are some in congress who did listen to us, who did not do the owners' bidding. Some 199 members of congress voted with the citizens of this country and against the bailout. Unfortunately 339 members saw fit to follow orders from above. Here is what Congressman Dennis Kucinich, one of the 199 listeners, said on the floor of the house of representatives:

"The public is being led to believe that Congress has reconsidered its position because we have before us a better bill than we had a few days ago. It is the same bill plus hundreds of new pages for hundreds of millions of tax breaks. What does this have to do with the troubles of Wall Street? . . .

"It is not as though we had no choice but to pass the bill before us. We could have done this differently. We could have demanded language in the legislation that would have empowered the Treasury to compel mortgage servicers to rework the terms of mortgage loans so homeowners could avoid foreclosure. We could have put regulatory structures in place to protect investors. We could have stopped the speculators.

"This bill represents an utter failure of the democratic process. It represents the triumph of special interest over the triumph of the public interest. It represents the inability of government to defend the public interest in the face of great pressure from financial interests. We could have recognized the power of government to prime the pump of the economy to get money flowing through out society by creating jobs, health care, and major investments in green energy. What a lost opportunity! What a moment of transition away from democracy and towards domination of America by global economic interests. . . .

"It is not as if we had no other choice but to pass this bill."

Even the two major party presidential candidates, senators John McCain and Barack Obama (both voting for the bailout), have stated that, "the federal government is not working the way it should. It is broken."

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Whether you call it the world financial structure, the U.S. culture of waste, or the ability of the common man to make a decent living, the system is broken. It's time for the common man to go on strike. Join or support the March on Washingon (more...)
 
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