Government Fear Smear – America Is Not Broke!

By James Donahue

Americans who have had the privilege of listening to crusader Michael Moore or are reading his web site know his opinion that all of the rhetoric flying around Washington about cutting critical spending to pay down a massive $14 trillion deficit is a crock of pig dung.

As Moore so skillfully defined it in a headline on his April 14 edition: “The scary scary budget deficit; this decade’s scary scary WMD!”

Moore linked to an informative article by Annie Lawrey from a recent edition of Slate which states, in brief: “if Congress simply does nothing, lets Bush’s tax cuts expire and leaves healthcare reform in place, the deficit nearly disappears in eight years.”

In other words, there is a lot of wealth in America but it is in the hands of a very small portion of the people. If those wealthy Americans were paying their fair share of the tax burden, and Congress just kept the status quo in terms of government spending, the nation could be out of debt by the end of the decade.

That doesn’t sound like the nation is broke to us. It sounds like we are all being hustled by a gang of con-artists that has taken over Washington.

George W. Bush scared the nation into attacking Iraq with the lie that Saddam Hussein was harboring weapons of mass destruction and was a growing threat against the United States. After we were committed in Iraq, and Hussein was arrested and on his way to being hung for crimes against his people, we learned that he never had weapons of mass destruction. They never existed.

Before Bush left office we were told the banks and home lending institutions were going broke because of bad lending practices and that if our government didn’t bail them out, the nation could be plunged into another great depression. Congress panicked and stripped the nation’s coffers to save the day. Then we saw corporate CEO’s being rewarded with multi-million dollar bonuses. Egad, we were conned again!

Angry voters moved to throw the “bums” out of office in 2010. But slick corporate financed advertising campaigns resulted in a pack of radical extreme right-wing Republicans sliding into power. These guys, who are clearly sold out to big corporate interests, pushed for and got an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Now they are following Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan’s campaign to restructure Medicare, alter Medicaid funding and slash $6 trillion from federal spending over 10 years.

President Barack Obama appears to have jumped right in line with the Republicans. In a speech to the nation last week he proposed a plan to cut $4 trillion from the deficit by 2023. But Obama insists on expecting the wealthy to accept their share of taxes to get the job done.

Don’t let all of the rhetoric and finger pointing fool you. The United States is not broke. It never has been. All that is needed is some good old fashioned house cleaning when the next election rolls around. We might suggest turning to a third party slate of candidates for some real change.

While we are at it, we might consider recalling a few Supreme Court judges. You know the ones. They voted to recognize corporations as individuals and gave them the power to finance the presidential and legislative candidates of their choice without restriction. What they did was give the bankers and other big business interests the control of our government.

April 17, 2011