Cold Hearts In High Places

By James Donahue

American voters wanted help and voted for change when they went to the polls in the 2010 elections. Aggressive attack advertising campaigns financed by unknown special interest groups clouded the issues and voters fell victim to a crafty scheme by big power brokers. Consequently voters stacked the deck against themselves.

The Republican Party, which strangely stands opposed to any government program designed to offer assistance to the poor, hungry and homeless in the midst of an economic downturn that has left our nation in the worst financial condition since the Great Depression, has now gained control of the Congress and may continue to freeze any action in the Senate without extreme compromise.

There is a threat that the GOP leadership is plotting to attempt to recover from a multi-trillion dollar deficit, brought on by an over financed military, two unnecessary wars, a costly bailout of the big banks that gambled in an overpriced real estate market, and an extension of income tax cuts for the people who hold most of the wealth of the nation. They want to do this by putting the tax burden on the low and middle class and cutting services like food stamps, unemployment benefits, Medicare and Social Security.

Since the advent of NAFTA and other international trade agreements under the World Trade Organization, Americans have seen most of its industrial might move overseas on a quest for cheap labor. Consequently the middle class has all but disappeared. Thus the Republicans appear to be expecting the poor to carry the burden of paying off the multi-trillion dollar deficit.

That kind of thinking in the midst of these troubled times is not only heartless and cruel, it makes absolutely no sense. That President Obama submitted to demands to expand tax cuts for the rich just to get an extension of unemployment benefits is an example of the kind of game the elected Republican representatives in Washington are playing. That Mr. Obama submitted and failed to fight for everything he promised during his campaign for office, suggests that everything going on in Washington these days is nothing more than a charade.

During the first two years of the Obama Administration, when the Democrats had control of the Congress and nearly enough votes to overpower the Republican filibuster in the Senate, the 111^th Congress went down in the records as having accomplished more work and passing more legislation than any preceding congress since the days when President Lyndon B. Johnson rode into power with Democrats in full control of both houses. They accomplished this by constant compromise to get any of the legislation passed. Consequently any bill that offered assistance to the poor and elderly was so watered down it was not much help at all. The wealth has continued to be sucked up by the rich and the poor continue to be left out in the cold. If the Democrats in office were supposed to be representing the interests of the common people, how could this have happened?

When the next congress convenes January 5, things are expected to be worse. The Republicans will have enough votes to control the House and while Democrats still slightly outnumber the Republicans in the Senate, if efforts to eliminate that 60-vote mandate to override the filibuster fail when Senate rules are adopted, we can expect another two years of deadlock. We should all prepare to grit our teeth and bear the continued ravaging of whatever loose change we may still have in our pockets.

The robbery of America’s wealth by the thugs now holding the keys to the kingdom has obviously been a carefully designed plot by big banking and corporate power figures. The question we have is why would they wish to do this?

The end result of all of this is a complete breakdown of the middle class. By forcing millions of people out of what were once good paying jobs and into unemployment lines, and forcing millions out of their foreclosed homes and into the street, they are creating a nation of beggars and desperately poor. By cutting Social Security benefits they will be killing off the elderly. It appears that the plan is to create an army of people so desperate they will submit to any low-paying job just for a chance to bring home a loaf of bread.

In his novels, English author Charles Dickens clearly described the world as we may soon know it again.

I am not a trained economist but there are two things I have learned during my years working as a journalist. The first is that wealth is an illusion. It has no value while locked away in a vault. The only time money has value is when it is in circulation.

The second historical truth is that humanity has been reliving this cycle of kings in control of everything to revolution and a splitting of the wealth for thousands of years. A study of history shows that it happens over and over at a relatively regular basis. Every time the pendulum swings too far to the right, and the kings make slaves of the poor, the people rise up in rebellion, overthrow the kings and create a socialistic system where everything is shared.

Unfortunately, there are always a few people out there who are clever enough to slowly build a monopoly of wealth. Thus the process begins again.