“The Love Of Money Is The Root Of All Evil”

By James Donahue

The headline above is a quote from First Timothy 6:10 in the King James Bible. The phrase has been quoted and misquoted frequently because it is a truth deeply embedded in world economic systems. It has had an impact on everyone’s daily lives since the collection of “things” and currency was conceived as personal wealth.

Whether Jesus was truly a living deity or merely a wise prophet sent to this planet in an attempt to direct a wayward people on a new and better spiritual path has nothing to do with this issue. His teachings as reported in the Book of First Timothy are so filled with wisdom they should be studied by people of all faiths and all walks of life.

The topic of that lesson might well have been “The Folly of the Greedy Heart.” The complete verse reads: “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

Indeed, we have seen the effects greed has had on America’s once great political system. As soon as wealthy big business interests created a means with which to lobby (pay large gifts of money) to elected legislators, they had control of the government. They have had this control for a very long time but greed his brought a refinement of the corrupt manipulation of our elected “leaders” to new levels when Ronald Regan was in office and again under George W. Bush.

 This is why President Barack Obama is fighting an uphill battle to get his promised health bill approved, shut down the wars in the Middle East, launch legislation to battle climate change, give financial help to the poor, promote green technology and rebuilt the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. After nearly a year of wrangling and even in its watered-down form the sold-out Republicans and some Democratic senators are fighting he health reform bill and that is only the first phase of the Obama plan.

They are using the most creative ways to explain why they are opposed to giving the American people what is wanted, desired and demanded; using twisted logic and claiming that the 1,990- page document will create a massive new tax on the land. The truth in that charge remains to be seen.

Some reports suggest that the health care bill in its current form will cost the government $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. Yet our legislators wasted no time approving a $2 trillion economic bailout for the banks, lending and insurance giants that gambled with the people’s money on risky investments and nearly brought down Wall Street at the end of the Bush Administration. And they approved an unprovoked invasion of Iraq and the unnecessary attack on Afghanistan that have cost $850 billion to date and still go on. Not only that, but President Obama is considering a request by his military advisors to escalate the Afghanistan conflict.

Just shutting down the two wars and bringing our troops home would provide more than enough money in federal coffers to finance good health care for everybody, build great public transportation systems, rebuild our nation’s dilapidated bridges, roads, electric, water and sewer systems, and make life better for everyone.

While all of this tax money is being tossed wildly to the wind and the national debt is growing to ridiculous heights, the value of the U. S. dollar is slipping to a point where world traders are considering shifting from the dollar to the Euro. Many investors are so worried about this they are putting their money in gold. And that has forced the price of gold to a record high of well over $1,080 an ounce as this is being written.

While all of this is making headlines, Wall Street investors, banks and insurance companies and other big business interests are reporting big profits and top company executives are living high on the hog with incredible annual incomes in the billions. If we believed the economic reports the “recession” is over and happy days are here again.

Where have we heard that phrase before? Oh yes….they said it just before the Great Depression hit in 1929.

Those of us living in reality believe the Great Depression has returned with a strange kind of vengeance. While the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, the middle class has all but disappeared, and the gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider and wider. And no matter what we do to try to head off this looming disaster, the select few in control of the wealth are using the power of their money to make sure they remain on top and to hell with everybody else.

With our elected representatives to the House of Representatives and the U. S. Senate on their payroll, it is going to be very hard to stop what is happening. Mr. Obama is probably going to be blamed for failing to deliver the things he hoped to accomplish, and that American voters elected him to do. And the worst thing that could happen in 2012 is that there will be a backlash, and we get another sold-out Republican in the White House.

There is a strange form of irony in that much of the dirty work going on in Washington has reportedly been generated from the infamous “C-House” in Washington. This row house located at 133 C Street is the home of various Bible-thumping Christian legislators who have been deeply involved in various scandals ranging from illicit sexual affairs to taking bribes.

It is clear that the occupants of C-House have not been reading First Timothy. And if they read it, they must have thought Jesus was talking about somebody else.