Rushing Into Federal Bankruptcy And National Insanity
I am not an economist, but I think that even a fool can sense by now that something is seriously
wrong with the Bush Administration's current financial policy.
When King George stole his office just over two years ago, he inherited a multi-trillion dollar
budget surplus left by outgoing President Bill Clinton. Since then, we have endured an incredible airliner attack on the homeland
that prompted Mr. Bush to launch a "War on Terror." This weird and undefined war has not only burned up that surplus, but
thrown us trillions of dollars into debt. And there is no end in sight.
Now a trillion dollars is an unfathomable number to me. In fact, the concept of the number "trillion"
was something only talked about when I was a kid. I recall using the word while bragging to the neighbor kids about how much
money our dads made, or how big something was. We weren't even sure it was a real word.
An Associated Press story recently said our government is "bumping against a debt limit of $6.4
trillion" and that the Treasury Department was "taking evasive action" to prevent a default in the national debt.
Another story suggested that President Bush expects to have no trouble persuading Congress to vote
this year to extend the cap on this national debt so he can continue on with his wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and anyplace else
he plans to send troops. Yet another report suggested that if we can make quick work out of the looming assault on Iraq, the
"war" will only cost Americans about a trillion dollars.
A national insanity exists here.
With most people forced into early retirement, out of work, or struggling to make ends meet slinging
hamburgers at a minimum wage job, I fail to understand how Mr. Bush thinks he can fight trillion dollar wars against mystery
terrorists that remain, to this day, unidentified.
Or how our government can keep up its ridiculous "War On Drugs" that has put more than two million Americans behind bars. I believe one of the biggest building booms going on in the nation today is the construction
of new jails and prisons. Just looking out of my window, I can see the bricks of a new multi-million dollar addition going
on in our county's jail just three blocks from where I live.
It is the only construction work going on in town. Everywhere else can be seen empty houses with
"for sale" signs in front of them, or a more ominous sign put there by a bank announcing "foreclosure" on the property.
The people still living here are struggling to pay their bills mostly because of the rising cost
of gasoline and prescription drugs.
And yet this president is trying to convince Congress even today that the way to get our failing
economy charged again is to grant another $600 billion in tax cuts (mostly to the rich).
Because of the strange erratic behavior of King George, and the peculiar willingness by our elected
band of legislators in both the House and Senate to go along with everything the king wants to do, there is a growing uneasiness
among the working class that we are being manipulated by our government in more profound ways than anything ever done to us
in the past.
It is almost as if George Orwell's classic and prophetic book "1984" is coming true before our eyes,
only 20 years later than Orwell predicted. We are caught up in a world where Big Brother keeps a constant watch over everything
we do. Our controlled media preaches fear and war news daily. Our "troops" are always at war with an unseen and unclear enemy.
But could it even be worse than this before King George is finished with us? Could all of our able
bodied people be forced to join the military just to get food (as is happening even today in North Korea)? Will the elderly
be forced to work in prison labor conditions to provide the big corporate machine with inexpensive and inexhaustible labor?
And will the food of our future be Soylent Green?
Many of us remember that classic Sci-Fi film from 1973. It turned out that Soylent Green was the
only food available for an overpopulated world. It was cannibalism. The people were eating the old ones who were "put to sleep"
after they were no longer useful contributors to society.
There is little doubt that if we keep going in the direction we have been since King George grabbed
office, the social security money will be a thing of the past. Once that happens, Soylent Green might be the only thing left
for the retiring baby boomers of World War II.
But don't expect euthanasia to be a pleasant experience like it is portrayed in the movie. The Christians
won't let us have an easy way out. Remember what they did to Dr. Jack Kevorkian? He still rots in a prison not far from where
I live.
It will be more like a bullet in the back of the head. Then they slit our throats and hang us on
meat hooks, like livestock, to drain the blood.
