Big money could bring the end of life as we know it

• Jesse "no-social-security" Kelly (Arizona)
• Rand "who-needs-civil-rights?" Paul (Kentucky)
• Joe "no-minimum-wage" Miller (Alaska)
• Sharon "pay-your-doctor-with-a-chicken" Angle (Nevada)
• Christine "don't-masturbate" O'Donnell (Delaware)
• John "repeal-healthcare-reform-but-save-welfare-for-the-rich" Boehner (Ohio)
• Sarah "anti-feminist-pro-opportunist" Palin (Alaska)
• John "which-way-should-I-flip-flop-today?" McCain (Arizona)
• Jan "beheadings!" Brewer (Arizona)
• Russel "yikes-brown-people" Pearce (Arizona)
• John "who-needs-public-education" Huppenthal (Arizona)
• Greg "privatize-this" Krino (Arizona)

Are you scared yet? Should I go on?

These right-wing puppets (and-- thanks to the Roberts' court-- the corporatists and secretly-funded big-money groups behind them) want to end life as we know it in the United States of America. They don't want to take us back to the Bush era policies or the Contract for America.

With no Social Security, no healthcare safety net, no minimum wage, and, of course, no unions-- they want to take us back to the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, when people of all ages, including small children, slaved -- literally-- in factories and sweat shops for meager wages. If you were sick, old, or poor, it was your family's responsibility to take care of you. No family? Tough luck, you're on your own.

How could these ideas have gained so much popularity? Is it the sheer power of the moneyed forces behind the Tea Party-- like the John Birch Society Koch brothers or secretly-finded groups like Karl Rove's American Crossroads, which spent $3.5 million last week? All of this money + 24/7 yellow journalism courtesy of FOX News is trying to squash the progressive advances of the Obama Administration.

Here's some background on the origins of these ideas from The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party by Frank Rich or the New York Times.

When David Koch ran to the right of Reagan as vice president on the 1980 Libertarian ticket (it polled 1 percent), his campaign called for the abolition not just of Social Security, federal regulatory agencies and welfare but also of the F.B.I., the C.I.A., and public schools — in other words, any government enterprise that would either inhibit his business profits or increase his taxes. He hasn’t changed. As Mayer details, Koch-supported lobbyists, foundations and political operatives are at the center of climate-science denial — a cause that forestalls threats to Koch Industries’ vast fossil fuel business. While Koch foundations donate to cancer hospitals like Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York, Koch Industries has been lobbying to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from classifying another product important to its bottom line, formaldehyde, as a “known carcinogen” in humans (which it is).

Tea Partiers may share the Kochs’ detestation of taxes, big government and Obama. But there’s a difference between mainstream conservatism and a fringe agenda that tilts completely toward big business, whether on Wall Street or in the Gulf of Mexico, while dismantling fundamental government safety nets designed to protect the unemployed, public health, workplace safety and the subsistence of the elderly.

Yet inexorably the Koch agenda is morphing into the G.O.P. agenda, as articulated by current Republican members of Congress, including the putative next speaker of the House, John Boehner, and Tea Party Senate candidates like Rand Paul, Sharron Angle, and the new kid on the block, Alaska’s anti-Medicaid, anti-unemployment insurance Palin protégé, Joe Miller. Their program opposes a federal deficit, but has no objection to running up trillions in red ink in tax cuts to corporations and the superrich; apologizes to corporate malefactors like BP and derides money put in escrow for oil spill victims as a “slush fund”; opposes the extension of unemployment benefits; and calls for a freeze on federal regulations in an era when abuses in the oil, financial, mining, pharmaceutical and even egg industries (among others) have been outrageous.

The Koch brothers must be laughing all the way to the bank knowing that working Americans are aiding and abetting their selfish interests.

Has the country gone mad? Do the small guv'ment Tea Partiers think their Social Security and Medicare will be funded, while everyone under 65 will be thrown to the wolves? Fat chance. Tea Partiers, after they have used you, they'll go after your Medicare-funded scooters next.

For a look at our future, check out this book from the past-- How the Other Half Lives-- or watch Walmart: the High Cost of Low Prices.

UPDATE, October 8: Diane Rehm's Friday News Roundup covers this story. (Diane, honey, mention my blog next time, OK?)

I love Paul Krugman

Yes, there I said it, "I love you, Paul Krugman."

Why am I in love with a NY times columnist? Because he's not afraid to tell it like it is.

In a column entitled Now That's Rich in Sunday's NY Times, Krugman called for an end to the Bush tax cuts, which will sunset at the end of 2010-- unless the Congress votes to extend these budget-busting give-aways to the rich.

Several weeks ago, Republican lawmakers-- like our 2 Arizona Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl-- started the spin to save the tax cuts for their rich cronies. Earlier in the summer, they voted to deny extension of unemployment benefits because paying these benefits would increase the deficit; at the same time, they were promoting extension of the Bush tax cuts. (It is blatantly obvious whose side they are on.)

The Faux News spin on the sunset of the Bush tax cuts is that Obama is a tax-and-spend liberal who wants to push through the largest tax increase in history-- or some such drivel.

The truth is that Obama wants to extend the miniscule part of the Bush tax cuts that benefits the middle class, while ending the tax cuts for the richest 0.1% of the US population.

According to the Tax Policy Center, full extension of the Bush tax cuts-- originally instituted in 2001 and 2003-- would add $3.7 trillion (with a T) to the budget deficit over the next 10 years. (Click on the link for the full sobering report.)

I say, let's finally give up on trickle down economics and end the give-aways to the richest 0.1% of Americans. Bush and his Republican-controlled Congress (including John and Jon) wrote each of them a check for $3 million. Enough is enough. Don't buy the lie. End welfare to the rich.

I.O.U.S.A.: a case for fiscally responsible government

Pontificating about the national debt and fiscal responsibility is popular campaign rhetoric, but politicians haven't done anything significant to reduce the national debt since President Bill Clinton was in office.

In fact, under President George W. Bush, Clinton's $127 billion surplus was transformed into a record $455 billion deficit-- through repeated tax cuts for the wealthy, military imperialism, and adherence to the failed theory of trickle down economics. Now the debt is in the trillions of dollars--and increasing every minute.
As we approach a new year with cautious hope, many Americans are glad to see 2009 end. With skyrocketing unemployment and home foreclosures, failing local businesses, and bankrupt state and local governments, it has been a rough year and a half since the economic crash of 2008.

Watching I.O.U.S.A. One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt on New Year's Day was a chilling experience. The movie offers a learned but understandable look at the current national debt, how we are dealing with it (or not), and what the country has done in the past to pay off debt. For a thorough recap and independent review of the movie, check out this link.

In a nutshell, the premise of the movie is that the US actually has four deficits:

1- The federal budget deficit-- The national debt is $12 trillion and counting;

2- The savings deficit-- we are a country of consumers, not savers;

3- The trade deficit-- we buy more from other countries than they buy from us; and

4- The leadership deficit-- our politicians are more interested in getting re-elected, than making tough choices. The leadership deficit is glaringly apparent in Arizona, where the Republican governor and Republican-controlled legislature nip away at the multi-billion-dollar budget while avoiding tough choices and refusing to listen to ideas put forth by the legislative Democrats.

I would two more deficits to this list:

5- The education deficit-- It was shocking how many people in the movie could not define the word "deficit". This is a symptom of our failed educational system, which is only going to get worse in bankrupt states like Arizona. Public education in the US is in a downward spiral, and no one is acting upon this. After all an uneducated populace will not question those in power. If you can't even define "deficit," you're not likely to ask for accountability from the leaders who are running it up. We are shortchanging future generations by allowing this to continue.

6- The media deficit-- With the demise of local newspapers and the rise of television entertainment news, the media in the US is in a shambles. Our best hope for real news-- not controlled by corporate press releases-- is citizen journalism.

When the continuation of the war in Iraq, escalation of the war in Afghanistan, multiple stimulus packages and corporate give-aways, and potential healthcare reform are added to our current fiscal obligations and the impending financial doom with the government starts paying Social Security benefits to millions of retiring Baby Boomers, the scenario is mind-boggling. For years, US taxpayers have been paying more into Social Security than is being paid out to retirees. Within the next 10 years, as more Baby Boomers retire, Social Security will be obligated to pay out more than it takes in. This in itself is a problem, but the US government has been borrowing against the Social Security surplus for years. No more surplus = no more borrowing = an even higher budget deficit.

Where do we go from here?

- Americans have to be willing to make tough economic choices. Thanks to Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, George W. Bush, and the ideologues at FOX News, many Americans believe we can have everything we want and not pay for it. Our credit card mentality has to change. The bill is coming due, and we have to figure out how to pay it.

- We absolutely have to hold our elected officials accountable. In many elections, there is a "throw-the-bums-out" sentiment. This can be good or bad. Yes, throwing the bums out can clean house, but it is not blanketly a good idea to vote for the challenger "just because". We should reward politicians who have the guts to make the tough choices for the collective good. (Except for President Barack Obama and some in his administration, I can't name too many politicians who are putting the public good in front of personal ambition.)

- It is unconscionable for us to spend, spend, spend and leave crippling debt, a crumbling infrastructure, and a devastated educational system to our children and grandchildren.

- What can you do personally? Get involved in your local community and local government. Register and vote. Educate yourself about candidates and issues. Talk with friends and family. An educated and informed electorate is the key to change. Check out the I.O.U.S.A. trailer as a first step.

- Release yourself from debt. Pay off your credit cards, cut them up, and close the accounts. Don't buy things you can't afford. Save money. Make a plan to become financially independent.

This article originally appeared in my Progressive Examiner column.