OK, I admit, the title of this blog is a little disingenuous; I don’t (yet) regret my vote for Obama. I like the man Obama. I think his concern for people is genuine. But something is going on; something feels very “amiss,” for lack of a better word.
First some relatively minor criticisms to get out of the way. The main reason I voted for Obama was McCain appeared all too eager to start another war. But Obama sending 17,000 troops to Afghanistan and essentially keeping us in Iraq another two years isn’t change.[1] I believe he’s going to be bogged down in Afghanistan for years to come. Meanwhile we’re hemorrhaging, this isn’t the time for another adventure. As Mos Def said on “Real Time with Bill Maher” last week, “I don’t care about Bin Laden, how about we fix New Orleans?” On top of this, although he closed Gitmo, Obama is allowing the CIA to continue the policy of rendition; abducting people and taking them to foreign countries where they can be held and possibly tortured.[2] Obama has kept the PATRIOT Act.[3] The Obama administration has even “threatened to halt intelligence co-operation with Britain” if they allow evidence of torture committed under the Bush administration to become public there.[4] But no one in the media wants to talk about this, they would rather discuss Michelle Obama’s arms.
But these are mere disappointments compared to these huge bailouts and the way we are throwing money around. First, lets have no illusions, Obama has surrounded himself with Wall Street-types and lobbyists, top to bottom. Take William Lynn, Raytheon's recently departed top lobbyist. Obama made him Deputy Secretary of Defense.[5] As for Wall Street types, take Lawrence Summers and his “protégé” Timothy Geithner. Summers is a man who helped to get rid of the Glass-Steagall Act which was put into place after the depression, which could have helped prevent the situation we find ourselves in today through stricter regulation.
There is a blatant double standard with how this money is being used. We are literally throwing money at the banks to the point that they are trying to give it back in some cases. Hundreds of billions of dollars. Meanwhile the auto industry is asking for a mere pittance by comparison; $22B. And what are they told? They’re told that bankruptcy might be an option for them. The wizard behind the curtain tells them to go away and come back with another restructuring plan, and it better be suitable this time. And asking for concessions from the auto industry unions is common while they would have allowed $165B in bonus payouts for AIG if there hadn’t been outrage among the public.
And then Obama essentially “fires” the CEO of GM. Sure, maybe he deserved it, but it shows the different manner with which the auto industry and the banks and are being handled. Gloves off for one, kid gloves for the other. Remember the “outrage” at the CEO’s of the “Big Three” for arriving in Washington in private jets? I wonder how those bank CEO’s arrived at the White House for the cushy meeting they had with the President himself? I agree with the Republicans on this one, I don’t like the government “firing” a CEO at a private corporation, but if we are going to do it, fire some of these bankers as well. Or at least cap their pay, Obama has made it _appear_ that he’s done that, in fact what he has done in this regard is very weak.[6]
To the Republicans I say shut up about socialism. If this was socialism would do a better job of keeping up with where the money is going and how it’s being used. If this was socialism the Treasury Secretary wouldn’t give provisions allowing tax payers to give bonuses to employees at failed corporations. If this was socialism we would fire the people currently in place and take over the corporations for the benefit of everyone. What we are doing is giving money away to rich people who spent their days essentially making money out of thin air and taking stupid gambles.
The paranoid conspiracy theorist in me makes connections and sees this entire crisis as just “too convenient.” Here’s how it goes for the fun of it. First of all, we have learned that all of the “wealth” we thought we had in the Bush years was essentially based on inflated housing prices and people living on debt. Meanwhile we have become an almost entirely “service-based” economy. We make nothing tangible anymore. There are two types of economies in America, the real one which includes manufacturing and the auto industry, and the “money wizards” like the banks who sit around making money out of thin air and come up with great ideas like credit default swaps. We are gradually getting rid of all our “real economy” while giving tons of money to this “fake economy” to prevent the entire house of cards from collapsing (much of the money is going overseas too, don’t forget). And since property values in the country have hit rock bottom and we are broke these banks can essentially move in and grab up the “real world.” So it’s not only a wealth transfer, it’s a property transfer and a transfer of the real and tangible for the imaginary. We are paying for our own coffin and digging our own grave.
But then that’s just the paranoid, conspiracy theorist in me, surely the world isn’t that controlled? It always comes back to the question of evil intent or incompetence, and we can only hope it’s the latter.
I think the government has to spend, and spend a lot, and that’s never pretty, but the way it’s being done really just feels wrong in almost every aspect. I find myself agreeing with Republicans when they want to slow down these huge bailouts, but the problem is whenever we oppose the same thing, they do it for all the wrong reasons. Republicans just oppose spending period, and want to give more tax cuts to the rich and hope that will magically solve our problems. That option is thoroughly discredited. In the future I don’t want to hear anything about the glories of the free market from anyone who has supported these bailouts. The free market only exists for the poor who don’t get bailouts.
-------------------------------
1. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gXhIn6Dsn59np7LYG6eYS5GubXUAD977ODC00
2. http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-rendition1-2009feb01,0,7548176,full.story
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Barack_Obama#USA_PATRIOT_Act
4. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/majornews/4513620/US-accused-of-threatening-Britain-over-terrorism-torture-evidence.html
5. http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1874165,00.html
6. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2008703273_apbailoutexecutivepay.html
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment