“Greed is GOOD!” Proves Fatal Economic Nostrum
(EUGENE, Ore.) - Remember that messianic line: “Greed is good!”? It came from Ronald Reagan Himself, the “It’s Morning Again in America” actor, playing his now-notorious role as our American President.
Don’t forget the rest of the routine. He never did: “Government IS the problem. It NEVER does anything right.”
His other major pitch was “the miracle of markets” declaring “free trade”-markets “make automatic always-right decisions” on every issue imaginable.
John McCain echoes the Bush II neocon cabal in every respect, on the same now-collapsed economic mythology.
We are now learning --the very-hard, extremely costly, painfully-punishing way-- how wrong Reagan was on those mythical mind-messages.
Millions now know how damaging they can be to their chances to achieve The American Dream for themselves and their families.
McCain promises economic miracles via system reform, knowing voter support hangs desperately on everyday dollar-problems now plaguing and punishing millions of American families.
Yet he helped build the system all those years, and is surely complicit in its failings.
He could and should have learned --unforgettably--from those early days: Remember the savings-and-loan/bank lesson, taught us early-on by “the Keating Five”?
“Them as broke it, sure as hell ain’t gonna be able to fix it! IF they knew enough, they wouldna break it!” But they kept right on “breaking it” --all these years.
In a now-regretted moment of loose-lipped candor, John McCain admitted economics --and our economy-- is not his strong point.
If he does not understand the system, how can he honestly offer to remedy it now?
How Right he has proven himself is now on public record --resoundingly so, days ago-- when he proclaimed the collapsing system “fundamentally sound.”
That was the very day Wall Street’s recurring rot-and-wrack, recorded in repetitive bubble/blow-ups, racked up 100-year very-fearful records.
Reagan set into train Iran/Contra, the real root of the Bush II preemptive attack on Iraq. (See neocon Project for the New American Century.)
That “unnecessary war” has already cost this nation THREE TRILLION dollars and become “unsustainable”, as our economy now reflects all too clearly.
John McCain promises he will continue in Iraq “until victory” --without defining that moment-- for 100 years if needed. That surely will NOT “fix the economy.”
Meanwhile Iraq patriots negotiate far more rapid withdrawal, demanding return of democratic control, promised by Bush et al.
How can we accomplish that?
Surely NOT by unsustainable --and very bloody--occupation.
Millions realize what we COULD, and SHOULD, have accomplished at home with those TRILLIONS LOST ALREADY.
(Multiple media-feature reports localizing dollar-impacts for schools, teachers, hospitals, roads, fire, police, healthcare and many other essential needs have become a journalistic cliche-piece!)
Connections with our economy are obvious: These “negative events” followed when Reagan distorted deregulation, perverted privatization, promoted corporate-centered globalization, and provided huge-budget militarism.
He brutally savaged our Constitutional “right of-association”, mounted in widespread union development. His rapid, radical, continuing attack was pattern and forerunner for current intense corporate warfare.
Millions more now realize where the sweeping flood of home foreclosures was triggered --and why, too. That flood is fundamentally forcing looming ruin of the entire finance system.
Temporary rotting-mortgage buyout will cost us another TRILLION, Congress is told: Put it up fast or face a return to Real Depression!
Many reviewing legislative record find cause right in Congressional action by McCain’s main-man re economy and regulation, former Sen. Phil Gramm.
Gramm lead the charge to dismount, disable and do away with the Glass-Seagal Act, strongest economic heritage from Real Depression-recovery days.
That came by covert back-room manipulation, reflecting later neocon falsified intelligence; sold to the American public by crass “marketing maneuvers.”
Glass-Seagle mandated simple-sense solid-separation between commercial banks serving citizen and small-business needs, and “investment” (!) banks operating as speculation specialists.
The first preserves, protects and provides practical working funds for common-Joe, Mrs. Joe and their kids,while the other practices high-dollar game-playing for speculators demanding rapid rapacities.
Most recently Gramm accused us all of being “a nation of whiners”, suffering from “mental recession”. Economic collapse is all in our heads, sayeth he.
He was McCain’s first choice to be Treasury Secretary. But we can prevent that: No McCain, No Phil Gramm.
U.S. foreign policy was forever altered by Reagan’s Iran /Contra initiative, despite direct Congressional action forbidding what he chose to do anyhow.
What followed led on into neocon “regime change” (not first nor only in Iraq!), “American-interest empire building”, and faulty “supply-side” funding --driven by very large tax-slashes, heavily wealthy-group/oriented.
That pattern then forced then-largest/ever national budget deficits and record national debt-formation.
Sound familiar? Seems reminiscent of the past eight Bush/neocon-cabal years? Perhaps you recall those Reagan years, now looking somewhat different than they were made to seem?
YOU must have “been there”, too --as I was, all the way.
“Experience in foreign policy” has become a demanding component for understanding and guiding what America must do, in these early 21t Century years.
SO McCain has Randy Schuenemann, lushly-paid lobbyist serving world’s-worst dictators, “advising” McCain. SO why insult Spain’s friendly government --just maligned “off-the-cuff” by John.
Randy now “supplements” newly-named V/P prospect Palin, qualified by her long-distance view across Alaskan waters “right into Russia!” THAT is real insight?
Schuenemann is an original signer of the Project for the New American Century proposal, pressured on President Clinton --but summarily refused.
That’s Bush I-and-neocon-cabal advance-plan for preemptive Bush II-and-neocon cabal Iraq-attack.
“Unsustainable, unnecessary war” now disembowels our Treasury and economy --reflecting unmistakable, unavoidable close-connection among American governance policies.
Feeling the unavoidable pain, yet?
It is caused by realizing complicity for complaisancies --as we all MUST, now. It’s OUR nation --and we let this happen to it AND us.
Ready to cogitate over YOUR tipping-point vote in this crucial 2008-election?
That’s happening with many millions of Americans. They are looking back over the past four decades --then listening, reading AND learning!
Then they will DECIDE for THEMSELVES --and the most essential interests of their families.
Be sure you join them, in both cogitation AND then the voting!!
Henry Clay Ruark is the one of, if not the most experienced, working reporter in the state of Oregon, and possibly the entire Northwest. Hank has been at it since the 1930's, working as a newspaper staff writer, reporter and photographer for organizations on the east coast like the Bangor Maine Daily News.Today he writes Op-Ed's for Salem-News.com with words that deliver his message with much consideration for the youngest, underprivileged and otherwise unrepresented people.
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