Bobby Jindal just doesn't get it

So, here we go with the same tired nonsense the Republican hacks have been touting for years. Bobby Jindal, the Governor of Louisiana, is telling Americans that the way to fix our broken economy is to do more of the same stuff that broke it. That's right, more tax cuts for the people who already have all the money. Yup, more downsizing of government, and less regulation for the businesses that have proven, over the last twenty-eight years, just how trustworthy they are. Less spending on public projects that have been neglected for nearly three decades, and more "Welfare for the Wealthy."

Are

We

That

Stupid?

For the last three decades, we've pretty much been giving these people what they've demanded (not asked for, mind you. Demanded.). What we're stuck with now is the direct result of what we've done. We have plundered our children and our grandchildren, and given their future to multinational corporations whose only loyalty is to the enrichment of their top management. These are corporate entities that have even robbed their investors, by lying about the value of their assets, and bestowing enormous bonuses on managers who have done a manifestly bad job.

We have decided that education is too expensive. We have decided that we can do without decent roads; hell, we can just drive around in SUV's, right? Can't afford one, you lazy bum? Walk!

Jindal says that the bill for this stimulus package will "increase our taxes down the line, and saddle future generations with debt."

As opposed to what, exactly? The war in Iraq, a conflict that was perpetrated on the basis of a pack of lies?

As opposed to watching our livelihoods shipped overseas, to people who will never make enough money to afford the goods they make for us, who will no longer be able to afford them, because our jobs are gone?

As opposed to allowing fast-money scammers to cheat individuals, small businesses and charities out of billions of dollars?

As opposed to so deregulating our banking system that we have brought about the very calamity that those regulations were designed to prevent?



Bobby Jindal just doesn't get it, and neither does his party.

Talk about tone-deafness! Here we are being lectured about how to fix our finances by the Governor of Louisiana, Louisiana, for Gods' sake! Is there a state whose name has become more synonymous with corruption? What's the matter, couldn't they get Jim Gibbons from Nevada to deliver the speech? This is what the GOP has to offer us as a spokesperson?

Are there no sane Republicans left at all? Have the fundies and the free-trade-at-any-costers driven all perspective from the ranks of the GOP?

Maybe what we've got is what they always planned for us.

There's a thought, huh?

Could they have done it any better if they had planned it? Maybe they did. Think about that. Why else would their best suggestion for what to do be to do more of what we've been doing?

Why would they have undone every regulation that was put in place to prevent a rerun of the Great Depression? Can they really tell us, with straight faces, they they didn't know what would happen? If so, can they really tell us, now, with straight faces, that we should keep on keeping on, and all will be well? Hey, we tried this road twice, and twice it took us to the same place. What do you mean, "keep going?"

They just don't get it.

Or maybe they do. That's even scarier, but the evidence is there.

Look, after the first fighting wore out in Iraq, the military was going all over that country trying to find those WMD's they went in to find. I so wanted them to find them. Why? Well, who wanted to believe that any administration, any President, in the United States would deliberately put our military personnel in harm's way over a bunch of lies? Who wants to believe that? I was never a fan of G.W. Bush, but I never wanted to believe that he'd be willing to send Americans to their deaths over a pack of lies.

But, now, after the years have passed, we see what happened in Iraq, and how we got involved there.

I was wrong.

Who wants to believe that any responsible political party in this country would impoverish a huge segment of the nation to enrich a few people who need enrichment not at all? Who wants to believe that any party would endorse the demonization and denunciation as traitors of any who dare to challenge its views? Who wants to believe that any group of Americans would support subjecting the bulk of the population to wiretapping without warrants, unreasonable search and seizure, and flat-out poverty?

I don't want to believe that any would.

However, I was wrong before.

Could I be wrong again?

Anyone out there who isn't scared?

Talk about just not getting it...

Well, here we are, into a new year, and into a new administration in the White House. Are we better off? Well, no, and we won't be for quite a while. After all, it's taken nearly three decades to eff this economy up; we're not going to fix it overnight.
I'm grimly amused by the debates going on in the media these days, though. At CNBC, we have the battery of experts decrying most of the Administration's attempts to undo some of the harm that's been done by the preceding crowd. "We need more bankers and financial experts handling this!" is one of their cries, "We need people who know how to do this stuff."
Now, the people our pundit friends want to take care of this have just spent most of the last decade proving to all and sundry that they manifestly do not know how to "do this stuff." Do we really want them to keep running the show? I don't think so.
Then again, one of Larry Kudlow's more frequent guests these days is Art Laffer. Now, there's a guy whose last name is probably the best description of his economic policy. Hey, Larry, what's going on? Got some extra inventory of snake oil or something? Get with the program, Man. The really rich have already got most of the money, and they've already bought all the crap they want. Now, how 'bout we spread some around, so the rest of us can meet our bills?
This brings me to one of my favorite spectacles: The Republican Party hacks screaming about the stimulus package. "We need less spending and more tax cuts!" Honestly, now, haven't we been doing that since 1981? It's as if you went to see a doctor about a broken thumb and he tells you that what you really need to do is smack that broken thumb with a hammer a few times. Fix it right up, that will. Sure. Let's fix our economy by doing the same thing that broke it. Are we insane, or merely stupid? How can these guys walk the streets without people pointing and laughing? Well, there's a story there, and I'll work on that in future posts.