BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

I’m not an economist, but I am an American citizen. And, I am angry. I don’t understand “derivatives.” When I first heard the term I thought perhaps I was one of the few ignorant people in the country who had no understanding of high finance. I was willing to listen and learn. Yet, I am not so naive as to believe that during the course of a Presidential speech I can become an informed citizen, especially since the President doesn’t seem to know what he is talking about and no one would believe anything he said, even if he told the truth.

However, I have diligently watched C-SPAN over the past few days, and it seems to me that no one in Congress or the Senate understands “derivatives” any better than I do. Additionally, Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke have made no attempt to explain the situation beyond saying that it is complicated and that credit has “seized up.” Well, hell! We know that. In fact, I would go so far as to say that the American citizens have been well aware of the situation even while “W” and John McCain were still rerunning the litany of “fundamentally sound.”

Since the announcement a little over a week ago that America is facing financial gloom and doom, the administration and the Congress have felt the backlash of the people, as well they should. For months we had heard false reassurances from George Bush… and John McCain… that the “economy is fundamentally sound.” They lied. And, they knew they were lying.

In fact, I can say without hesitation that the American people on Main Street had a better grip on the condition of the economy than did the administration. We knew all too well that someone had hit the flush handle. For months, BernieHund and many other so-called “liberal” bloggers and journalists have been questioning the state of the economy. When the price of rice rose more than 20% in a week at the local grocery store, when the price of gas rose from $2.89 to $3.99 in a matter of months, and when I drive down the street and see empty houses and small Mom’n'Pop businesses closing, an idiot would know that the economic conditions of the country have been deteriorating rapidly during the past YEAR.

So, what has America pissed off? The truth is that most of us are ready to cut off our noses to spite our faces. For a year or more, Americans on Main Street have been faced with foreclosures, have been forced to move out of our houses. Many of our small home-grown businesses have had to shut the doors. When Paulson and Bernanke talk about credit “seizing up” who the hell are they talking to? They aren’t talking to the Mom ‘n’ Pop shops. Those doors have been padlocked for months. Thousands of American families have moved out of their homes. Many Americans are no longer facing foreclosure. The process is over for them. They have lost their homes. It’s too late for many average Americans.

For almost a week I have been unable to purchase gas because in the southeast we don’t have any gas. Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, Chattanooga and other southern towns don’t have gas to pump supposedly because of Hurrican Ike. Bull Sh*t! If all the rest of America has gas, why the hell can’t it be delivered in the south? We are Americans, too.

So, to say I am an angry American is an understatement. I am pissed. Why? Because for months and months the capitalist government has promised to do something to help Main Street. Surely, Congress decided to send us a little check to spend to stimulate the economy. Well, does “a day late and a dollar short” mean anything to anyone in Washington? We didn’t want an appeasement. We want solutions. We want our jobs back that have been shipped overseas. And, don’t even talk about tax cuts for corporations. John McCain keeps saying that our taxes on corporations are the second worst in the world. The truth is, with all the legislated loopholes, American corporations are second from the bottom of the list in taxes paid.

The present administration is pushing the proposal to bail out Wall Street, saying that it will help Main Street. That’s going to be a hard sell in some parts of the country. Let’s face a little reality. When Main Street in New Orleans went underwater and washed away, the federal government didn’t rush to their aid. We saw human beings standing on roofs begging to be rescued. We saw dead bodies floating in the flooded streets. And, did we see Wall Street or Washington running to their rescue? Hell no! So, why should the people who survived by helping one another when the government turned its back, who are still struggling to find footing on toxic ground be forced to pay tax dollars to put a golden footstool under the feet on Wall Street? Let some of those former executives live in those toxic FEMA trailers for a while.

George Bush and John McCain kept talking about the “fundamentally sound” economy. Yet, when Henry Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury and former CEO of Goldman Sachs saw his assets shrink by a few hundred million dollars, suddenly we had a national crisis. One of the Sunday morning talk shows reported that Paulson’s fortune had shrunk from over $800 Million to somewhere close to $500 Million during the past few weeks. So, now is the time to pony up taxpayer dollars to save his ass?

I don’t want to stand in a bread line and until a few days ago I didn’t want to see gas rationing (today I would be happy to see that… if I could only find a station that has gas to sell) and I don’t want to endure times any harder than they are today. But, the truth is that the average American could survive far better than Washington and Wall Street if the crisis were to continue. We have been doing without. And, we are surviving. We, the average American citizens, are not filled with greed. We help our neighbors in times of need. We share what little we have with one another, and yes, we will survive with or without Wall Street. We don’t have to worry about hanging on to our primary residence and our vacation homes. Our homes are already on the auction block.

For years I have heard conservatives rail against entitlement programs. Yet, today we find those wealthy capitalist deregulators who believed they could exploit the democracy begging for a little “socialism.” When the profits were flowing into their money market accounts and hedge funds, they said to the average American citizen “screw you.” Today, the Wall Street geniuses are on bended knee begging for the biggest entitlement program in American history, over $700 BILLION. Now, when they are facing net worths that have shrunk from hundreds of millions of dollars to a hundred thousand dollars, they are screaming for help and Americans are standing together saying “screw you.”

I can only imagine the satisfaction the slaves must have felt when Sherman marched through the south and burned down the houses of the masters. I seriously doubt that any of the slaves rushed to put out the fires.