Change Is The Road Less Traveled In Washington D.C.
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Last week President Obama told Fox news that America faces the possibility of a “double-dip” recession. He stated this while in China, of all places, which is a country that has made an astounding stimulus investment to create jobs for its citizens, holds the winning hand in trade balance with the US, and outsmarted the US government when it comes to bailing out their economies. Imagine that… while doing an interview with his alleged enemy in the information war, Obama finally expresses some concern over deficit spending and acknowledges that the country could be heading toward another drop in the economy. Sometimes I wonder if Mr. Obama is simply as clueless as G.W. Bush, cares more about his Wall Street buddies than the rest of America, or has been hit over the head with one of his beloved golf clubs.
To be fair, the stimulus package aimed at shoring up the US economy did help slow the downward slide caused by the greed of the banksters, but it fell very short of actually creating the jobs needed to keep America on the road to recovery. Also, to be fair to Mr. Obama, he didn’t create this mess; it was in place before he was elected. But the question remains: how are we each to pay our portion of the national debt if jobs continue to be lost and the banksters are allowed to continue stealing our savings? Several issues need to be dealt with, and so far Obama has done little to take a leadership role in dealing with them. The alleged “change we can believe in” has turned out to be “don’t rock the boat” because mainstreet America will pay the consequences, not the elite class that created the turmoil.
While the media and public “dither” over the proposed health care reforms, the nation continues to sink into a possible abyss of unpayable debt, loses more and more international credibility, and income inequality is at an all time high. Things aren’t looking all that great for the future of America and her citizens when these and other factors are added together. It also seems that the puppets in Washington are content in allowing the continued decline of our nation, so long as they get their share of the pie before it’s all gone.
Lately I’ve been looking for solutions to the troubles that we face as a nation, and while most of them will never be addressed by the majority of current representatives that are corrupting our capital, at least one of them has been. Most of us lowly taxpayers are aware that America has been in decline for at least thirty years; it doesn’t take a genius to see the effects of nearly half a century of neglect and abuse from the ruling class. A shining example of where the glut and greed of the elite oligarchy has gotten us is the sale of the Pontiac Silverdome for a mere $583,000, or about 1 percent of the $55.7 million it took to build in 1975. That’s the cutting edge of a new pothole in the road to economic recovery for America, the collapsing bubble of the commercial real estate market.
Amidst all this doom and gloom there must be some hope for the future of our nation, but it’s doubtful we will find it in the stacked deck of cards that represents the politicians in Washington. Serious steps are going to have to be taken in order to bring this country back to its former vitality, many of which the oligarchy and political elite are going to fight tooth and nail. I did mention that one of these steps had recently been given some ground though, didn’t I? That step is just one of many we will have to take as a nation, but it does bring hope that all is not lost yet. That step would be an audit of the Federal Reserve. Many Americans are still under the impression that the Fed is a part of the government, however it is a private enterprise ran by those very banksters that caused the latest recession and continue to suck the wealth from American taxpayers with the support of the Obama Administration. While it may be an instrument of the government, it is not an agency of the government, and is not accountable to anyone. This brings us to another step that eventually must be taken if we want America to survive into the 22nd century: abolish the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 and give Congress complete oversight of the economy and the coining of money.
Of course the Fed is only part of the problem. Another factor that must be dealt with, possibly the first hurdle in the plight of Americans as they regain control of their government, is campaign reform. The way we currently select those who will be in public office is woefully inefficient and obviously very destructive when the overall status of life in America is studied. While we live in the dream that this is a Democracy, the Republic for which we stand has become more like a Plutocracy. The only way to recapture the “by and for the people” ideal, is to deny the access to our government bought by the wealth of the elite class. It’s an age old battle, one the American people have been losing for centuries, one that must be revitalized if “We The People” want a “More Perfect Union”. Stripping the rich of their power over our politicians is critical if we wish to actually change the way this country is ran.
Another measure that needs to be addressed is one of many that Obama campaigned with and then reneged on. Renegotiation of NAFTA and GATT, to make them fair to American workers, is paramount to making this country strong again economically. I’ve been reading a lot on free trade lately and still haven’t been convinced that it is always good for America. In theory, free trade doesn’t appear to be a completely bad thing. The idea that each country produces what it is best at, and then trades for products it isn’t best at producing isn’t completely unrealistic. Unfortunately, the benefits to an unfair free trade system are devastating to countries that are being sold out by their politicians. Here is a nice little table that will clue you in as to where “free trade” is taking us. It comes as no surprise to most of us that another stacked deck of trade agreements made by the US has put Americans out of work in favor of cheap labor for Corporate America. It’s time Americans are given a choice between “free trade” and “fair trade”. To have corporations and bought out politicians making these kinds of choices for our country cannot continue.
We have a long way to go if we are to ensure that our nation prospers into the 22nd century, but step by step the American People can win back their sovereignty and break the iron grip of the globalist elite that has been crushing it. Many are beginning to stand up to Wall Street, and we must continue the momentum against the oligarchy if we are to survive as a nation. Here are just a few points for further consideration and study that may help us on our journey to change we can believe in:
1. Campaign finance and procedure reform. Bring an end to the lobbyists exclusive access to our representatives.
2. End corporate personhood.
3. Greatly improve unemployment benefits.
4. Re-enact the Glass-Steagall Act.
5. Fix our trade policy: Pull out of or renegotiate NAFTA, CAFTA and the WTO.
6. Reimpose tariffs, just like every other successful economy, and just like the US had before Reagan got into the White House.
7. Review and update our foreign policy without the interference of the CFR, WTO, IMF, and all the other groups that lobby our government to go to war.
8. Auditing and nationalizing the Federal Reserve. Abolishing the Federal Reserve control over our economy and bringing the right to coin money back under Congress instead of privately owned banks.
9. Make college education free or nearly free, as it is in virtually every other industrialized country.
10. Pass card check, the Employee Free Choice Act, thus making it easier to form a union.
Click here to contact your Representative in Congress.
November 22nd, 2009 at 7:45 pm
Another good article. You obviously did a lot of research and spent a lot of time on it.
November 23rd, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Didn’t tariffs help make the Great Depression worse? Hoover put them in place. More unions won’t get us out of this recession.
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:57 pm
I will have to admit that none of these ideas are brand new, and I can’t claim to be the creator of any single one. But they are ideas I felt worthy of further analysis.
I agree, no single step is going to solve all our problems. An audit of the Fed alone isn’t going to bring accountability to Wall Street, just as the Cash for Clunkers program isn’t going to magically cure the status of every bodies shrinking pension. It will take many actions in a concerted effort to bring prosperity back to America.
I agree that unions may be the weakest step mentioned here, but the idea behind them, in this context, is to protect American jobs from being sold to the lowest bidder by the greedy who often control the corporate boardrooms.
The idea of tariffs is only necessary due to the unfair trade agreements that the USG has signed that take away American jobs instead of providing a level playing field. I would hope that they would be, at best, a temporary measure.