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3/20/2009
This outrage is scary
Three major city editorial page writers appeared on the Jim Lehrer News Hour last night. I jotted down a few sentences that really struck me (then went to the transcript to get the accurate context.) They spoke of an intensity of outrage not seen in recent memory. It scares and worries me deeply because of the blame game we’re all playing – not just the politicians we elected. All of us blaming someone else.
Only James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation was willing to stand up, vote against the hastily drawn punitive tax legislation yesterday and say the emperor had no clothes…..
"While this bill may give political cover to those who voted for the stimulus bill which approved the AIG bonuses, it is the wrong way to go about recovering the taxpayers' money, and ultimately it will not work," Sensenbrenner said. So… these editorial writers are supposed to have their fingers on the pulse of America.
Dan Haley, Denver Post: What you’re seeing is a Congress that is so spooked by their constituents that they’re trying to do anything they can to get some of this money back.
J.R. Labbe, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Now some people are saying it’s ridiculous for Congress to participate in some kind of kabuki theater where they’re trying to deflect attention from their own culpability in this problem ….
J.R. Labbe again: Jack Smith said in our editorial today, outrage is all the rage in America right now.
John Diaz, San Francisco Chronicle: The outrage I see is very personalized. It's directed at the AIG executives, Timothy Geithner. The name that we haven't seen that much is Barack Obama, in terms of being a target of this wrath.
John Diaz again: I don't think the average American really understands how this money has been put together and whether it's really going to deliver the results that it's promised. I'm not sure how many members of Congress understand. What is it that we “constituents” do/say/think to “spook” our representatives? What do we demand of them that we don’t demand of ourselves? Being informed? Guided by a moral base in the actions we take on our end?
It’s always the time – and especially now – to get with it. In your own backyard, if nothing else. This bank stuff is hugely complex. But is it so complex to sit down with your alderperson to understand the city budget, to learn the financial strains coming down the pike, to work together to figure out what programs you could do without or what options exist for holding down labor costs? Is it so complex to ask your state legislator what they would recommend to balance the completely out of whack state budget – and then to work together to come to some understandings about possible programs to scale back and eliminate and/or taxes and revenues to increase?
And talk about doing something about the problem. Our own Representative Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) has been everywhere of late, working to spread the message of fiscal responsibility – not just for today, but for years and decades to come. He has crafted solutions– and worked to really understand this stuff. Watch for the alternative budget Ryan will be presenting sometime in the next several days, the Republican response to President Obama’s $3.5 trillion proposal. As he is wont to say, “proposition, not opposition.” Indeed.
These solutions are not easy ones and the outrage is scary. It’s up to us all to be part of the solution – and not continue down the road of the blame game.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
Being the glass-half-full kind of guy I am (Big sarcastic grin) ... maybe we can look at this from the other side Jo. I'd say this outrage is encouraging! How many times have we seen completely bone-headed legislation cruise through congress and get the ten-pen signature in the oval office and wonder "What were we thinking? Why doesn't anyone care about this ... stuff?"
While I would have preferred the subject matter to be something other than magic & wizards, Harry Potter was a good thing to get kids reading again - this generation wasn't reading before Harry hit the shelves. Maybe all these legislative shenanigans are going to be the 'Harry Potter of governance & social policy'. The people are waking up - they're getting with the program.
Now we need to engage the outrage, channel it, and use it for good!
Jeff Riedl (Fri Mar 20 06:59:48 2009)
I encourage people to not get distracted by the $163 Million in bonuses it is contractually obligated to pay. It's the Washington ruse to keep our eyes off the fact that the taxpayers have paid $173 BILLION to AIG, most of which funneled directly out the door to its counterparties: Goldman Sachs, Deutche Bank, Socit Gnrale, Bank of America, hedge funds, et al. No wonder the Feds have been so blasted secretive about telling who got what.
As a Bloomberg commentator Michael Lewis put it, the American taxpayer is paying off AIG's gambling debts.
A week ago, the Chinese premier expressed concern over getting paid back all the dollars they'd loaned us. Our response? This week the Fed said they'd whistle up another $1.2 trillion out of thin air in order to manipulate the bond market and erode the dollar.
The Federal Reserve is destroying the dollar, while the conservative media tries to get people get lathered up about $500,000 earmarks in a $3.5 TRILLION monstrosity. What was that about Nero fiddling?
Brian Heyer, CPA
Heyer Capital, LLC
Greenville, WI
(Fri Mar 20 08:27:24 2009)
Where is Ronald Reagan when we need him? He would make sense of these problems. He would "tear down the wall".
We need strong leaders who will stand firm. We can start in the next election---less than two years away.
David (Fri Mar 20 08:50:42 2009)
David
Sorry if I am less than enthusiastic about Reagan. Remember his performance, criticizing the budget bill that amounted to about a 14" stack of paper, which he threw on a table for dramatic effect? Did he veto it? No, not that one nor any other. AND he openly pandered for support, promising federal dollars. And he proposed and/or signed more tax increases than decreases. AND he started us down the road of high octane deficit spending.
But rhetorically, he was excellent. One may well have asked your question even while Reagan was in office.
Sorry, the Emporer has no clothes.
Ken Van Doren (Sat Mar 21 07:18:42 2009)
I enjoyed reading your outrage piece, and found myself not feeling at all guilty by supposing that I'd have written that overtaxing
the boni is waiting until the horse is well out of the barn, pasture and county. and of course the congresspeople are so busy pointing fingers that they don't realize that when you point a finger at someone else, three of your fingers are pointing back toward yourself (I am not making this up). Sure, I'm outraged at the AIG bonuses, but the tokenism in trying to recover less than one-tenth of one percent of the bailout money is laughable, though I don't suppose anyone is laughing. for that matter, when's the last time congress did
something that WASN'T token?
DM (Sat Mar 21 13:43:45)
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