Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

Few people would doubt that Barack Obama was elected the forty-fourth President of  the United States at a perilous time in American history.  In fact, his timing could hardly have been worse.  Financial markets had crumbled, major banks and insurance companies were descending into insolvency, millions of Americans were losing their jobs,  economic recession was spreading across the globe, and the resultant U.S. tax revenues were taking a nosedive.  The President was faced with an immediate need to prop up the financial services industry,  save the auto industry, and bail out just about all of the fifty states.  As the need for government expenditures sky-rocketed, and the funds in the U.S. Treasury plummeted, Mr. Obama took the correct steps that were necessary to stop the country from falling into another Great Depression.  Due to President Obama’s bold moves, and the Democratically-controlled Congress’ courageous actions, the people of the United States were spared the incalculable pain of total economic collapse.  The cost of  avoiding this collapse, however, was an additional $3.0 trillion, or so, added to America’s onerous national debt.   America’s national IOU’s rose rapidly from the $10.0 trillion racked up by George Bush and his predecessors, to the current level of about $13.0 trillion.

During the entire time that the Obama Administration led the fight to protect middle class Americans from the ravages of the recession, the Republicans worked hard to put a halt to any government expenditures not related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The President’s health reform initiatives were gutted or filibustered to death, along with any and all attempts to enact progressive legislation.   The Republicans spent two full years repudiating the Obama Administration’s successes in saving the U.S. economy from collapse, and constantly harped on how government spending was the “enemy” of the American people.  The fear-mongering worked, and in the mid-term elections of 2010 the people of the United States did the unthinkable.  They elected a Republican majority to the House of Representatives, and put John Boehner in the influential Speakers position.  Not only did the voters support Republican candidates, but they elected the most right-wing ideologues that the country has ever seen (i.e. the Tea Party adherents).

The results of the fool-hardy decision of the American voters to elect Tea Party candidates in 2010 is now being brought to bear.  Although the debt ceiling was raised nine times during the Bush Administration, the “Tea Party” wing of the Republicans has decided it is better to push the American economy into default (and ultimately into deep recession) rather than allow the Obama Administration to continue trying to help middle class Americans.  To politicians like Bachmann, McConnell, and Boehner,  total economic collapse is preferable to tax increases for the wealthiest 1% of Americans.   The only compromise acceptable to America’s new “Tea Party” is no compromise.

The “gun” that is now being held to America’s head by the Republican’s ultra-conservative wing is, in retrospect, totally understandable.  After all,  in 2010 they told the electorate exactly what they would do if elected, but they were somehow elected into office anyway.  Quite frankly, America, there is very little that can be done at this point in time to reverse the damage that will soon be inflicted on our country by the Tea Party adherents.  The question is whether Americans will learn a lesson from the election debacle of 2010, or whether they will bend over in 2012 and say “Please sir, may I have another one”.   It’s time to show the Tea Party adherents the door; high time!

Rich

There is an old adage that says “a fool and his money are soon parted”. Unfortunately, this saying has proven to all too true when it comes to the $53 billion dollars that the U.S. government has spent for relief and reconstruction in Iraq since the invasion in 2003. Over the last seven years the U.S. taxpayers have paid for hospitals, water treatment plants, electrical sub-stations, schools, bridges and just about every kind of infra-structure improvement imaginable. This hugely magnanimous gesture of American generosity has been, I suppose, our way of repaying the Iraqis for the devastation and deprivation caused by George Bush’s war of aggression against Saddam Hussein. Although Iraq is a nation that floats on a sea of crude oil, this source of potential revenue to fund infra-structure rebuilding has been deemed “off limits”.

So what, in fact, has the U.S. government’s $53 billion dollars really bought for the Iraqi people? Among other things, it has bought a $270 million water treatment plant that sits idle because it is too sophisticated for Iraqi workers to operate; it has bought a state-of-the-art hospital that never opened because the Iraqi government was unable to supply it with equipment, staffing or electricity; and it has bought oil treatment facilities, electrical power plants and communications facilities that operate at one tenth capacity because the Iraqi government cannot fund ongoing operations. Top U.S. government officials are becoming increasingly concerned that most of the money spent on infra-structure rebuilding will ultimately be wasted due to Iraqi government incompetence. As a further slap in the face to U.S. taxpayers, the Iraqi government has outright refused to take possession of many U.S. funded reconstruction projects due to unavailability of staff and technical expertise. It gets worse! Ali Baban, from the Iraqi Planning Ministry, has publicly criticized the U.S. rebuilding effort as “wasteful”, and has said it has had “no discernible impact”.

As Iraq goes slowly ahead with its plan for national elections, and as U.S. military forces are extracted from the Iraqi theater of operation several things become increasingly clear. First and foremost, the U.S. invasion of Iraq has not brought about peace, stability and democracy to this country, but has only been an expensive lesson in futility. Other than ridding the world of Saddam Hussein, the war has accomplished absolutely nothing. Secondly, any and all acts of generosity by the American taxpayers will only be regarded by the Iraqis has an attempt at “influence buying” by the “Great Satan” from the West. Thirdly, no amount of American infra-structure rebuilding will ultimately make a difference when Iraq enters into a sustained period of civil war. Perhaps some day, far in the future, Iran or Saudi Arabia will be able to help the Iraqis operate their “gifts from America”; however, in the meantime the best policy for America would be to close our checkbooks and “head out of Dodge”.

—Rich