08 February 2009, 12:12 pm
David Rosman Columbia, MO - “They’re idiots. They just don’t get it.” You go girl!
It took the junior senator from the Show-Me state to say this about corporate leaders, the “fat-cats,” without pulling punches. Long live the ghost of Harry S. Someone needed to say it.
Hey Senator McCaskill, now say the same thing about the conservative, right-winged, tunnel visioned and short sighted members of both wings of Congress. This is not a question. This is not a statement. This is a demand and call to action.
This is a battle. One side learning from the Reagan era’s “trickle down” and “let free enterprise remain free” theorists. From the people took over government in 1994 and held power for 15-years. From the people who took a budget surplus and created the largest deficit in history. From the people who would rather spend hundreds-of- billions of dollars on weapons and war than on schools and the health of the American people. From the people who want immediate gratification when saying that “Joe the plumber” will receive a tax refund, when in reality the money is going to the “fate-cats” (you remember the “fat-cats”) who are receiving outrageous bonuses that are base on ruining the economy and being short-sighted.
The other side is borrowing from the Roosevelt “alphabet” programs. They understand that the creation of jobs is not an instant fix but creates a long-term and sustainable economy. That more people working means more people buying and more manufacturing. It means more taxes collected, more investment in our infrastructure, more investments to free America from the grip of petroleum based energy, and more investments in American education and healthcare.
I admit that the Roosevelt programs were controversial and that some struck down by the courts. Yet economists agree that through the Roosevelt programs the economy was on a long-term road to recovery before 1938. World War II only pumped in extra adrenalin.
On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” senators McCaskill and John Ensign (R-NV), and representatives Barney Frank (D-MA) and Michael Pence (R-IN) discussed (and I use this term cautiously) the president’s recovery plan.
I was amazed how the kings of fear-mongering, who cannot complete a sentence without reminding us of “the Twin Towers” and “9/11,” were accusing Ms. McCaskill, Mr. Frank and company of that very argument.
I was amazed by how the purveyors of the arguments of Ad Ignoratum and False Dichotomy, of throwing “Red Herrings,” and who flatly state that their plan is “absolute,” were busy blaming everyone else for the problems they caused. If their own “stimulus” programs and tax reduction schemes were unable to rectify the economy two-years ago, why should those same plans work today?
More than 3.4 million Americans are now unemployed, not to mention the estimated 12 million that are under-employed. Major corporations are warning us of more lay-offs and firings to come. Small business is suffering because people are afraid to spend, that Joe citizen fears losing his job, medical insurance and home.
Even independent doctors, already working on thin margins, are reducing hours and payroll because people are putting off preventive medical care they can no longer afford and ending up in the emergency room, costing each of us even more money.
Corporations, from automobile manufacturers to high tech, are not hiring are losing sales and reducing their workforce. In turn, small business is suffering, losing sales, contracts and employees. Who will create the jobs for tomorrow?
We know from experience that instant gratification only results in long-term disappointment. Denying the core problems, the lack of oversight of private and government programs by the “hands-off” party and the lack of meaningful long-term governmental planning (though a possible oxymoron) is like the proverbial ostrich, with head in sand.
Hey Mr. Trum… Ms. McCaskill, say it again; the right-wing radicals are idiots and don’t get it. The buck does stop with the United States Congress and it is up to them, like any good parent, to help its people by creating jobs and develop long-term recovery by fixing the problems that have been so long been ignored.
David Rosman is an award winning editor and author, a communications consultant, professional speaker and college instructor in Communications, Ethics, Business and Politics. David is a featured columnist for the MissouriTribune.com, the Columbia Missourian and TRCB.com. He welcomes your comments at ProfDave1011@netscape.net.
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