Throughout American history, Ohioans have provided leading voices for common sense, and against central banks and financial foolishness. It is good to see that this tradition continues today:
I have previously noted the voice of the always-outspoken Rep. Dennis Kucinich who is working to protect Main Street from Wall Street (though some of his prescriptions, such as single-payer national health care, strike me as impractical or socialistic).
Today's Columbus Dispatch notes the role of Rep. John Boehner in resisting the $700 billion bailout proposal. Far from being a maverick, the Dispatch reports that he is representing several Congressmen who represent conservative districts in Ohio. Rep. Boehner is at the table representing the House Republican Conference.
In the Senate, Sen. Sherrod Brown has urged Congress not to let the President and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson stampede it into a hasty approval of a potentially disastrous package. "We need to do something (but) people don't want us to pass something that is way more interested in helping Wall Street with their eight-figure bonuses than helping Main Street," Brown, a member of the Banking Committee, told Ohio reporters. The important thing, he says, is to get it right.
Go to the end of this link, and make it clear to your Congressman and Senators that they will be held accountable for any decision that gives Wall Street a free ride.
1 comment:
I'm glad to see resistance from the representatives and senators in our state. I tend agree with more with Sherrod Brown than John Boehner in that, as much as I don't like it, I think some level of action is necessary, but only to allow things to disintegrate at a slower rate and in a more orderly fashion than would occur otherwise. I don't think we can stop this train wreck, just move stuff out of the way at the end of the line to minimize the damage.
There's a lot more involved here than just some bankers and investment brokers who got greedy and stupid. We have a government that for too long has been more interested in maintaining the American Empire than it has been in maintaining the American Republic.
Huge budget and trade deficits, overextended military, trying to maintain and expand 800 overseas military installations, politicians who have led us to believe that we can have something for nothing-- the lowest taxes in the industrialized world, but also the largest military, social programs, etc. We're going broke as a result.
We've been behaving as an arrogant Empire as well. As a result the rest of the world is going to only help enough to minimize the effects of our fall in their parts of the world.
Then, there is Peak Oil. When your economic growth is tied to the false notion that we can continue to increase our consumption of finite resources-- primarily oil-- then when oil supplies stop growing (as they did three years ago), it undermines the your economic foundation. And, it makes me wonder whether or not it's possible to even maintain a country the size of the USA when we're on the down slope of the fossil fuel party.
Anyway, long story short, this is a complex situation where the disintegration of our financial system is only one symptom of the bigger problem.
An aside regarding socialism (from your remark about single payer healthcare being socialism). I'm not taking any stand on healthcare at this time as that discussion belongs in another thread, I only wish to say that: we have plenty of elements of socialism in our governmental structure. It will always be that way and it is not always bad: The interstate highway system is socialism, so is our aviation system, public transit, public parks, public schools, and fire departments, etc. Due to corruption in Washington, we have a huge amount of corporate welfare which dwarfs other welfare programs aimed at people (like AFDC). Suffice it to say, some elements of socialism will always be there. The key is to try to find the right balance. Perhaps this task is easier in a smaller republic, but I'm no expert...
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