Blind

By Ed Raymond
Staff Writer

The Willful Blindness Defense

The political battle over the raising of our national debt limit has reinforced the opinion of many that we are governed by thousands of incredibly shrinking men and women. Unfortunately, how this has come to pass will be covered in the future by millions of words. Let’s see if I have this right. Since George Washington recklessly threw one of our silver dollars across the Rappahannock River, Congress has thrown trillions of dollars at wars, various peace ventures, and other worthwhile or questionable projects until they have assembled a huge pile of debt in dollars, 14,546,767,969,488 at my last count. Congress has approved every dollar among the 14 trillion, but now they have too many dollars in the debt pile to throw across a river, even if they had used the Bridge to Nowhere.

What’s the poor president to do? According to laws passed by Congress, Barack Obama must pay the bills Congress incurred unless he vetoes them. On the other hand, if he pays the bills, he will violate a debt ceiling law also passed by Congress. The arguments used by all sides in this debate about debt ceilings have been a constant source of entertainment and news for the media talking heads and absolute disgust from the body politic.

So far the public, with solid-rock polls indicating that 70 to 80 percent of voters, regardless of political party, wants compromise before the economy goes the way of lemmings, has used strong, descriptive language to describe the situation and politicians screwing it up: “Lunacy… a total embarrassment for the country…clowns…we voted for change, not chaos…politicians hijacked by the no-tax, less-spending Tea Party…congressmen acting like middle-schoolers with loaded guns…a bunch of rich lawmakers playing chicken with the lives of people who can’t afford it.” How about John McCain’s “bizarro?” Where did that come from? And the beating goes on.

Both Of These Debates Smell To High Heaven

The debate over the debt ceiling has been so putrid, so obnoxious, so meaningless, that it reminds me of the “Law and Odor” debate in the African nation of Malawi described in the August Harper’s. Malawi is a small country of 15 million where adults live only to their middle 50’s. It also has more than its share of corrupt politicians.

In a proposed bill submitted to the Malawi Parliament there was a misunderstanding about language. In a misdemeanor clause the phrase “vitiate the atmosphere” was proposed about air pollution. One representative had trouble with the broad statement so he asked a question: “Honorable Minister, isn’t it true that under this bill there is a code that is going to prohibit people from farting in public?”

And then the fun started.

Minister: “You have to understand, this is not the main issue that is being introduced here.”

Rep: “Do you want to answer my question? Do you have a code in the court’s bill that is prohibiting people to fart in public?”

Minister: “Would you like yourself that people should be farting anywhere?”

Rep: “But–“

Minister: “Would you be comfortable if people came there and just farted anywhere?”

Rep: “But you know….Malawians, they do not find pleasure in farting in public——“

Minister: “Don’t we prohibit people from urinating in public?”

Rep: “Let me finish. What kind of a picture are you giving the public if you arrest people for farting in public?”

Minister: “If you go into Malaysia and you are chewing gum on the street, you will be arrested and put in prison.”

Rep: “That makes sense, but how are you going to control people farting in public?”

Minister: “I think you can control your farting.”

Rep: “How are you going to catch the culprits? Can you control nature?”

Minister: “When somebody wants to go to the toilet, it is advised you go to the toilet. And if somebody—maybe you decide to start farting left and right, then obviously it becomes a nuisance.”

From that part on, the discussion didn’t get any better. But compared to our Congress debating the raising of the debt ceiling, the Malawi Parliament debate sounded as if they were covering important aspects of their national security.

Pigs at The Washington Trough And Those Flaming Liberals Bismarck, Churchill, and Eisenhower

We have, factions, special interests, Tea Partiers, roundtables, backbenchers, and other rump groups all shouting at each other in this debate—but no one is listening. As a farm youngster I used to help carry the slop pails and often wheeled the corn wheelbarrows to feed young pigs in their pens. When you get 50 pigs screaming at you to hurry up, all in an upper key, it is not tolerable for long. But I’d rather listen to those pigs at the trough than listen to screaming and scheming Congressmen at the Washington trough.

First, I don’t mind traditional conservatives at all. Liberals and conservatives often have the same goals. We just have different paths. We share the same sense of local, state, national, and global community goals and priorities necessary for all of us to survive and prosper in a complex society.

Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, an “iron” conservative if there ever was one, knew it was necessary for a society to have good health, so he developed a universal health care plan in the 1880’s that is still in use in Germany today. Conservative Winston Churchill at the end of WW II knew the English needed some kind of universal health care so he started the system that later became the National Health system.

Hardly a flaming liberal, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower had some red flags in the late 1950’s for our current crop of Tea Growers: “Should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, or course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are…a few Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.”  Ike was half-wrong. Now the number is not negligible. The Koch brothers, Texas oil billionaires, are financing most of the extreme right-wing Tea Party and environmental groups trying to put us back in the Dark Ages.

Let’s Look At Those Rarities Of Modern Discussion: The Facts

Our present national debt acquired in about 225 years is approaching $14.4 trillion. Just in the last 31 years our credit-card, “no-new-taxes” presidents and Congresses have added $12.7 trillion of that debt. That great budget balancer Ronald Reagan, who never even submitted one, started it all by adding $1.87 trillion to the debt pile in his two terms. Acting as if he already had Alzheimer’s, Reagan spent billions modifying old battleships and other billions on Star Wars “missile defenses” (He did raise taxes 11 times!). If I remember, a battleship fired a few 16” rounds into Lebanon or some other Middle East place during the Gulf War and never hit a thing. Of course, our missiles have never hit an enemy missile or defeated a country. It’s amazing how generals and admirals are always fighting the last war.

George H.W. Bush added $1.48 trillion to the debt. I just don’t remember anything Bush 1 did that we should remember him by—except he had no idea how regular folk bought groceries and that politicians in brief caretaker roles should pay their debts. Oh, yes. I forgot he pledged not to raise taxes.

President Bill Clinton added $1.62 trillion to the debt in his eight years, the lowest per- year rate in the three decades. Bill added almost 23 million jobs to the economy during the 1990’s—by increasing taxes! Starting out a dissolute life with a carpet in the bed of his old pickup, Bill may have screwed everything in sight. But he didn’t screw the country.

The Teapublican Economic Cry: “Put It On The Credit Card!”

Poor Dubya, George W. Bush, followed Clinton into the Oval Office, scrubbed up the anteroom by saying he had been always faithful to Laura—but then ended up screwing the country for eight years by adding a record $6.11 trillion to the debt pile. Those thrifty, conservative Teapublicans of the first decade in the 21st Century couldn’t resist the lure of the Washington Buffet and Casino. “Put it on the credit card!” was their transcendental mantra. Want a $3 trillion tax cut for the rich Lake Wobegone crowd? Put it on the card!  Want to fight two wars, one in the hell of mountainous Asia and one in the Heaven of the oil-soaked sands of Iraq? The Bush-Cheney presidency said: “Put it on the card!”

Then to buy the votes of the old folks, Lurch said: “Let’s buy them the most expensive prescription drug program endorsed by Pfizer, Merck, and all those good people–and put it on the card!” Even Reagan’s director of Management and Budget said they were nuts.

Now Barack Obama in three years has added $1.65 trillion to the debt pile. Inheriting the biggest economic mess since the Great Depression, Obama has been desperately trying to get some kind of an economy going. This morning our Gross Domestic Product grew at an annual rate of 1.3 percent. The Teapublicans say more tax cuts and the jobs will just flow! Let’s see. Bush cut taxes, made many friends richer, but destroyed the middle class by creating a grand total of one million jobs in the same time Bill Clinton created 22 million! At least $1 trillion of Obama’s debt belongs to Bush–Cheney. After all, Cheney proclaimed that “deficits don’t count.”

A Real Ugly Combination: The Teapublicans

I suppose there are a few patriotic members of obscure Tea Parties, but what surprises me is the age of some of these people. Where were all these people when Lurch and his bandits were raiding the U.S.Treasury from 2000 to 2009? Defense attorneys are now using a novel defense called “willful blindness” these days. This is when a defendant “willfully” keeps himself from being informed about his subordinates who are breaking the law. This is when a CEO or Congressman says through his actions “I don’t want to know what is going on.” Or, “Gee, I didn’t know my guys were torturing those prisoners.” Or like Reagan exclaiming: “Geez, I didn’t know we were trading arms for hostages!” That was the Iran-Contra affair.

I feel a little sorry for Speaker John Boehner. He has three major political parties to deal with.  First he has traditional conservatives who really want the country and all of its people to succeed. They care about the poor, sick, and unlucky. I think they really want to help a couple with an autistic child who takes $75,000 a year to support.

Then we have the modern Republicans who are only interested in power and bank balances. Their major goal is to defeat a president and drown the government in a bathtub filled with red ink. They find it terribly easy to extort policies from liberals because they don’t give a damn about people. It’s easy to negotiate when you are only interested in your own welfare.

Then poor John has the Tea Parties funded by the big boys like Koch Industries and ExxonMobil to contend with. Tea Parties are just a step above private militias run by Tim McVeigh’s Christian Identity churches and various white power groups. Look at the racists, birthers, anarchists, and gun-toting braggarts that prepare vicious “witch doctor” signs defaming a “Kenyan” president.

Instead of yelling “Hands off my Medicare,” wearing “patriotic” costumes, and hoisting racist signs, perhaps they should look into why federal tax revenues are the lowest since 1950, cut by irresponsible tax cuts and island tax havens. Perhaps they should examine why a hedge fund manager who doesn’t even manufacture a single paper clip makes $4.9 billion in one year but is in the same tax bracket as the graveyard-shift shelf stocker at WalMart.

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