Ari's Planet

Yes, the US Congress has done it again! They just stole 700 billion dollars from the rest of us to give to a bunch of big banks, which, due to their short-sighted profit-mongering and the lack of regulation by the government drove themselves into their own poo. As a patriotic American I am so happy to go lick the poo off of their boots. But really, why stop there? I mean, if you need 700 billion dollars, you might not bother trying to, say, raise taxes to pay for it. Oh no, you might, if you were like the gang of criminals Americans have managed to put into power, CUT TAXES BY $110 billion. So how do you pay for things? Maybe they'd cut the US military budget so it isn't nearly as much as the rest of the world's military spending combined? Withdraw from Iraq? Get rid of wasteful programs? No no, I guess they'll just do what they do best: mortgage our financial future by borrowing (as if the current nightmare of US debt isn't enough) or by printing more fake money thus devaluing the dollar.

According to the LA Times, "The House today approved a $700-billion financial rescue plan -- sweetened by $110 billion in tax cuts -- on a 263-171 vote" and House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio threw in the observation that "We've made this bill better ... it clearly is better than it was a week ago." In the Congress, flat out lying is, apparently, making an astute observation. According to a statement on TV news here in Australia last night, the bill started out as around 4 pages but mushroomed to hundreds of pages and lots of pork. The LA Times has it at 3 pages when submitted by the administration. It contains completely irrelevant ammendments such as "insurance parity for mental illnesses". So I guess, when Bush sends a terrible bill to Congress, rather than create an understandable and effective counter proposal, the Congress just hides the nightmare under a pile of stinking pork guts. Heaven forbid Congress might listen to the populace, who were calling and calling telling them this was a bad idea (no numbers given though, so this, like most political things, is qualitative).

Yes, the best thing an American can do is RUN FOR GODDAMN CONGRESS and throw these bastards out.

The worst part of this mess isn't the financial crisis. It's that it may mean that the Delayers on anthropogenic climate change will now have yet another inane reason not to act on mitigating and preventing the worst-case scenarios, actions that must be taken within the next few years. Their arguments, as ever, will be a sham, but your typical Americans--who managed to give themselves such fucked up leadership--will be too mollified to object.

Last, let me end with a thought about American education. When I was in NZ, I was quite impressed that most people seemed to have some grasp of what they were talking about. Sure, people had some hare-brained thoughts sometimes, but for the most part I think kiwis are better educated than Americans. Which got me to thinking that the pathetic state of public education in America, especially on critical objective thinking and scientific literacy, are at least partially responsible for the pickle Americans have gotten themselves into. Not that I'm being in any away original with this tired old thought.

"Reversal of fortune: House approves $700-billion bailout bill, Johanna Neuman and Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times, October 3, 2008.