The Capitalism Racket

One of the most tiring arguments against liberals and liberalism is the oft repeated mantra that these welfare state socialists want to raise your taxes so that they can have more illegitimate children and pillory your retirement account. I know a lot of people that are for choice, against the war, against state sponsored torture and illegal wiretapping, but will vote republican anyway because they think that Uncle Sam is going to tap their pocketbook.

Now I am not an economist but do manage to keep a tally on democratic spending versus republican spending that might open some of their eyes but that is an argument for another day. (and one that I have already made, see Deja Vu in July.) But what about corporate welfare?

There is an old ruling class maxim that says that a capitalist's dream is to privatize profit while socializing debt. The American taxpayer is now going to have to bail out Mr. Freddie Mac and Ms. Fannie Mae to the tune of a very pretty penny. (I have heard the figure of 200 Billion smackers bandied about) This, of course, on the heels of the 29 billion dollar Bear Stearns Fiasco and a host of other fallen companies that have their teeth firmly clenched on the teat of Joe Taxpayer. Lehman is now in the on deck circle with all the vultures sweeping around in slow dark orbits.

There is a cruel irony in the fact that these huge bailouts barely raise an eyebrow but feed a hungry school kid a carton of milk on the taxpayer's dime and all hell breaks loose. Oh, we can't let the big boys fall! Heavens... The supply siders have crowed the same bleating lie for years - free us from government oversight, from environmental regulation, and watch the marvelous results. This started with Reagan, remember he deregulated the S&L's, only to see the industry collapse. Now the large financial giants are teetering and guess who gets to pick up the bill? Compassionate conservatism in action. But the same thing happens to John Q. Public who is about to lose his house and they can only talk about tough love.

Now we see that the Federal Mining department was cavorting around with the companies they were supposed to regulate, using the old party favors - money, $ex and cocaine and writing sweetheart deals for the industry.

It would be too much to hope that our Attorney General Mukasey would actually prosecute any of these scofflaws and true to form allowed the Department heads to go gently into the night. This guy is so worthless. Can you show me one administration figure he has actually tried to prosecute?

So like the KBR overbilling fiasco or the no bid contracts in Iraq with all of the attendant corruption, lost money, government waste and lack of accountability, we americans turn a blind eye. Now it turns out that those supposed oil contracts involving the five oil companies in Iraq that the government said it had no knowledge of, were actually drafted by government lawyers.

Hey, this administration has been a great friend to big business. It's my ass that's hurting.

Robert Sommers