Is President Obama Throwing Us Off The Public Option Health Care Bus?

Why should Americans be told they have to make huge sacrifices when the real cause of the economic crisis was directly connected to the actions of the Federal Reserve and the largest financial banking institutions in the country, such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. Had the banks been careful with their lending practices, had they kept more collateral in deposit as they over-leveraged their derivative and securities ventures, had the government not went ahead and allowed for no regulation of the bank’s “shadow banking” facilities, had the government aggressively regulated the “paper” economy as it should have been done, had the Federal Reserve Bank avoided creating “bubbles” in the technology and real estate sectors by keeping interest rates at appropriate levels instead of at give-away prices, then much of this collapse would have been avoided.

Had all of the above been done, then Americans would not have had the incentive, and permission to go forward and seek huge stock market gains for their investment portfolios as was encouraged by the investment banking institutions which needed that cash for their own risky gambles. If the investment banking sector had been fully regulated, then the consumer would not have been told that it was OK to go out and buy a home that was too expensive for their budgets, or borrowed repeated on their existing home draining every last dime of equity for spending purposes because of pie-in-the-sky tall tails of an ever increasing price in home values, resulting in the use of them as piggy banks or ATM-type cash machines.

Remember when the last four Presidents of the United States, especially George W. Bush, the home ownership president, along with the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, especially Alan Greenspan, and joined by the most prestigious financial institutions had all said that it was needed for consumers to do their civic duty and spend, as well as borrow because borrowing defined the nation’s wealth. It was all of them that gave the orders to make the light go green and announce it was a “go”.

When the police department in your town allows everyone to “J” walk for 30 years without incident, but then, a group of people crossing an intersection get struck by a speeding truck killing them all resulting in every person in the town getting a retroactive fine for 30 years of “J” walking even if they had not done so, then you have to ask, ‘who is to blame?’ Was it the police for not doing their job and controlling “J” walking, or one might say being neglectful, or was it the townspeople for taking advantage of the lack of enforcement?

I put the blame on the enforcer of the rules and regulations. When the enforcers turned their backs on the rules and regulations, allowing for permissiveness, then they are to be blamed. We, the citizens, elect representatives and pay them well with the nation’s best health insurance and retirement benefits to guarantee that the people of the nation, the recipients of their good will, or bad, and who are instructed how the rules and regulations are to be followed if we are allowed to walk freely upon the nation’s streets and countryside, should not be the ones blamed.

It is THEIR fault!! But, as we are now seeing, the governor of California is now about to punish the most challenged in his state with budget cuts. This is what is being done all around the country. Because the richest among us, the wealthiest investment bankers, and legislators and presidents, and health care insurance company CEOs, and all of the wealthiest CEOs of corporations who have taken their companies down the economic rabbit hole get bailouts, rescue packages, bonuses gleaned off the backs of taxpayers, get a free pass from the government and Justice department, the rest of the citizens, especially those without health insurance, those who lost their homes, those who lost their jobs to outsourcing, or downsizing on behalf of the bottom line, the balance sheet and the stockholders, they will be the ones who will solely experience the so-called “shared sacrifice” declared by President Obama who asked for a “shared sacrifice”.

As Ellen Hodgson Brown stated in her article about how California could create a budget surplus instead of struggling to find a way to pay for their measly $26 billion budget deficit (in relation to the state’s overall gross revenues), it is clear that no one in the governor’s office has paid any attention to alternatives outside of budget cuts. (Read--How The State Can Beat Its Budget Woes: California Dreamin’, 7-10/12-09, Counterpunch.org.)

Their budget deficit, their shortfall, is just small potatoes compared to the Congressional bailout package of $700 billion to the banks that caused this crisis in the first place. And, the Federal Reserve has committed trillions more to cover the backs of these same banksters, and corporations that gambled away and lost trillions of America’s wealth. She writes, “Nearly ten times the sum needed by California was allotted to bailing out AIG [then on] to Goldman Sachs, a single bank.” The nation’s government says to California, sorry, “You are on your own”.

Ms. Brown stated further, “We the people did not precipitate this credit crisis; the banks did. We should not have to pay for the damage with increased taxes or decreased services or [through sacrificing] our public parks and [through rate hikes with our] parking meters.” How true!

We the people, 48 million of us, are without health care insurance. The insurance companies of this nation, AIG included, have been reaping record profits, as well as taking government tax dollars to shore up their evaporating balance sheets. Yet they have spent trillion of dollars lobbying congresspersons over the last 10 years. TRILLIONS. But we the people must pay the price for their lavish lifestyles, edacious corporate spending sprees, and more.

Currently, the Blue Dog (SHIT) Coalition is being influenced grandly by the insurance lobbys through campaign contribution bribes to favor the profit takers over the nation’s people who elected them into office as their representatives. It is time that corporations no longer have the same rights as a person. They are not people but entities ALLOWED under the rule of law, of which they must adhere to, to be a corporation. People are born with these rights of protection. Corporations apply and pay for the right of protection and operation.

The Blue Dog Shit Coalition should be castrated or neutered during their next election cycle. They are doing the bidding for the insurance lobby by holding up a public option plan that would benefit Americans, but instead, huckster-selling the insurance co-op proposal to their constituents and party members. This would not empower the members of the many health care co-ops that would be established, but make them victims to the insurance companies, once again. Only a large, single group plan, such as a public option, would empower the members to demand reasonable pricing for premiums and drugs.

To further my point that the people are continuing to be held captive by the largest of the financial banking institutions, which I have called a crime syndicate, James Howard Kunstler, the renowned writer, has echoed this claim, and recently, the infamous Eliot Spitzer, the former governor of New York has, too, called it a Ponzi scheme, when I wrote about it being The World’s Biggest Ponzi Scheme months ago.

What we have now is the Federal Reserve chairman, ‘Bada Bing’ Ben Bernanke, as he was questioned by Florida Representative-Democrat Alan Grayson that he did not know where the hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars, which had been injected into foreign central banks in exchange for their foreign currencies, had gone to! This had all been done without approval or oversight by individuals in the Congress or the White House. Ben Bernanke has been acting like a lone bandit printing money in his basement without government approval, when in actuality, this is against the law!

The Federal Reserve keeps printing money and lending it out placing their liabilities further and further in the danger zone of insolvency. Their capital is shrinking as their liabilities grow larger and larger into the realm of 40 times more in liabilities than capital reserves. This pushes the Ponzi scheme into what could be called a national security risk. Now, we see that Bada Bing Bernanke is a very slick con-artist. He knows where the money has slithered off to, but he won’t tell, and congress has fizzled out in creating law that would audit his secret goings-on.

The economic collapse cannot recover if recklessness prevails and the “riskiness” demonstrated by the financial-banking institutions continue to push the nation further toward a code red national security danger zone. We cannot have a jobless recovery when the country reaches two points away from an under-unemployment rate of 20%.

Bada Bing Bernanke is very afraid of further dollar deflation so he is very likely printing money, and buying up their U.S. Treasurys, which are about to be dumped on the world’s open market for whatever auction price they can get knowing their economies are in trouble. They might find other currencies or investments a better value.

The Obama administration would be better served by dumping the Goldman Sachs refugees working inside as “moles” for GS and bringing on individuals who could rescue this president’s economic policy from crashing and burning, since he has allowed the “GS Moles” to favor the “paper” economy over the real economy.

President Obama claimed a victory in January, but has failed to demonstrate what should be a commanding lead through strong, decisive, and persuasive determination. Those who supported change are getting very tired of not seeing any worth believing in.

thanks for reading, jerry