Economic Recovery Taken Hostage

There should be a penalty applied to Republicans for all the damage they have done during the last eight years of their management of the national affairs, foreign policy and the economy. Bush’s track record for bankrupting businesses he owned has become our problem as he and his fellow travelers have bankrupted the country with economic policy and foreign adventures that have gutted not only the economy but also the physical and social infrastructure of the country.

Instead of paying a penalty, the Republicans along with the Military-Industrial Complex that President Eisenhower warned us about, continue to keep real economic recovery as a hostage to their ideological commitments and the failed policies of the last eight years. The latest example is the $300 billion dollar tax cut that President-elect Obama sees as necessary in order to secure the Republican backing for an economic stimulus program which, otherwise, contains real economic renewal by creating jobs, investing in the production of and improvement of alternative energy capacity and rebuilding the infrastructure of the country. The first Bush Tax cuts and then the tax rebate of two years ago did not lead to economic recovery. To the contrary, these tax cuts and rebates along with deregulation of the financial institutions, unchecked free market practices and unrestrained military spending in support of nonproductive military adventures abroad led to bankruptcy for the economy. From a budget surplus at the end of Clinton years, Bush and cohorts have produces a $1.2 trillion deficit in their last year. It’s worse than Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. To top it off, military spending is exempted from any efforts to keep the budget deficit low and to encourage economic recovery.

We are hostages, all of us, until we wake up and hold the Republicans and the war mongers responsible for driving the nation into the ground and then taking the attempt to dig out of the hole we are in hostage to their political ideologies and manipulations. $500 - $1500 for the average family in tax savings during this next year will not restore the economy. It might well reduce personal debt that has accumulated during this last year, but it will not create greater demand as the previous tax cuts and rebates also failed to do and it will not create jobs and new tax payers that would help the budget balance. Instead, it will, like military spending, disappear into the black hole of increased profits for financial institutions and the industrial elite who make their millions on weapons.

P.S. Possible penalties for Republicans include court orders for absolute silence for next two years and all Republicans who voted for Bush because "Republicans are better for the economy" have to spend two hours a day for this same period writing “I will never again trust the Republicans with the Economy on the blackboard” until their arms are so tired they cannot google Yahoo Financial to see how their stocks are gaining under the new administration’s management.

It might make good sense, politically, for the new administration to put together a quick economic package with strong bipartisan support, but in our heart of hearts, many of us who are victims of the previous eight years of leadership know that at least $300 billion of the package is nothing more than paying ransom to those who have and continue to hold our futures as hostage.