Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Some of the same "I've got mine now you get yours" crowd glutted with self-interest motives, hailed the arrival of guru Ronald Reagan's proclamation of "Morning in America" along with that super cool economic plan laid out by Arthur Laffer as explained by his "Laffer Curve."

Tax cuts were the answer according to Laffer and Reagan.  Tax cuts were established alongside a sharp increase in military expenditures to demolish Russia's "Evil Empire" and confront it in places like Afghanistan.  

That's the country where Osama bin Laden served as an asset to America's CIA with our nation supplying stinger missiles for those "progressive forces" of the Mujahideen and the Taliban to shoot down Russian planes.

What great progress we made through the sheer beauty of a trickle down approach that had earlier brought on a Great Depression, but that Doctor Feel Good from Hollywood's central casting would cure through those folks at the top launching that steady stream that would keep on trickling until prosperity reigned and "Morning in America" became established reality.

The national debt tripled under eight years of Doctor Feelgood.  Under the guiding force of Mr. Standing in Place George H. W. Bush for another four years, America's national debt during 12 years and three Republican terms had quadrupled.

Ah, but who says that a son cannot surpass his father?  Bush Junior, armed with his MBA from Harvard and assistance from stalwart Dick Cheney, gave us an even stiffer dose of tax cuts alongside a "drunken sailor on shore leave" economic spending spree.

Where does America now stand?  Under Bush Junior's stewardship America surpassed the $10 trillion milestone.  According to the U.S. National Debt Clock we are now at, and swiftly climbing, a figure of $10,662, 081,146, 709.00.  It increases to the tune of $3.89 billion per day.  

If you want to boil it down to share per citizen, the current count is $34,938.57.  Don't spoil your child's next birthday by bringing up this tragic fact.  At the same time, don't practice denial the way the Republican spin machine teaches it under such noble counsel as Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Hannity and say that no such debt exists.

Yes, but we now have our proposed bank "bailout" under the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program.  As Canadian international economist Michel Chossudovsky states it, TARP "is not a 'solution' to the crisis but the 'cause' of further collapse."

Chossudovsky's explanation dovetails with the beliefs of many of us who resist the quick fix Kool Aid explanation and embrace a grimmer, but far more realistic conclusion:

"The 'bailout' contributes to a further process of destabilization of the financial architecture.  It transfers large amounts of public money, at taxpayers expense, into the hands of private financiers.  It leads to a spiraling public debt and an unprecedented centralization of banking power.  Moreover, the bailout money is used by the financial giants to secure corporate acquisitions both in the financial sector and the real economy."