Olbermann on the sellout

Keith Olbermann's special comment on Monday points out the 4 hypocrisies in the debt ceiling deal. And all of it due to a self-created “crisis” unprecedented in US history for political gamesmanship. The debt was run up by a prior President spending wildly on wars, all of which was approved without a peep by the very same conservatives now crying about the problem. Meanwhile some credit the President for compromising with these jackals, but this only further reinforces that whatever principles he espouses with effective rhetoric are empty of political fact.

The first hypocrisy is the newly-formed “super committee.” The Tea Party has hid behind he Constitution at every turn, always waving it around and shouting that any and every legislative proposal be based on this sacred document. But what do we hear from them on this committee, which creates a third house of Congress? Where is all the protest now about this most unconstitutional of bodies whose only apparent purpose is to scapegoat a few representatives and Senators thereby providing cover to the rest coming (re)election time?

The first hypocrisy is compounded by the second, a constitutional amendment to balance the budget. The most apparent problem being they support, and ignore, the Constitution only when it suits their purposes. But what's wrong with a balanced budget amendment in itself? In the current economic milieu, when neither consumers or businesses are spending or investing, the government must do so to kick start the economy with things like infrastructure projects, long overdue. But such an amendment would further curtail such necessary spending in times of crisis, including wars and natural disasters. Remember this strategy was tried by the Hoover Administration and it led to the Great Depression.

The third hypocrisy is the shell game in the rules of the super committee. If the committee and Congress cannot agree on the required additional cuts then a trigger will make automatic cuts, presumably evenly from both defense and domestic spending. However it seems there will be loopholes to get out of the defense side of the cuts should no agreement be possible, and if the current budgetary capitulation was any milestone those “automatic” cuts will again come predominantly from much needed domestic programs, the programs that actually create jobs.

The fourth and most significant is to not add any revenues to all the cuts. The cuts hurt everyone but the rich, the latter again being rewarded for hoarding all the wealth and not investing it in an economy for all. The tax rates on corporations and the rich are the lowest in a long time and yet where are all the jobs they created? They haven't and they don't, which should seem obvious to anyone without an ideology impediment blinding them to some basic facts. What not taxing them does do on a positive note is further enable them to buy more influence in government, further increasing the cycle of disparate wealth distribution and further eroding the economy as a whole. Good plan, for them.

Yeah, sure, the tax loopholes will be closed later, by a committee that has yet to be formed. We believe that one. We're that stupid we'll fall for that promise again. There is more so go view his special comment.