Here they go again. The Government is rolling out the people program shredders again to screw Americans. To make us taxpayers pay for their incompetent borrowing and spending on the most unproductive part of America that pays NO taxes! If you guessed government, give that lady(or man) a cigar! I mean, like, who among us has borrowed and spent our Social Security Fund into the toilet? We don’t have that kind of money. But the government doesn’t either, one could say. But Ben Bernanke can just fire up the printing presses at the US Mint. We cannot do that either. Neither can we buy a $1.4 Million per copy Tomahawk Missile. We cannot order even 1, much less order up thousands of them without fear of spending the rest of our lives in Leavenworth! Raytheon Corporation, one of Uncle Sam’s favorite no-bid Military Industrial Complex’s special cronies turns them out by the thousands, full-knowing that the U.S. Government will pay the price and never be late on paying its bills. Geez. Scalping the American Taxpayers
So who says each missile is worth $1.4 Million? Well, some government high-up in joint agreement with the Pentagon, I suppose. But could Raytheon make them for say, $750,000.00? I mean, c’mon, the missiles are pretty small, and though the guidance systems are sophisticated, I will concede, would a penny over $750K seem a little extravagant? In other words, could many of the items in our Defense Dept. arsenal be, er, inflated to the hilt with the knowledge that (wink, wink) Uncle Sam will pick up the tab, not to worry? See, he still has his old friend the Fed to print as much money as he needs, right? So why worry? Spend. Enjoy (rhymes with Oy). And Ironically, there seems to be more collusion than confusion, I hate to say.
Well, the need to worry, actually, seems to be brought about by the fact that America is entering a Twilight Zone of monstrous debt that will never be paid back to the lender(s). Well, most people and many computers can’t even count that high, you know, like Trillions of dollars? And when you peek at the National Debt Clock, frankly, you think you’re ordering lunch at the Ritz for Americans who have a summer home in Palm Beach: http://www.usdebtclock.org/
So could Uncle Sam, before he dons the surgeon’s mask and gloves to cut up Social Security and Medicare benefits, uh, could he just tell Halliburton that the price on hammers has changed? That instead of a few million hammers at the usual price of $500.0 apiece, that as of right now the new price will be $250.00? Think Halliburton will get pissed off? Or after a moment’s pregnant pause and silent mediation, the big H will say, okay? They will. Bet on it. And then they will begin to scheme to overcharge Uncle Sam somewhere else, like in gasoline for the Army or meals for the troops. Actually I give you 2 to 1 that Halliburton would get over it. They will not go “poof” in thin air and go away forever. Oil Can Harry’s like that who fleece the government never do. The hog is a fat one and easy to cut if you got all your lobbyists and unlimited bucks together to do warfare on K Street in DC. And they got it going on.
Whatever happened to all the watchdogs who monitored needless government spending, for heaven’s sake? Former Senator William Proxmire (D) Wisconsin used to give out his famous “Golden Fleece Award” to those individuals, corporations, and government agencies that were guilty of wasteful spending. Some of the best Golden Fleece Awards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Fleece_Award
The biggest spenders, the federal government, all its departments from HUD to Congress to the Pentagon are known to be some of the biggest spenders by far. Of course elected officials will try to blame it on the people for wanting too much from government, but that figures. Likewise those who raped and burned the housing market blamed the people for being too cavalier in borrowing much for houses they could not afford (Yeah, right). But they forgot to mention the staggering huge loan package commissions they as individual mortgage brokers and houses got from making money so free and easy to where anybody could get a loan, many times one bigger than the borrower needed. So who would care? Just write up the contract, sting the poor borrower into signing the dotted line, and if it all blows up later, then what would happen to the commission if the homeowner defaulted on his loan? Do you have to ask? Well, Virginia, the broker got to keep it and stash it in offshore banks in the Caymans while traveling the world. Everyone won except the homeless dude freshly ejected from his home and sleeping in his car in Reno.
Screwing the taxpayer, the common working man and his family has become a blood sport. None of the mortgage banks, Wall Street crooks who sold derivatives and then shorted the same security to a different set of unsuspecting customers were just looking out for us, right? The American people never saw that Mack Truck coming. Neither did the taxpayer who just wanted a job, a house in the suburbs, and to live in an America that still feels a bit like a democracy (not) when Uncle Sam decided to pay Military Industrial Complex no-bid corporations more than double the worth of all goods and services due them in a rational solar system.
So………………………..listen for the other shoe to drop. Shhhhhh.
What if Uncle Sam made them pay it all back? Or maybe just HALF of the sums they ripped off from us with their lobbyists and prices strong enough to choke a maggot. That might work if Uncle Sam made them pay back half the spoils they looted from Uncle Sam last year! Say what? Well let us discuss it. That might more than balance the budget, what? Social Security, Medicare, Pell Grants, Highways, SCHIPS, National Healthcare, NASA, and other essential programs for the people would not need to go under the knife due to the infamous Sequestering axe to fall because Congress is too chicken to vote for it directly. Shoot, for the first time in years we may not even have to borrow one red Yuan from the Chinese or one red Yen from the Japanese to run our government. Consider it. Before attempting to refute reparations as a solution just consider a couple of points:
1. I was totally amazed to see British Petroleum dig so deep to gladly pay back in damages for all the destruction they caused to the Gulf Coast from the Deep Horizon oil spill. Is it just me or did you know that BP had that kind of cash at their disposal to just shell it out like a billionaire at Vegas playing Black Jack at a million ante per round? Many say that BP should pay billions more than the court ruling that awarded just a few paltry billion dollars. http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/22/us/bp-spill-settlement
2. Take General Electric. Please. This mammoth world corporation that does billions annually with Uncle Sam in the last 10 years made over $80 Billion in profits. They got tax credits last year for over $3 Billion which means the giant corporation paid a negative tax and could use that amount against income yet to come in 2013. Never mind, the point is that GE in 10 years of $80 Billion income only paid $1.4 Billion in taxes. That amounts to only a federal tax rate of 1.8% annually. Boy, it would be nice if you and I could pay only 1.8% in taxes a year, do you love it? Like if you make $100,000.00 each year you need to pay Uncle Sam only $1,800.00? Such a deal!
http://ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2012/02/press_release_general_electric.php
3. So………it looks like GE is crushing Uncle Sam on paying its fair share of taxes when you and I pay perhaps 30% per annum or more. Simply stated on all their Uncle Sam contracts they made so much money that they got tax credits and then got to keep all the Billions of dollars in profits they made each year. Let them pay back to Uncle Sam an amount commensurate with real prices and reality itself.
4. Say a hypothetical government supplier gets a contract to sell a million toilet seats to Uncle Sam. The contract price was $600.00 per lid. So let us have an accounting. Say they sold Uncle 2 million lids. At $600.00 each that computes to $1.2 Billion. Cut it in half. Mandate that they send back HALF or $600,000,000.00. They would survive. And so would we once we got back to reality and prices that were not borderline insane. $300.00 would still seem like a fair price for the supplier to get since Home Depot gets maybe $75.00 on its most expensive seat and only $19.95 on the cheapest. Fair is fair. And we are sorely in need of reparations like this which seems lucrative enough at even half the price they got away with the first time. Anybody tired of highway robbery? And feelings of helplessness from being impotent against our government that is supposed to look out for us, the taxpayers?
Would such reparations hurt these corporate giants? Only in La La Land. Their pockets are deeper than Alice’s rabbit hole. So would this approach to take back our government treat the corporations unfairly? Would it cause them to go bankrupt? Doubtful. What other sheep of a nation will stand still for such deep shearing and gouging to the bone? And shouldn’t these “no-bidders” learn to respect us taxpayers and our deep desires to have a good life, schools and health insurance for our families? And maybe an affordable college tuition for our kids?
Next time in Part II we will discuss more points on the origins and moral questions about reparations to those who have been hurt and/or wronged by an uncaring and immoral nation of corrupt leaders and unjust laws.