GOP Politics: Flagged Wrapped Ponzi Schemes

Internet writer Karoli gets it right. She characterizes Rick Perry's remarks and others: "It's hate-talk, wrapped up in a flag." Paul Krugman finds a related purpose for Eric Cantor's remarks: "the whole point of [Cantor's] offsetting spending cuts thing—his invention of a nonsense principle—is to obscure the ruthlessness of the blackmail involved." Former NYT columnist Frank Rich tracks the grand vision of the invectives: "the most consequential event of the past ten years may not have been 9/11 or the Iraq War but the looting of the American economy by those in power in Washington and on Wall Street."

These are among the most rhetorical succinct sentences of the thrugery of the Republican Congressional political economy yet written. Now it's time "to move social security to the states." That one leaves me speechless! 50 different benefits, no safe guards for risk, no insulation from change and cuts, no disability or survivor benefits, no standard payroll deductions (bet in higher taxes, lower returns), and the hands of governors and legislatures within in reach of a pool right now they can not touch. A Ponzi scheme is when nothing is left. Social security never missed paiding a benefit, and is good for another 37 years--and longer if we simply raise the income cap.

$9 trillion dollars of household wealth was lost in the recession. Families were flim-flammed by a market whose promise of diversity was a mask for its broad greed. Within two years, these firms were again reaping record profits. Yet America’s families, hoping for unemployment extensions, were depressed deeper than their housing values.

Government housing built during the Depression. Dorothea Lange photograph. LOC.

The GOP tells us government spending is the cause. Never mentioned is the blow to families, the elimination of jobs, wealth, savings, and home values. In a macabre twist, Democrats now fight to save safety net programs, having failed to save American families from the scavenges of business institutions that take away their personal margins of safety. The GOP blames government, but government did not create a recession, put millions out of work, and turn housing values on their head.

Every word spoken by Republicans, every speech, shaken hand, script, smile, lie, indignation, legislative act, and budget redistributes wealth upward. Too much image making describes both parties.

As image replaces substance in the public debate, and Democrats leave unchallenged the emotional appeal, Republicans will serve a diet of national decline and twisted math. Nothing will be left in the national treasury. That's the Ponzi scheme.