If you can demonize someone for making an 800 billion dollar mistake, then we should be able to get a pound or two of flesh from someone who helped make a 200 trillion dollar mistake.
With all this talk of making bankers pay for their mistakes, I say we institute a system that will reclaim from politicians what they took from us.
Posted on :
10-25-09 |
As our new pay czars begin setting compensation rates for executives at businesses who took tax payer money in order to survive the housing and credit bubble, I can’t help but think about how the tables should be turned on the politicians as well.
First a bit of history… The housing bubble.
Barney Frank rails daily in the press about the evil bankers and mortgage companies that allowed people to get into mortgages way over their heads, when I think it’s been pretty well shown that the government was demanding of the banks that they make low cost loans to poorer people or face financial retribution to the tune of large fines and extra taxes. (Community Re-investment Act) In fact, over the course of the worst of it, as housing prices were jumping yearly because easy money put too much demand on the market and prices had nowhere to go but up, Fannie and Freddie Mack actually ended up guaranteeing more sub-prime loans than the entire private sector combined. These are government agencies taking all that paper they could so politicians could tell everyone how well we are doing because so many more people own their own homes. (Or have mortgages with the bank at least. When people ask me if I own my home, I say the bank does, I just borrow it from them)
I’m not saying it’s all anyone’s fault, but I do not believe it’s fair that the government can completely lie about its role in the events leading up to the bursting of the bubble. Why are the politicians allowed to dismiss any cause they created in the effect?
Our elected officials started Medicare with the promise of a ten-year budget that ballooned over its original estimate, and continued to double every four years from 1966 to 1980. Already in 2009, Medicare is paying out more than it takes in from taxes and is scheduled to become insolvent by 2019. The unfunded liability sitting on our Treasury books is currently around 85.6 trillion dollars, or six times what everyone in the entire country makes in one year. Or put another way, 107 times larger than what we just spent to bail out the banks, which unlike Medicare, they are actually re-paying us.
Of course, then there is Social Security, that huge Ponzi scheme which is second on our current list of spending… Medicare being third, and defense being first. The politicians, who voted for this, undoubtedly have helped save lives of older Americans over the years, but were grossly off on their estimates of cost as well. When Social Security started, there were almost 40 people working to every one that was retired. That number has now dwindled to almost 2 people working for every one retired, as the first generation to pay their entire lives into system just happened to be our baby boomers, and our largest generation to date.
In 1956, the tax rate was raised to 4%. In 1961, the tax rate was raised to 6%. In the 1970’s a cost of living adjustment was added, now we currently all get taxed 12.6% of our paychecks to go towards paying for retirees. (Half being paid by our employer, and half paid by us, but still 12.6% of the money our employer allots to our overall compensation. Unless you are self employed, then you pay all 12.6% yourself no matter what tax bracket you fall in.) And of course, President Obama is giving Social Security recipients $250 this year, even though we are experiencing deflation. Gotta keep the people happy, right?
Oh yeah, the best part… did you know our own Supreme Court has ruled that we the citizens have absolutely no right to any benefits to be paid out to us what-so-ever? Google it up. It was back in the 60’s. Also, anyone making more than 40K a year will see a negative return, if they see anything at all by the time they decide to retire. Economists are currently predicting that the entire system will collapse if left unchanged (raising taxes or lowering benefits) by 2040. Which lucky for me, puts me right at 67 years old.
So while our politicians, and I’m talking both Democrats and Republicans here, are drilling us every single day with how bad the banks fucked us, and how those greedy capitalists fucked us, and we should cut their pay, and get money back from their pay if they took too much risk that didn’t pan out, then my immediate thought is…
Where is our recourse against the politicians?
I suggest, following in the vein the current administration, and that we impose penalties of fines, jail time, or even the damn death sentence if we have to in order to reign in our own political leaders. If you are in the Senate or the House, and you vote for some damn bill… let’s say Health Care Reform… and if 10 years later, that bill ends up costing more than 10% of what they estimated, then they should be thrown in jail, or taxed 100% on all of their lecture circuit fees they made after leaving office. They should be thrown out of their houses, and made to live in a cardboard box somewhere cold… I suggest Minot North Dakota. They should be given a nasty STD, and maybe have their big toes cut off as well. Something to remind them that if they vote for something today, and if it turns out anything like the CRA, Social Security, or Medicare, that they will be held responsible.
These guys are in charge of everything. Not just the banks. Not just the air we breathe. Every fucking thing. And now they want to be in charge of 18% of our economy via Health Care reform.
Well, given their track records so far, I say we rake back their livelihoods if what they vote for turns into some monstrosity that again threatens to bankrupt the country while devaluing the dollar every day. Hell, lets make it a pay per view reality show, where a citizen who feels particularly fucked can spend $60 watching Barney Frank and Pelosi living in squalor and wishing they still had their mack daddy government pensions, because Social Security isn’t paying dick these days. If you can demonize someone for making an 800 billion dollar mistake, then we should be able to get a pound or two of flesh from someone who helped make a 200 trillion dollar mistake. |
