September 22, 2008
The Milkman’s Son
By Tracy C. Baker
Milked Dry#131
“Just shut up and open your wallets.”
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson wants you to open your wallets and bail out companies like Goldman-Sachs. Why? Because when Mr. Paulson was running Goldman-Sachs he committed fraud, increasing the debt of the company through derivatives, speculation, and sub-prime paper. He, like every other CEO and the Bush Administration, knew the game wouldn’t last forever, but as long as he was pocketing millions and billions of dollars what did he care? This is a case, as talk radio host Randi Rhodes says, of privatizing profits and socializing losses. Isn’t it amazing how much Republicans, including John McCain, love to scream “Free Markets!” “No Regs!” etc but when it comes time to pay the piper the run to the government for protection.
The ridiculous proposal before Congress now reminds me of an old Joke that went, “What is foreplay to a Redneck? ‘Shut up and get in the truck.” In this case it is shut up and open your wallets. Republican economics has for years been based on the axiom, “I have mine, now I am going to make sure you can’t have yours.” The proposal to “rescue” the economy continues that axiom. It is only three pages long and widely available on the web (forget seeing anything about the specifics on TV news) so read it if you can. Basically, it boils down to this – give me nearly one trillion dollars (that is trillion with a “T”) and then leave me alone and I will come back in six months and tell you how I am doing.
Rrriigghht!
The administration who out right lost 10 billion dollars in Iraq; who gave, from what we know, over one billion dollars to contractors like Bechtel and Haliburton for projects they never, ever completed, and then refuses to prosecute them; who has borrowed so much money from China, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and hundreds of other countries that we are on our way to third-world economic status; who aided and abetted international corporations to move jobs and their tax money off shore to the point that we now have NO manufacturing (and no manufacturing translates into no value in an economy in case you didn’t know) now wants you to hand over the money, get your nose out of “their” business and they’ll let us know whether it worked or not later…after the election.
Oh, by the way. That means no money will be left for any of those social programs you would like to see like health care, schools, food stamps, veterans benefits etc etc. Just what the Republicans have been trying to do for decades. Yeah, tell me they didn’t know this was coming.
Fini
Tracy
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
My Father delivering Berkeley Farms milk
The Milkman
My Father delivering Berkeley Farms milk
Followers
About Me
- Tracy
- Okay, okay. I can finally admit it. I am the milkman’s son. This does not, however, mean I am an unfortunate bastard (contrary to popular belief). My father, you see, was a proud member of this long gone profession. A friend of my parents used to tease my mother, implying all her children where the result of liaisons with the milkman. It always brought laughs from the “adults”. I never understood what was so funny. My father was a milkman and I was his child. So? I call this little something-or-other “The Milkman’s Son” because despite my path in life, despite how successful (or not), I am who I am because I am my Father’s child. He died nigh on 15 years ago now, yet he still influences most things I do. A plainspoken man from Michigan, he liked to act the curmudgeon. Yet when you paid close attention, you’d find a man who truly cared for people and for life. These essays are my way of sharing what I see, read, or hear all around me, everyday.
No comments:
Post a Comment