It is distressing to watch/read the Beltway media struggling to avoid an honest description of what is happening in Washington as the Tea-GOP-ConservaDems lay siege to America's future. This appearance by economist Jeffery Sachs [video of his trying to overcome the media's ingrained framing] illustrates the problem.
Never mind Congress' total indifference to America's real problems. In the real world, there is massive unemployment, record poverty and inequality, 50 million without health insurance, pointless wasteful wars, strangling states and cities, millions facing foreclosure, global climate threats, and a collapse of the rule of law, etc. As Matt Taibbi documents in his Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?, no elites have been held accountable for creating these catastrophes. Yet there isn't a single initiative from the Tea-GOP Congress to deal with any of this. So why isn't Congress' and the Administration's neglect of these real crises the lead story on every media every day?
It would be ludicrous if the media thought the Tunisian and Egyptian regimes just fell because of public concerns over the next fiscal year budget deficit. Every poll tells us our citizens, like the protesters there, regard that issue as far down the list, well behind the lack of jobs, education and an economically fair and secure future.
What we are witnessing in Congress and in states with radical Tea-GOP Governors is an unrelenting assault on all of the economic and intellectual foundations of our present and future. They're waging war on us, effectively targeting the economic security and future of a majority of Americans. Oh, the rich will do just fine; the Obama Administration and Congress will take care of them as they did in December. You and your children and their future are the targets.
If this were a conventional war — think WWII — the enemy would be bombing our bridges and rail lines, blowing up government centers, attacking police and firemen stations, and letting our factories burn. They'd be undermining basic research, stealing technology, and targeting our schools hoping to cripple our intellectual ability to advance, feed ourselves, produce what we need and hold the nation together. They'd work to incapacitate and strangle state and local governments, to demoralize and crush the public's confidence. They'd try to cripple the public health system and leave us defenseless against massive outbreaks of disease. They'd dismantle environmental protections designed to protect public health from toxic water, deadly emissions, and unsafe consumer products. And on and on.
rest at http://my.firedoglake.com/scarecrow/2011/02/17/dear-america-you-and-your-future-are-under-siege/
No comments:
Post a Comment