war on money

There seems to be a war over money raging fast and fierce in this country.

There seems to be different sides in this conflict, pulling and tugging at a population which is not wealthy, not overly educated, nor savvy enough to understand when the preverbal wool is being pulled from under their feet.

We are daily, lectured, from the bully pulpit microphones of the Conservative radio and talk show hosts, that too much government is bad. We hear the same harangue that if we don’t watch out communism, fascism, and socialism will seep so fast into our lungs that the last breath we take will be covered with the red from the flag of the former Soviet Union, and perhaps choke on a swastika.

We are being told through narrative on a chalk board by Glenn Beck, out right fabrications and fact less fable from FOX News, or thinly veiled racial slurs by Rush Limbaugh, that the status quo of the past 8 years, the glory days of the frivolous Trickle Down Economics from the Reagan years, the literal acceptance of a Constitution written in 1776, are the true paths to an America where the red, white blue not only fly proud, but will fly over all the continents of the world.

We can not allow the government to reform health care, we are told by the Republican party of “no”, because that would make the government way too big, way too big brother-ish, way to responsive for making change. We are told by the same Republicans that if left alone the current Health Insurance Cartel and Pharma-conglomerates will heed the need of the citizenry of the U.S. and make the appropriate changes. We are NOT told by the Republicans why premium prices have grown, policies have been denied, participants have no voice, pre-existing conditions suddenly appear, and no self policing by the Health Care Industry has yet taken affect. We are told the government knows less about health care than the for profit corporations. And we are NOT told just how much money most if not all of the politicians against reform get directly or indirectly from the health care lobbyists. And we are reminded in every anti health reform ad that if the Government gets its hands on health care the price will rise. We are never informed in those same commercials why the price we currently pay for insurance is not okay. Nor are we ever educated on why preexisting conditions, or dropped policies or premium price increases make sense.

Seems there is war over money. The share holders come first in the health care revolt, the Congressmen/women come second, and the salaries and bonuses of CEO’s come third.

Senator Chris Dodd (D) of Connecticut is chairing the attempt to place a finance reform bill through the Senate. (He is not seeking re-election he says because his time to serve in the Senate has come to a conclusion. But prior to making that statement, Senator Dodd was caught receiving mortgages for two of his homes by Countrywide Lending at below market-rate numbers. Senator Dodd, never bothered to disclose this in formation on the six, count ’em six financial disclosures he was required by law to provide the public.) But as his last hurrah, and a mia culpa without the mia, the Senator is trying to establish some regulatory reform for the Banking Industry. With the worst recession to hit Americans since the Depression, with wall Street bingeing on their own rules and regulations, with the average American wondering why Main street is not on the map of recovery, Senator Dodd, has made it his mission as Senate Banking Chairman to try and bring salvation and sanity back from the brink.

But even though the average man/woman has felt the ravages of an unfettered phalange of pathetic power moves, there are obstacles and oblivion by the Republicans to provide any kind of policing of the banks. Un- American, we are told, is to regulate anything in this country, and once again, like the health reform debacle, we are told that leave well enough alone it will mend itself.

What we are NOT told, is just how much money the anti banking reform crusaders have and will receive for their political coffers, and heir own personal pleasures. The war on money is a winning battle for the nay sayers once again.

The President has had enough of Bush’s marketing plan or was it ploy for education, ‘No Child Left Behind” and is now instituting his own education reform. The President wants failing schools to be given a better chance to succeed, and wants students and their families to reap the rewards of quality education not just based on test scores but based on what is learned how it can be used for every day living, and for students to see there is a future if they continue to seek higher education.

Sounds cool, an educated youth becomes an employable adult, who then becomes a tax payer, who then is giving to this country and not taking. But once again, there is a war on money being waged in most if not all of the states in the Union.

The first cuts in state budgets are cuts in education funding. The first cuts are to eliminate teachers (the teachers are always the culprits, because most of them in the eyes of state legislators are incompetent, corrupt or just asking for too much salary). Athletes, actors, and bankers who make big mistakes never make too much money)

But the deficits are rising in the states, and the first cuts are teachers, (more kids in the classroom, curriculum, we don’t need the arts, physical education is for sissies, and extra books or chalk or paper will make the kids lazy). We have no money to spend on the professionals who educate our children, we have no money to spend on minority kids, we have no money to be spent on public education, because this is America and religious based education is better for the kids anyway.

So the war on money is waged in each state as the President promises to make our youth brighter, and better. The states seem to find money for salaries for politicians, prisons, and paying tobacco farmers not grow tobacco, paying for stadiums, and negotiating land deals for professional sports teams.

There is a war on money as far as I can discern, and the winners seem to be those in high tax brackets, those from corporations, those who lobby, and those in politics who care about their personal bottom line.

There is a war on money and as far as I can understand it those who will most certainly be wounded by the battle are supporting the wrong side in this scrimmage. But when you victimize yourself, blame others for your mishaps, have grown up with bigots, think that being biased is Gods will, hate anyone not like you, your choices sometimes don’t pan out.

There is a war on money in this country, and anyone who has a conscience, who cares who is concerned for a greater good should not be waving a white flag, but be mad as hell and be fighting back.