Today, dKos has been aflutter with the Economic Disaster diary from
One Pissed Off Liberal and then
seeker's Economic Disaster: Don't Fall Into the Winger Trap.
I was one of the first commentors in OPOL's diary with the note about an article found in Maclean's Magazine in 2005 (link). It was an excellent article about David Walker's quest to spread the word that the US Government is in dire financial straights.
I have been printing out this article and handing it out to dozens of people. Mostly, they are just shocked and some can hardly believe what they read.
Folks, I must disagree with seeker in that I believe that this is no winger trap. This is for real. And players like Grover Norquist have been openly talking about bankrupting the government in order to assure their hard-right agenda even after they cycle out of power.
I was so taken with this article, that I wrote a letter to Steve Maich in 2005. Here is the letter. I would like for you to read it.
May 16, 2005
Dear Mr. Maich;
It is with much interest that I read your recent Macleans article, "Is America Going Broke?" I am an American living in America, and I must assure you that the type of information that you feature in your article simply cannot be found in the American mainstream press. Period.
You dissect the issues very well and spell out the pertinent points in a language that most people can understand. For this, you have done your readers a great service.
However, you miss a very important point to this story. And perhaps that is the point - who wants to discuss the nasty politics of an issue when you are trying to enlighten your readers? Go too far with a point, and the reader will shut off the messenger.
The subject that you avoid in your article is WHY the current American administration is going in this direction towards fiscal irresponsibility. Here we have the world's superpower spending like a drunken sailor - but why? Since the mid-1900s, we have been pretty responsible with our finances. Our wealth and influence have fostered a relative pax Americana. What's changed in this equation?
The Administration isn't stumbling into a tragic situation or tolerating this looming financial meltdown. Quite the contrary. They are doing everything they can to ensure it. It's an ideological thing: a desire to undo Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
They want a deficit so grotesque that virtually all social programs will be a fiscal impossibility down the road, even if a socially conscientious governing team sweeps into power. The money simply won't be there. Deficits and their accumulated debt-interest will be too huge to allow any wiggle room. America will be stuck with the far right's agenda, no matter who's in power.
This school of thought started during the Reagan years and has been fostered in the current crop of Washington, DC think tanks. These think tanks have created a generation of "public servants" and ideologues such as Karl Rove and Grover Norquist, who now run most of the US government. Grover Norquist, in particular, has been extremely vocal and transparent about the ways and means of what he sees as the ultimate goal of his political movement. These guys are skilled political operators and don't play for lunch, they play for keeps.
"Norquist say[s] tax cuts eventually will starve the federal government of revenues and force Congress to accept reductions in government agencies and services" -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 6, 2004
"I don't want to abolish government," said Norquist. "I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub" - New York Times, September 14, 2003
When I first started having the creeping realization of what was happening, I thought myself paranoid. But then, the more I read, the more I became convinced that there was an ulterior motive. The sad fact, Mr. Maich, is that most Americans don't read. And when they do hear about things that aren't in keeping with their world view, they dismiss the messenger as "shrill" or "unpatriotic." Surely, no American government would be so cruel or reckless as to allow a fiscal meltdown, right? Surely, the opposition party will stand up and shout it from the rooftops to keep us safe, right?
Norquist: "I think [Democrats] have known for a long time they are in trouble -- and that we are going to dig out their whole structure of programs and power' -- Washington Post, June 18, 2003
But what happens when the opposition party cannot be heard or the Administration won't let them come to the table? Currently, compromise is forbidden ideologically within this Administration. They are pretty sure that they will be in power for quite some time and can abuse that power with impunity.
Norquist: "Bipartisanship is another name for date rape. We are trying [for] bitter nastiness and partisanship" -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution, December 28, 2003
Norquist: "The 2002 redistricting gave Republicans a lock on the House of Representatives until 2012 and the Founding Fathers gerrymandered the Senate for Republican control" -- Washington Post, June 9, 2003
Let's also remember that the American media is dominated with the Michael Jackson trial, Terri Shiavo, the Pope's death, sports, and the creationism/evolution debate. The "Downing Street Memo," has gotten no press time here. Most Americans consider themselves removed from the political public debate because they consider their system bullet-proof: it operates automatically without fail. They're happy as long as they have their SUVs, wide-screen TVs, suburbs, and sports teams.
I am sad to say that we have come a long way from the patriots that fought the revolution two centuries ago, and I believe that we are worse off for it. Based on many articles and interviews, including yours, I believe that there will be a financial meltdown in the next few years, and most Americans will be blindsided because they've removed themselves from basic economic facts and realities. And as you imply in your article, there are no life boats.