Published: March 19, 2008 03:17 pm            

Write On: The Reagan Recession

This recession we are entering had to happen. We are facing times as hard as any since The Great Depression which followed the stock market collapse of 1929. Why? I will tell you what I think. Others may disagree. Let them write what they think here on this Opinion Page. There is room here for all kinds of opinions other than my own. If you disagree, that's fine but have the courage to speak up and sign your name to what you think.

I believe the seeds of this mess we are in were planted on January 20, 1981. That was when Ronald Reagan delivered his Inaugural Address to the American people. In that speech, Reagan famously said: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

These are noble sounding words. Blaming Uncle Sam for our woes is to create an easy scapegoat. This blame game continues today. There is a straight line from Reagan to Ron Paul and John McCain. Many admire Reagan, but the actions he undertook following his inauguration have led to the unravelling of our economy, the destruction of our middle class, the tarnishing of our image around the world, the collapse of our currency, the "Savings and Loan scandal" which preceded the foreclosure epidemic which is now driving Americans out of their homes, the massive wave of illegal immigrants from Mexico, and our long-term suicidal dependence on foreign oil. That's a lot to put on Reagan's plate. He has had many helpers in his ideology's gutting of this country, but it started with him and now we are paying the price.

By de-regulating oversight on our banks, Reagan made inevitable the S&L crisis which cost this country a trillion dollars to "fix." The "fix" was to bail out the Neil Bushes of the Silverado's at the expense of those taxpayers who used to save their money in banks. Today we have a "negative" savings rate in America, which is to say that people owe far more than they ever put into savings. De-regulation, what Reagan and his followers deceptively mislabel as "getting the government off our backs," has created the climate of greed, graft, cronyism and corruption that has let Big Business trample the little guy.

We have lately seen this de-regulation mania show itself in toxic toys flooding this country from China. We have seen the rise of anti-union companies like Wal-Mart take advantage of their work force even as their predatory practices have closed so many "Mom and Pop" stores across America.

This same "let the marketplace decide" mentality has enabled the unbridled greed of company executives like Countrywide Financial's Angelo Mozilo, who got a severance package of $800,000,000 after running his company into the ground while his workers and stockholders got zip. What's in your paycheck? It reminds me of the novelty song "She Got The Gold Mine And I Got The Shaft."

Reagan's first real act as President was to attack America's unions. He did this by destroying PATCO, the union of air traffic controllers.

That single act signalled his approval of an all-out assault on America's once strong union movement. Unions may not be popular around here, but they built America's middle class and provided the only defense workers had against greedy, unscrupulous employers. Now the strength of unions is less than a third of what it once was, and the numbers are shrinking. The wave of illegal immigrants washed over our borders as Conservative economic policy encouraged the importation of cheap labor to work at substandard wages. Without those "jobs Americans won't do" (at slave wages), the illegals wouldn't be here. Smashing unions like Cesar Chavez's United Farm Workers created this mess, and it continues today.

Outsourcing American manufacturing jobs to cheap labor markets elsewhere continues this toxic trend. So does "privatizing." Transferring jobs government employees once did to big business may sound good, but just look at what we pay former Halliburton subsidiary Brown, Root, and Kellogg to feed our military, work formerly done by G.I.'s. Ex-Halliburton chief Vice President Dick Cheney certainly has earned his exorbitant retirement package from his former employer. Does anybody care about war profiteering anymore?

As President Bush and candidate John McCain continue to cut the taxes for the super rich during this time of war, our national debt grows to ten trillion dollars. This is why our currency, the once-valued American dollar, has plunged into collapse around the globe. If you don't believe me, visit the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. You'll need to buy a ticket to get in, but they don't take dollars anymore-- only Euro's and rupees. The dollar has tanked.

Speaking of tanks, what you pay to fill your car or truck's tank is the result of failed energy policies which have consistently been tilted to benefit "Oil Men" like Bush and Cheney. Remember that the next time you pay at the pump. Our current leaders have consistently shot down raising mileage standards on our vehicles and providing real, effective incentives to develop alternative energy sources that don't pollute the air we breathe and the water we drink.

This same crowd, led by our own Senator Mitch McConnell, also fights federal financing of our elections, which is the only way we can buy back our government from the lobbyists who currently write government policy. Take away their legalized bribery of our officials-- which McConnell and his cohorts pretend is "free speech"-- and you return some of the power "we the people" have lost.

It is my opinion that the Conservative Movement, from Ronald Reagan to George Bush and John McCain, has sold America a bill of goods. We are reaping the whirlwind of this boondoggle today. The best thing Reagan did for this country was to bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union and I give him full credit for that. It was devastatingly expensive but it was better than a shooting war in the nuclear age. But beyond that, I see little to warrant the deification of a man who thought he had fought in World War Two until his wife Nancy reminded him that he had in reality only made a movie-- "Hellcats of the Navy"-- and didn't actually engage in combat himself. That self-delusion is what is at the heart of the mess we are in. More bombast and tomfoolery from Republicans like "Bomb-Bomb Iran" John McCain sure isn't going to fix this recession, either. Deception and manipulation is what created the mess we're in. Whoever the next president is will have a devil of a time dealing with it.

Okay, I've spoken my piece. I'm probably going to get hammered for it. But I love this country and that's why I wrote it, so let fly the slings and arrows of outrage.

        

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