The Revenge of the Capitalists

by David Wemhoff

On Monday, August 8, 2011, the market plunged over 600 points. The reason we are told is that Standard & Poors had downgraded the USA’s credit rating to AA+. The reason for that in turn was because of the failure of the US Congress and the President of the US to come up with a debt reduction plan satisfactory to the financial sector.

Okay, what does that really mean?

It means that the markets, the Government, and the people of the USA are being punished for not giving more to the capitalists. To understand this, you have to first understand the nature and cause of the US public debt, which stands at about $ 14.1 Trillion.

Intra-governmental debt, that is, things like the Social Security Trust Fund and Medicare, is about $ 4.6 Trillion. However, the Social Security Trust Fund is solvent which means that the US Government has the money. That may not necessarily be the case with the rest of the items that comprise the US public debt.

The amount owed to the Federal Reserve, a Governmental entity, by the US Government, is about $ 2.5 Trillion. This "debt" can be eliminated at any time by a Congressional law. The American people do not really have to pay this back.

That leaves about $ 7 Trillion. This is held by private investors and foreign governments, and the US Government may very well hold the debt of these foreign governments in return, so, in the worst case, there is a certain offset that could be used to the advantage of the US Government and taxpayers. But it is important that we ask how it is that debt came about when in 2001 the Bush administration was forecasting budget surpluses.

The biggest item that lead to that debt was World War IV, also known by the euphemism as the "War on Terror", and more properly the War on Islam, that Bush, and his capitalist masters, started in 2001. If it were really a war on terror, then US troops should have not only sealed the border with Mexico, but should have been dispatched to Mexico to aid the Government in that country put down the narco-traffickers who are the most dangerous and bloodthirsty terrorists in the world. Instead, the US Government seems to have become involved in providing firearms to third parties that ended up in the hands of the narco-terrorists. In any event, Bush declared and prosecuted the war, and the Congress, which by the Constitution is the only branch of government given the power to declare war and to pay for the war, merely acquiesced without any declaration of war. Perhaps the constitutional idea of requiring the Congress to declare war had something to do with the congresspeople weighing the cost of the war to the tax payer with the value of the objectives of the war. But, Bush, like LBJ, just ignored this aspect of Constitutional wisdom with impunity, and now the citizens of the USA have to foot the bill.

World War IV has cost about $ 4 Trillion. That leaves $ 3 Trillion and since 2008 about $ 1.5 Trillion was used to bail out Wall Street. So, that leaves $ 1.5 Trillion or so as the debt of the USA that Americans should have any concern over paying.

I write that because the Wall Street bailout and World War IV only serve to benefit the capitalists who run, and have always run, the United States Government and shape American society. The capitalists have had their eyes on the pension funds – Social Security – which is liquid and funded as Senator Tom Harkin recently confirmed at a seminar hosted by the American Enterprise Institute. When Obama, Boehner, and the rest of the puppets who dance to the capitalist tune did not agree on a Debt Reduction Act that gutted Social Security, the capitalists had their revenge and downgraded the country’s debt rating, while crashing the market and striking fear in the hearts of the 300 million hostages known as the American people. The looters, as Dr. E. Michael Jones would call them, were upping their demands – not only did they want to be paid back with interest but they wanted our money too. Social Security and Medicare, if you didn’t know, is nothing more than deferred wages. That means, we earned the money, and by US law were required to pay it into a "lock box" for our own use down the road.

But the capitalists don’t care about that. They want more, and more and more. That’s because they love money before all else, and it was this love of money that not only lead to the creation of the USA in 1776 and the Constitution in 1787, but it has also lead to the gutting in 2011 of the very institutions and looting of the very country they created.

JMJ

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The Revenge of the Capitalists by David Wemhoff On Monday, August 8, 2011, the market plunged over 600 points. The reason we are told is that Standard & Poors had downgraded the USA’s credit rating to AA+. The reason for that in turn was because of the failure of the US Congress and the President of the US to come up with a debt reduction plan satisfactory to the financial sector. Okay, what does that really mean? It means that the markets, the Government, and the people of the USA are being punished for not giving more to the capitalists. To understand this, you have to first understand the nature and cause of the US public debt, which stands at about $ 14.1 Trillion. Intra-governmental debt, that is, things like the Social Security Trust Fund and Medicare, is about $ 4.6 Trillion. However, the Social Security Trust Fund is solvent which means that the US Government has the money. That may not necessarily be the case with the rest of the items that comprise the US public debt. The amount owed to the Federal Reserve, a Governmental entity, by the US Government, is about $ 2.5 Trillion. This "debt" can be eliminated at any time by a Congressional law. The American people do not really have to pay this back. That leaves about $ 7 Trillion. This is held by private investors and foreign governments, and the US Government may very well hold the debt of these foreign governments in return, so, in the worst case, there is a certain offset that could be used to the advantage of the US Government and taxpayers. But it is important that we ask how it is that debt came about when in 2001 the Bush administration was forecasting budget surpluses. The biggest item that lead to that debt was World War IV, also known by the euphemism as the "War on Terror", and more properly the War on Islam, that Bush, and his capitalist masters, started in 2001. If it were really a war on terror, then US troops should have not only sealed the border with Mexico, but should have been dispatched to Mexico to aid the Government in that country put down the narco-traffickers who are the most dangerous and bloodthirsty terrorists in the world. Instead, the US Government seems to have become involved in providing firearms to third parties that ended up in the hands of the narco-terrorists. In any event, Bush declared and prosecuted the war, and the Congress, which by the Constitution is the only branch of government given the power to declare war and to pay for the war, merely acquiesced without any declaration of war. Perhaps the constitutional idea of requiring the Congress to declare war had something to do with the congresspeople weighing the cost of the war to the tax payer with the value of the objectives of the war. But, Bush, like LBJ, just ignored this aspect of Constitutional wisdom with impunity, and now the citizens of the USA have to foot the bill. World War IV has cost about $ 4 Trillion. That leaves $ 3 Trillion and since 2008 about $ 1.5 Trillion was used to bail out Wall Street. So, that leaves $ 1.5 Trillion or so as the debt of the USA that Americans should have any concern over paying. I write that because the Wall Street bailout and World War IV only serve to benefit the capitalists who run, and have always run, the United States Government and shape American society. The capitalists have had their eyes on the pension funds – Social Security – which is liquid and funded as Senator Tom Harkin recently confirmed at a seminar hosted by the American Enterprise Institute. When Obama, Boehner, and the rest of the puppets who dance to the capitalist tune did not agree on a Debt Reduction Act that gutted Social Security, the capitalists had their revenge and downgraded the country’s debt rating, while crashing the market and striking fear in the hearts of the 300 million hostages known as the American people. The looters, as Dr. E. Michael Jones would call them, were upping their demands – not only did they want to be paid back with interest but they wanted our money too. Social Security and Medicare, if you didn’t know, is nothing more than deferred wages. That means, we earned the money, and by US law were required to pay it into a "lock box" for our own use down the road. But the capitalists don’t care about that. They want more, and more and more. That’s because they love money before all else, and it was this love of money that not only lead to the creation of the USA in 1776 and the Constitution in 1787, but it has also lead to the gutting in 2011 of the very institutions and looting of the very country they created.