Testifying Wednesday before the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke demanded that Congress and the Obama administration map out a program of austerity measures to bring down record budget deficits. Bernanke made clear that the heart of this program should be sharp cuts in social spending, including basic entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.We all knew this day would come, when America's ruling elite would finally decide to be up front with the American people and state clearly that it did not care about the American people. Through all the haze of economic calculations and rationalizations it's hard to pick out the real meaning of recent events, but with these latest developments, the picture is all too clear. Top US officials, inside the Fed and the White House, have decided to side with the Chinese government over the American people. And I don't blame the forces working inside the American government, they obviously realize the drastic consequences of challenging China, an embryonic empire.
“Maintaining the confidence of the financial markets,” Bernanke said in prepared remarks to the committee, “requires that we, as a nation, begin planning now for the restoration of fiscal balance.”
And the American people have significant less firepower, but to take them out of the historical picture totally is a grave mistake. They are the only people with a large stockpile of weaponry capable to withstand the Empire's pressure, and more importantly, they know how to use them. The Pentagon probably understands this and realizes that the most important tenet of Obama's administration is his basic respect for the American people. He is seeking to fulfill his promises to create new jobs, and a more egalitarian health care system. Conditions will still be set by corporations, but there is some recognition on all sides that there needs to be some kind of reform. But I don't think Obama is aware of the larger historical processes at work. The stakes have changed. Offering jobs no longer cut it. Social band-aids, however honorably conceived, may quell dissent but in the long run they are not enough to cover up the larger flesh wounds. Sooner or later, as hostilities between the people and Wall Street increases, he will have to make his legacy. Will his character or his words decide his fate?
Moreover, while it is true that the America's ruling elite has carried out covert operations against its own people for generations, this is the first time they have articulated their plans in public. For a long time, cutting pensions and entitlement programs have been on the agenda in Washington, but it was never politically feasible. With the greatest economic crisis ever in progress, however, that is no longer the case. A whole new ball game is under away. A new phase in history is opening, and Bernanke's recent pronouncements, which amount to a declaration of war on the American people, are the beginning credits. I'm not one to practice measured restraint, not in the face of such a blatant disregard for the American people.
If this was any other country I could understand the government's actions. Cutting pensions and slashing welfare is minuscule compared to stripping away the basic resources of life, which has been the daily reality in the third world. The bottom billion have long been marginalized by their own governments and the larger forces operating in world politics. Their lifestyles are discarded, and their hopes are not even considered. And the sad reality is that they have to take it because they don't have the power to defend themselves. But the American people? A completely different story. They may seem indifferent and apathetic but that's because nothing of value has been taken from them. Take away human life overseas? Who cares--they don't even bat an eye. But take their lifestyle privileges from them and they'll turn into bizarrely different creatures. They have had a taste of middle class existence and to pry it away from them is the stupidest thing the current American government will ever do. It will lead to their inevitable demise.
Here is another passage from Grey's article:
Warning that a continuation of such levels of debt could drive up the cost of government borrowing—a disastrous prospect for an economy dependent on a continuous stream of loans from China, Japan and other countries—Bernanke said that the deficits would have to be reduced substantially either through tax increases or budget cuts. “The Federal Reserve will not monetize the debt,” he declared.
He made clear that his prescription for “fiscal balance” was dramatic cuts in what remains of social programs, rather than tax increases. He zeroed in on the basic programs upon which tens of millions of Americans depend—Social Security and Medicare.
Many fiscal conservatives and libertarians admit that the economic medicine has to be taken, that the American people have to tighten up for living extravagantly, and that this is the only option. In short, they believe that the American people can no longer hide from fate. But a question we need to ask is who has lived the most extravagantly over these years? The American people, a sixth of whom don't have health care, or the American government and it's beneficiaries? Certainly, it's the later.
It is true that tough times call for tough measures, but who is prescribing the medicine? Is it the more trusted doctor, Ron Paul? Or a seriously deranged and power hungry doctor, Kaiser Bernanke?
I do think that America's social programs are unsustainable but so is its military budget and foreign policy. Deciding between cutting taxes or social programs is a false choice anyway. It's like a doctor telling us to take his insured medicine or die. Instead, we should notify him that we have information of alternative medicine and can live a long, prosperous life without his involvement. And the doctor, who will get a kickback if he pushes a certain type of medicine, knows this but he still persists. So it finally comes down to a question of power and will.
