I keep listening to the people who created the economic mess we find ourselves in trying to rewrite history in ways that suggest total states of denial in regard to their own role in leading us into the quagmire we find ourselves stuck. Between the Wall Street “experts,” the right wing economic gurus who spent the last 8 years enabling George W Bush and company (some of them enabling supply side economics for 30+ years), and the Republicans who are desperately trying to shield the reality of what they have caused, but essentially proposing more of the same, it is getting a bit much. As far as I’m concerned these people need to crawl back into the hole they came out of. And then to listen to them trying to place the blame for everything from the recession (which began about 18 months ago), the deficit, the banking crisis, and the Wall Street meltdown on Barrack Obama and his administration of about 6 weeks defies rational thinking.

But you have to keep in mind that these people haven’t used rational thinking for as long as I can remember. What I do remember, very distinctly, is that back in the eighties Republicans came up with (what I have to admit has been a very effective) propaganda strategy which has become known as the “talking points.” Now, the theory behind this is that if enough of them repeat the same thing over and over and over and over (well, you get the point) hordes of people who have busy lives will hear them and actually believe the bull #*@% they are spewing out is true. This is how they have convinced people to vote against their own self interest. Obama had it exactly right during the campaign when he pointed out that Republicans use “wedge” issues – like abortion, or gun rights, or gay marriage – to rile up their base and get every day “blue collar” Americans to support things like the fleecing of the US treasury that took place on a regular basis during the Bush reign in office. Well, the Republican party has unleashed this strategy again – only this time I think the American people are so sick of their shpeel that nobody’s listening – or at least I hope not. The other day I heard about five of them say the exact same words in five different venues – from radio announcers (you know who), to TV announcers, to the really disgusting Congressional “leaders” who have bought into this strategy of repeated lies.

And this fleecing was monumental and arrogant to the point that the fleecers actually started to believe the company line – that is that they actually deserved – and were worth – all the money they were pealing off from the tax roles. If the so-called no-bid contracts given to Halliburton, KBR (and Dick Cheney), Blackwater, Parsons, Bechtel (Rumsfeld), and the others are ever fully investigated the American people are not only going to go into a state of shock – THEY WILL BE VERY ANGRY! Now, I personally believe that the “grand finale” – the TARP bailout of his Wall Street buddies by Henry Paulsen during his last couple months in office will be the greatest fleece of them all – but the other ones were War Profiteering – ripping off taxpayers while our troops were dying in Iraq due to insufficient armor and equipment. Our wounded troops were sitting in rat infested rooms at Walter Reed, or taking showers in Iraq not knowing whether or not they might be electrocuted due to faulty work by contractors – and these corporations were skimming Billions upon Billions from the war funding which was all borrowed money and which was hidden from the actual deficit figures reported by the federal government.

The Wall Streeters, immediately upon receiving the first wave of funding from Paulsen, started handing out bonuses at an alarming rate – almost as if they knew the “gig was up” and they were grabbing as much as they could while the public’s collective attention was diverted to other things. The thing that is the most alarming about all this is that I believe these banks are already failed – and the government very likely can’t print money fast enough to save them – in this case I believe you could say that the cure is worse than the disease. Last week I pointed out that CitiCorp was worth around 13.5 Billion as the government was about to put another slug of “relief” their way – that is after the initial 45 Billion which was 300% the worth of ALL THE STOCK IN THE COMPANY. Well, since then the value of the company has dropped to about 5 Billion – and very likely headed toward ZERO!!! As I’ve stated before, if feels like we’re sending “good money after bad.” When will it stop?

Well, as ludicrous as it is to blame all of this on President Obama, it is – and should be – fair game to question what he’s doing about it (I really do wish the Republicans would participate in the discussion in some kind of way besides more tax cuts for the rich – that “record” is beyond BROKEN). I support Obama, and unlike Rush Limbaugh, I truly hope he succeeds. But the reality is that he’s inherited a mess that may not be fixable – at least with the known economic remedies of the people he has advising him. I mean, most of the names are way too familiar to me – in my mind Larry Summers participated in the demise of the regulation system when he worked for Bill Clinton – and Tim Geithner was the New York Fed Chairman as Wall Street was imploding – so, to me, it is fair game to question what they are doing. I’M JUST HAPPY THAT WHAT THEY ARE DOING ISN’T WHAT BUSH AND CO. WERE DOING.

However, I question if the reason they keep putting money into the Wall Street Banks and AIG is because the money was already allocated in the original TARP funds. To me, that’s not a good reason. Of course, I’m on record as opposing the TARP bailout right from the start – but hopefully I’ll be wrong and it will eventually work in getting the credit markets “moving” again. In my mind, the more money we throw at these enterprises the more money we have lost. The sensible approach was to allow the banks that are insolvent to fail with the government coming in to pick up the pieces. It’s like we are trying to protect the very people who created this mess in the first place. There was over a trillion dollars spent – by my account – before a single cent was aimed at the foreclosure crisis and the American families losing their homes. Where’s the Republican “family values?” I’ll tell you where it is – look up Rick Santelli on the internet – he has become a Republican folk hero for calling the homeowners seeking help to stay in their homes “LOSERS” and making it clear that he feels any restructuring of their loans (which makes sense even for the banks – I don’t think they want 8 – 10 million foreclosures) means he’s paying their mortgage for them. This is the kind of “Me, Me, Me” thinking that has driven the “party of family values” for the past quarter of a century.

So, while – as I said – it is ludicrous to blame Obama for the troubles we are in – he does have some incredibly tough decisions facing him. I’m suggesting one of those decisions is to give the Republicans what many of them have been clamoring for – let the free market determine the solvency of these banks that Henry Paulsen said are “too big to fail.” The reality is they have already failed – and what is the best and cheapest way to get a banking system functioning in this country again. The fact that we’ve already poured hundreds of billions of TARP dollars onto their balance sheets is not a sufficient reason to continue to do so. Think of the requirements that have been put on GM and Chrysler for a far smaller amount of taxpayer money – which is in the form of a loan – and then tell me that similar expectation shouldn’t be expected of any bank or anyone else seeking assistance during this economic meltdown. I believe continuing the TARP program may be like pouring gas on a fire – it is just making things worse. These large banks should have to provide a plan that demonstrates SOLVENCY before they receive another cent of TARP funds!