Like the “Death Eaters” in the Harry Potter saga, the Repugs have done everything they can to suck the life out of the commonweal, exemplified by Grover Norquist‘s pledge to shrink the (social services part of the) government down to the point where it can be drowned in a bathtub.
Ever since Reagan took office in 1981, they’ve been hell bent on dismantling Roosevelt’s New Deal (social security “privatization” being just the most obvious target) and LBJ’s “Great Society.” No better way to accomplish that than by bankrupting the US Treasury through a combination of tax cuts for the rich and a policy of endless war, something enthusiastically embraced by the Repugs’ presidential candidate, John McSame.
The cash cost of the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan alone currently totals $16 billion per month. Add in long term interest costs and care of injured vets and the total is some $25 billion per month, according to a new book The Three Trillion War by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard economist Elizabeth Bilmes. Add to that the half trillion dollars per year in welfare subsidies given to the military-industrial-complex and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.
Well, maybe not so real, since its largely borrowed money. This has led to a record devaluation of the US dollar, which in turn has contributed to $110 per barrel oil and record gas prices approaching $4 a gallon.
The Rise of Corporate Feudalism
Meanwhile, the value and equity in Americans homes has plunged to levels not seen since the Repugs gave us the Great Depression. The collapse of the American real estate market can largely be attributed to the laissez faire approach to regulation employed by the Bush Administration over Wall Street, who packaged “no peaky,” no money down mortgages into CDOs and sold to unsuspecting municipalities and pension funds with the blessing of corrupt bond rating agencies.
Encouraged to use their homes as ATM machines, home owners have seen their ‘castles’ morph into debtors’ prisons, thanks to the new bankruptcy bill that is turning tens of millions of Americans into indentured servants.
Serfs of the multi-national, corporate feudal empire —Unite!
Defy Lord Valdamorte and send Bush and his cronies to the Dementers at Azkaban. Then throw away the key.
Please.
