Who is "Trustworthy" in Washington, D.C?

Why Should We Trust the Wholly Untrustworthy?
I am still in the questioning stage with regard to the $700 Billion Dollar “bailout” of somebody. I say “somebody” because it is not entirely clear to me, or probably anyone else, who precisely we are bailing out, and that is only the beginning of my discomfort. Are we “bailing out” the shareholders, the really incompetent CEOs, the mortgagees, the politicians, or their employees, the lobbyists?

My problem is simply this. I know precisely what is going on in Washington, D.C., on this issue at this moment, and I do not need to be there to see it directly. We have all seen it so many times that we should not need to be reminded. The people we have elected, who do not trust any of us at all or each other, are telling us once again why they have to restore “trust” and “confidence” in our name. They have never really trusted us, but we are expected once again the trust them.

Given the incentive of $700 Billion, a horde of locusts and vultures have descended on that City and they are engaged in the process of attempting to eat alive anyone and everyone who stands between them and the $700 Billion. This horde of locusts and vultures is composed of the lobbyists and lawyers who are working around the clock to shape this legislation to favor the economic interests that they represent. They are present in the hundreds and even thousands, and they do not care one dime about the taxpayers in the Country. In truth, they are scornful and laugh at our “trust” and they believe that we, the taxpayers, are simply country bumpkins to be fleeced by the big city slickers from New York City and Washington, DC.

In theory, of course, our friendly national legislators are supposed to stand between the locusts and vultures and their objectives, but no one with a ounce of brains believes this to be the case in this modern world of politics. Most of the legislators are there for the show and for the eventual cushy retirement benefits they will earn. They are only in Washington, D.C. because they took the handouts from these same special interests that helped fund their campaigns. They are not going to bite the hands that feed them with great and consistent regularity. Now, they will fain “concern” with great fanfare and show to protect the supposed interests of the taxpayers. They have not protected us for eight years from these predators; why would anyone but a real fool expect them to start now.

Please remember that these are the same locusts and vultures, who with the help of Congress and this Administration, that designed the previous financial oversight system; that worked so hard to protect the interests of their deep pocket Wall Street clients; that found the money to secure the successful reelection of their close friends on the Hill.

They are the furthest thing from innocent bystanders in a process of robbing the public to pay off their friends and clients. To them, $700 Billion is the blood they cannot resist, and you can see them there on the Hill in their $500 shoes, $3000 Armani suits, slick smiles and friendly gestures to all, working tirelessly to fleece the taxpayers once again for their clients.

It would be fun to have an official requirement that demanded that no legislator be allowed to sit on this giveaway, or any, unless they took no campaign contributions from the interests involved. My guess is that you could not get a quorum in the House or the Senate! Moreover, many of the locusts and vultures are "retired" members of Congress who now represent the very interests that are appearing before Congress and the Administration.

These special interests have purchased with substantial contributions a seat at a table where none of the rest of us are represented. If you think we should “trust” them to look out for our interests, then, as the comic says, I have a wonderful bridge in Brooklyn that you can buy for a song. The Paulson Plan will produce processes that will be established to benefit the interests of the lobbies and wholly devoid of anything we should trust, so give us a good reason why we should trust any of them at all.

The only thing you can trust is their total lack of trustworthiness! The only thing you can trust is their singular and passionate focus on the self-interest of the people they represent; the people who are demanding that we pay for their mistakes with your children’s good money. Of course, since they are borrowing all of the money to pay off the vultures, it really isn’t your money we are talking about. It is simply another enormous debt that they all, collectively get to pass on to our children and grandchildren.

I am all for “trust” and “confidence,” and we are well aware that both qualities has been shaken around the world. The Bush Administration is the single most distrusted Administration in the rest of the world in modern history, largely because they elevated lying and distortion to a grand level unmatched by any Administration we can remember. This Administration has given us absolutely no evidence of its “trustworthiness” about anything serious. I am still smarting about the $1 Trillion or more that they ripped us off for with their weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I am still smarting by a 50 percent devaluation of the dollar. I am still smarting about the half trillion dollar deficit.

Just why is the Secretary of the Treasury somehow more trustworthy than the rest of this ship of scoundrels and fools? The whole eight years of this administration has been about huge payouts to the special interests that feed at the public trough – the weapons manufacturers, the oil interests, the mining interests, and the financial sector and so on. Now, suddenly, we should “trust” that they do this for us – the little people who are always asked to pay for their mistakes.

The Things About Which I am Certain:
There are many things that I do trust and know with certainty in this situation. I know with certainty the enormous efforts that will be made by the special interests to limit financial oversight, reward their powerful benefactors, and steer as much money as they can into the hands of the rich to the detriment of the taxpayers.

I know with certainly that you and I as taxpayers have no way to defend our economic interests in this process, no matter what George Bush tells you. I know that the proponents of this giveaway will overstate and exaggerate the consequences of what will happen if we do not give them the money, precisely because they have done this so many times in the past. George Bush and Dick Cheney are the living embodiment of “Chicken Little,” who told us how many times the sky was “falling.”

I know that the beneficiaries of this giveaway will work tirelessly to get as large a share as they can, giving up as little as they can, taking as much as they can for their already overpaid and highly pampered CEO’s, Boards and other executives.

There is a Light At the End of the Tunnel
I do not trust any of these people because they have never given me any reason to trust them. What I am willing to trust is the following. The only really honest broker in this entire mess will be a person who has not fed at the interest group trough. The only possibility of real trust is a candidate who has not sold out to the campaign contributions of these people. The only people you can trust are men and women who are not simply the circulating lobbyists who go from representing big interests to running the campaigns of those on whom they will eventually feed.

We do have a choice, or we will have one soon. Senator Barack Obama has not taken their campaign contributions, he does not run his campaign with an army of paid lobbyists, and his supporters are less tainted by conflicts of interests than any campaign in memory. That is a reality into which I could put some faith. But putting faith in Bush, Cheney, Paulson and John McCain is about as foolish as believing that the Moon is made of Green Cheese. Trusting the totally untrustworthy is eating the bitter fruit of disappointment wrapped in experience.

I have said this before in my blog. Senator Barack Obama has funded his campaign without recourse to those who have routinely bought and sold public policy in the United States. That is something that can be trusted! It is about the only thing that you can trust, and that is precisely why those interests find him such a dangerous candidate. He has not been purchased, bought and paid for by the special interests, and that is very frightening to those who only know how to buy their candidates wholesale.

Just my opinion,

Gordon Black