The Washington Post has gone from a decent newspaper, that I delivered as a kid, to one now given over to the moneyed interests in Washington and whatever their agenda happens to be. It all but sells its Op-Ed pages and scandals in similar regards continually surround it.
The latest gaff is the February 22nd Op-Ed piece by Robert Samuelson which is creating quite a stir. In it, Samuelson argues that financial collapse, which in our case was centered on Wall Street, shows us that the welfare state is no longer viable. What, I say . . . the welfare state for the big bankers, GM, AIG, Freddie Mac (FRE), Fanny Mae (FNM) and others? No, Samuelson argues, the welfare state that is helping the poor unemployed in the U.S. Give me a break, I say.
While Samuelson writes on economics for the Washington Post he has no formal training in economics and has only a bachelors degree in government. This comes as no surprise. Whenever he starts to write about the problems in the financial sector, the land of the big bankers and their socialistic bailouts, whether here or abroad, Samuelson get hung up on what he perceives to be the U.S. welfare system:
Every advanced society, including the United States, has a welfare state. Though details differ, their purposes are similar: to support the unemployed, poor, disabled and aged. All welfare states face similar problems: burgeoning costs as populations age; an over-reliance on debt financing; and pressures to reduce borrowing that create pressures to cut welfare spending. High debt and the welfare state are at odds. It's an open question whether the collision will cause social and economic turmoil.
What this has to do with the problems of high finance in Greece or America is simply beyond me. I thought at first he was talking about the costs of bailouts and the like for bankers and other big corporations and the havoc they have wrought over the entire nation, but no, he is railing on the help that the poor are getting during the ensuing and resulting great recession. It is absolutely amazing.
Does Samuelson discuss or address needed structural reforms for the financial sector in Greece or America or the need for new regulations for that sector in either country? No. He moans about what help the unemployed poor are getting in the U.S. of all things. This is the unrelated Republican agenda, pure and simple. He supports it so strongly that he raises it where it has no place: a discussion of how and whether the EU should bail out Greece.
What is really troublesome here is the echo of this sentiment among conservatives in the U.S. They have no problem with the massive cost of bailing out Wall Street and the havoc it has wrought on the national economy, but heaven forbid that those who become poor and unemployed because of the debacle should get even one thin dime. It is O.K. for the US to bail out AIG so Goldman Sachs (GS) does not lose money on its CDS's with AIG, but don’t let Johnny’s Mom in Millville get food stamps come what may.
What conservatives want is to see further bad redistribution of income, by whatever means the government can muster, to take income away from the middle class and poor and get it into the hands of the rich and wealthy. Whatever Congress and those who write regulations can do to help here will be richly rewarded soon or later, to be sure. That is their thinking.
Washington and Wall Street deserve a revolt of the people against them and nothing less.
Disclosure: None relevant
