-By Vince Johnson
When I was a kid, banks focused upon finding ways to get people to stash a little of their money into a savings account. The idea was basic. If you wanted something, you saved up and bought it. That sort of reality no longer exists. The banks of today want people to borrow money instead of saving it. The ability to actually make the payments is incidental. What counts is a signature on the loan documents. The loans are sold to larger financial institutions, and when they (the larger financial institutions) get in trouble, arrangements are made to have Congress bail them out. That may not be the way it ought to be, but that’s the way it is.
As you can readily see, reality is imploding right before your eyes. Ordinary folks can invest in stocks, bonds, CD’s, real estate, their own businesses, education, precious metals and real things like that. Financial institutions and insurance companies, etc. have found it much more lucrative to invest in intangibles like political influence over Congress and billions for advertising programs designed to encourage people to have cars and houses and vacations and boats and TV’s and computers etc., by using credit rather than cash.
Suppose you could “invest” in Congress in the same manner lobbyists do. Right now your only “investment” in Congress is limited to your vote. But suppose you could take them to lunch at fine restaurants where you can discuss “things” privately and have their undivided attention? By the way, how many times in your life have you had a conversation with any member of Congress? Do you or any of your friends know a person who has had a private moment with a Senator or Congressman? When you realize there are several thousand career lobbyists that do this on a regular basis year after year, you are getting to the root of the mess.
There is no doubt about it. Members of Congress favor those who “fund” them into office rather than those who vote them into office. Congress is no longer a place for noble and honorable activity. It has become a maze of cumbersome and enigmatic procedures designed to empower the elders and “indoctrinate” the freshmen. Oh yes, and Congress has become one more thing: A place where lobbyists are welcomed with far more appreciation and attentiveness than given a teacher or a grocer from his or her home district.
In order to pay for all the things the lobbyists want, taxes are increased to cover the additional expense. When taxes fail to bring in enough money, Congress borrows trillions from future generations and this is achieved by increasing the Public Debt which is currently at $10.4 trillion.
Now hear this! According to the United States Department of Treasury: During fiscal year 2007, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced approximately 38 million notes a day with a face value of approximately $780 million. Egads! At the rate of $780 million per day it would take over 36 years to print enough currency to equal our National Debt of $10.4 trillion dollars!
Do you remember a Senator from Illinois named Everett McKinley Dirksen? One of his most famous quotes is going out of date fast: “Talk about a billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about some real money!”
If Dirksen were around today I can hear him saying, “Talk about a trillion here and a trillion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about a lot of money that isn’t there!”
Ho, ho, ho. Dreamland was never what we thought it was, and reality is never what we dreamed it really is.
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Vince Johnson welcomes comments. Please send them to,Vince Johnson(vjadtrak@wvi.com)
See Vince in the new book Americans on Politics. Policy, and Pop-Culture.