Pay No Attention To That Man Behind The Curtain
By Gene Tunney
Guest Writer for Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” is one of my favorite literary quotes. Today I have a vision of Obama and Congress, in place of the Wizard of Oz, telling the American people to please ignore the economy, unemployment and forget about what the Federal Reserve is doing in secret.
The “Wizard(s)” tell us we need to focus on health care. The government will take care of the people of America as we are too stupid to know what is good for us. After all, our politicians would NEVER put their petty self-interests ahead of the people. When they do, it’s our fault! We fail to vote the corrupt bastards out even in the face of overwhelming evidence. We fail to vote on the issues that need to be fixed now such as the economy, unemployment, Social Security and Medicare. Global Warming is not an immediate issue. Let’s concentrate on something that will impact all Americans in the next ten years instead of something that MAY happen in one hundred years.
If we ignore the economy and the extreme deficit spending, we are ignoring “that man behind the curtain.” While ignoring these issues is easy, they increase in severity. If we keep our proverbial heads in the sand for much longer, we risk oblivion and we will deserve what we get. The American public holds as much of blame as the politicians. The politicians that want to do the right thing and propose legislation to fix the economy, Social Security or Medicare programs are crucified, while the politicians pushing the USA toward a “financial Armageddon” are rewarded with re-election. Does anyone think that we elect and are governed by the best and the brightest? It is sad that most Americans are willing to trade a little comfort now at the expense of our children’s and their children’s future.
In my youth, I envisioned most of the American people as sheep being lead to slaughter by evil politicians. Imagine my surprise upon the epiphany that most of us are lemmings. We eagerly follow our leaders off the cliff at a dead run and, when we get close enough to see our peril, we cannot stop because of selfish momentum. The entire country sees the precipice yet, almost unanimously, we continue our run toward it.
Our currency and our government Treasury bonds might someday end up worthless. I hear you. “What do you mean the U.S. dollar and U.S. government bonds might be worthless? How can that be? Everybody knows that U.S. Treasuries are a safe investment.” The answer is simple. We owe more now than we can ever repay, yet we continue to print and spend money. Total obligations for the U.S. according to USA Today are “a record 63.8 trillion dollars.” If the U.S. was audited like a public company, we would have been forced into bankruptcy by our creditors’ years ago.
Even using the pie in the sky revenue projections of the Obama administration we show a significant shortfall. That’s before you factor in another TRILLION or TWO for the proposed healthcare legislation.
We need decisive action now on the economy, spending, Social Security, and Medicare. We DO NOT NEED universal healthcare, the carbon tax and any increase in deficit spending. We need to elect Statesmen, not politicians. And most of all, we need a public that cares about the future of the country and its children instead of the newest trinket or bobble that the current politicians toss them. We should have acted twenty years ago. We are so close to the edge that I can see fellow lemmings topple over the cliff. I know if you look closely, you can see them falling too.
I am angling toward the edge of the herd, taking steps to protect my assets and the future of my wife and children. Please turn away from the precipice and run toward a solvent nation, responsible government and personal freedom. Fellow lemmings, remember that when you run off that cliff, you carry your children and their future with you. Act now or continue to ignore “that man behind the curtain!”
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About the Author
Greg Hunter
Greg is the producer and creator of USAWatchdog.com. The site’s slogan is “analyzing the news to give you a clear picture of what’s really going on.” The site will keep an eye on the government, your financial interests and cut through the media spin. USAWatchdog.com is neither Democrat nor Republican, Liberal or Conservative. Before creating and producing the site, Greg spent nearly 9 years as a network and investigative correspondent. He worked for ABC News and Good Morning America for nearly 6 years. Most recently, Greg worked for CNN for shows such as Paula Zahn Now, American Morning and various CNN business shows.
I’m surprised Gene Tunney didn’t include the Iraq and Afghanistan in his account of the deficit woes. If Obama goes ahead with the US military expansion in the Afghanistan Civil War we can kiss away another trillion dollars or more.
We have a crippling deficit because we are propping up a broken economic system and pursing questionable foreign policies.
Health is an economic problem. We have the most expensive healthcare system in the world and – and compared to other industrialized countries – we are near the bottom on many health league tables. There are many ways to reform healthcare and to fund a universal health scheme cost effectively. A good book on the subject is Lawrence J. Kotilkoff’s The Healthcare Fix: Universal Insurance for All Americans.
Millions of people are at risk because they don’t have health insurance and the likelihood of a jobs recovery in the next 3 – 5 years is very slim indeed. I sincerely hope Gene Tunney doesn’t lose his health insurance since the consequences of no insurance is a very short route to bankruptcy in the event of a major health problem.
Throwing money at Wall Street is what the system demands of those elected to govern. Tunney’s “elect statesmen” solution is naive since our elected representatives are products of the system.
Our system is broken and no amount of “the shining city on the hill” or “the greatest country on earth” rhetoric will change the incontrovertible truth that the US is in precipitous decline and the divide between the two America’s, ‘the haves and the have nots,’ is widening at an alarming rate. Time is running out on many fronts – the economy, healthcare, social security and the environment. We can arrest the decline, but we will need to realize that personal freedom can’t be at the expense of social responsibility.”
Alexander,
You made some very good points here and I really appreciate your views! Thank you for the thoughtful comment!
Greg
Gene, I agree 100%, great comments/observations, I think the one “in my youth, I envisioned most of the American people as sheep being lead to slaughter by evil politicians” is especially relevant today. I believe there is a quote at the beginning of the movie “Munich” that says something like “all great nations are destroyed from within” , was from a wise old man many yrs ago. For the first time in my 52 yrs I’m very worried about whether America will make it or not even in just the next 5 yrs, scary.