Time for Regular Folks to Organize

How tortured our belief systems have become. Things that seemed immutable in the past have been warped into unrecognizable forms whether the topic is religion, the economy, or our political environment. Agencies we always thought would protect us are often fronts that don’t speak to the interests of regular folks. And by the time they’ve been proselytized and pulled in a dozen different directions the American people end up clueless about who’s telling the truth and who’s just jerking them around.

How is it that Christianity is the fallback position for many of our politicians and pundits when all else, and most especially logic, fails? Who knew that Jesus was a free-marketer or that God would always bless America no matter what course our leaders undertook? And how did “The Family” on C Street come to be regarded as a religious, tax-free institution where prayer meetings and bible readings by right-wing lodgers could hide ethical and moral lapses from view? These are just a few of today’s imponderables.

But every time a new direction is pursued, hordes of naysayers rise up to confutewhatever is proposed. The Obama administration wants to protect consumers in an economic landscape that is for most frighteningly incomprehensible. But, there is loud opposition to what is being called the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Opponents claim there are enough regulations; they just need to be enforced without adding another layer of bureaucracy. Recent experience tells us, however, that something more is needed than enforcement of existing law. Some even ask, since taxpayers have bailed out and essentially become owners of some banks and investment firms wouldn’t it be fitting for them to be represented on those companies’ governing boards?

It shouldn’t have been such a mystery that interweaving banks and investment houses would lead to troubling relationships. And it might have been worth examining more closely the kinds of derivatives and “exotic” instruments some of these financial groups were devising. When we learn that experienced agents found some of these investment strategies difficult to understand it is clear the financial industry was on shaky ground for some time and that much greater oversight was and continues to be needed.

Into the mix of divergent opinions about how to right our economy, the Chamber of Commerce raises its voice in support of business interests, not so much for the average worker, despite its professed goal of helping to create 20 million jobs in ten years.  David Chavern, Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer of The Chamber appeared on Thursday’s Washington Journal and managed to regurgitate all the favorite themes of the business world. Corporate taxes are too high, although it is well documented that few companies pay the full rate while many off-shore accounts and employ various maneuvers to keep workers from appearing on their balance sheets. And in answer to a caller’s comment that wages have stalled for ordinary Americans compared to executive salaries, Chavern said that the wage gap is often filled by health-care benefits, a claim that doesn’t hold up in today’s tough labor market.

Questioned about lobbyists he said sarcastically, ‘imagine “the temerity” of people who want to advance their patron’s interests’ adding that, with all the different interests they represent, lobbyists kind of “cancel each other out.” Could this guy really be serious? What lobbying groups cancel out the clout of the pharmaceutical and health-care-industry advocates or for that matter the Chamber of Commerce? Chamber president and CEO, Tom Donohue, appeared on MSNBC pushing the same 20-million job agenda on the same day - - a full-court press in support of the business community. It sounds pretty much like old news with the addition of an unverifiable goal.

Nobody, however, spends much time discussing the ratio of lobbyists to elected officials - - six for every member of Congress voting on the health-care bill for example, a much higher ratio in the general legislative population. And, just imagine, Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas wants to delay the health care vote so lobbyists have time to read it. It’s true there are green lobbyists and children’s issues lobbyists, in addition to big oil and big business but perhaps there should also be a simple “citizens lobby” that could organize voters in the straightforward cause of more direct accountability on the part of government, with the admonition ‘you’d better listen to us too; we may not be able to finance your campaigns in a big way but by golly we’ll take a stand in the voting booth.’