Charles Smith:
My greatest hope for the Obama presidency is the appointment of sober competence in key positions of power in the Federal government.
No one can repair the U.S. economy, but a competent team can put in place policies and management which can lessen the structural damage and suffering, just as an incompetent team can wreak even greater damage.
From the point of view of deep-power structures, the party affiliation of an appointee is basically theater for the masses. Our concern should be on the competence of the people Obama selects, not their superficial partisan labels. The great weakness of the Bush years was gross incompetence in every department and at every level, compounded by the firing or dismissal of competent voices in favor of zealous lackeys and sychophants.
The incompetence cost many fine Americans their lives, and cost the nation trillions of wasted dollars. Look no further than the money-pit Orwellian-named “Department of Homeland Security” and “we don’t do quagmires” Donald Rumsfield as just two examples of hundreds.And let’s also not forget who influences both parties: the 40,000-strong legions of lobbyists, tax attorneys and all the other well-paid servants of the Elite who actually own most of the U.S.’s productive assets. Just as a reminder:
While the mainstream punditry is palavering on about middle-class tax cuts, let’s focus our attention on the fact that any tax cut to anyone is a forced loan extracted from the earnings of future generations.
The notion of raising taxes on those who make $250,000 or more distracts us from the more compelling need to look at whether those earning $25 million or more are paying any tax at all, and if not, why not?