So How Did We Get Such A Huge Deficit?

JDPriestly

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Thu Jul-14-11 11:06 AM
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So How Did We Get Such A Huge Deficit?

Edited on Thu Jul-14-11 11:10 AM by JDPriestly

Was it the food stamps? The cost of Medicare or Social Security? Where did our money go?

Does the name "Halliburton" ring a bell?

Not all, but quite a bit of our money went there.

Check out the Halliburton Watch site. It's old news, but a lot of us have forgotten.

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/pref_treat.html

And if you want more, just google Halliburton and defense contracts, Halliburton and asbestos, Halliburton and Nigeria. Scandal after scandal.

Remember how Arthur Anderson advised Enron on accounting tricks?

Well, Arthur Andersen also advised Halliburton, and of course Halliburton used tax havens to great advantage.

http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/about_hal/cheneyandersen.html

Halliburton is just one example of how graft and corruption contributed to our deficit. But reviewing the Halliburton story helps keep our current deficits in perspective.

D.C. politicians and the media are selling us the myth that we are not smart enough or cheap enough or hardworking enough to compete in their global economy.

That is a lie.

The truth is that the fruits, the profits earned from our intelligence, education, hard work and resources have been stolen. Our national downfall is the result of the graft and corruption of our "leadership," not our unwillingness to sacrifice or work hard.

If we want to recover from this recession and prevent the impoverishment and ultimate destruction of our country, we have to find leaders who are honest and who will fearlessly prosecute fraud, corruption and theft even if they must indict their own friends, donors and appointees.

This movement toward clean government has to come from us. We have to demand it.

Most of our "leaders" are too corrupt or too frightened or too comfortable to enforce existing laws against the powerful at this point.

We must not let partisanship or loyalty to particular individual leaders get in the way of our objectivity in judging the honesty and trustworthiness of those we vote for. We have to assess our leaders by their work, by their appointments, by their actions, and not by their speeches.

Every time we vote for a candidate simply because we fear the alternative would be worse, we contribute to the sense of futility that silences those rare leaders who have the courage to speak out against and fight corruption.

I'm not saying that we should demand perfection. But we owe it to our children to demand decency, integrity and strength from those for whom we vote. For their sakes, we have to clean up our government.

When we support a leader who appoints to high positions people who are allied or close to corrupt businesses or individuals, when we vote for a leader who fails to enforce and strengthen laws against corruption, we contribute to the corruption ourselves.

Our country is in crisis. In 2012, we have to find fearless, honest leadership. We need someone who will appoint honest lawyers to our Justice Department, individuals who will seek out and prosecute corruption and crime regardless of how important the suspect is. We cannot settle for less this time.

It is simply astounding that the Obama administration has not acted more resolutely against the corruption of the preceding administrations.

I can only think of three reasons for that (although there may be more). 1) the Obama administration fears that they could be prosecuted for corruption after they leave (which suggests they are tolerating corruption in their ranks); 2) the Obama administration thinks that Americans are so ignorant about the corruption that prosecutions would be viewed simply as a political ploy; 3) the Obama administration is afraid to confront the powerful criminals that preceded them.

Obama needs to tell us honestly why he has not adequately pursued the crimes and corruption that led to our current financial predicament. If he can't just come forward with the truth, how can he expect us to trust him or vote for him?

The extent of the corruption in several preceding administrations --remember Iran/Contra is just astounding. And as time has past, our country has become less and less willing to prosecute the wrongdoers.

A test for the Obama administration will be its response to the expected effort by Rupert Murdoch to repeal or amend the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Inform yourselves about this law. It protects us and our businesses from extortion abroad. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act should be more strictly enforced, not abandoned. Anyone who votes to weaken or abolish it should be suspected of corruption.