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PAGE 20, MARCH 30, 2009, THE ISLANDER
Islander to sponsor
’tea party'
We talk to more and more people
who are fed up with our government
throwing our money away. We don't
believe you can spend your way out
of debt by accumulating more debt.
We don't want to see our capitalist
way of life gone in a flash. We don't
want the government mucking about
in any more of our business. Enough
is enough.
Based on what we have heard
from our readers and how we feel,
The Islander has decided to sponsor
a 'tea party' to protest the financial
crisis, the huge waste of taxpayer
dollars, and the blatant grab for
political power by throwing away
taxpayer dollars. Plans for the 'tea
party' are underway and we will
keep you updated by way of our web
site: www.theislanderonline.com.
To participate, or make sugges
tions call us at 912-265-9654 or
email: ssislander@bellsouth.net.
Matt is at spring training for a
few days watching the Braves so we
hope you enjoy Paul Jacob's From Oz
to Obama piece. □
From Oz to Obama
By Paul Jacob
Many things remain perfectly nor
mal.
For instance, I often lose my car keys
and sometimes misplace my cell phone.
The University of North Carolina is
still good at basketball. My youngest
almost always begs for a Slurpee or
candy when we drop by 7-11, and my
17-year-old never laughs at my jokes.
But when I read the paper or turn
on the radio or TV news, the world has
been turned upside down. It's as if I've
slipped into a parallel universe.
I feel like Dorothy in The Wizard
of Oz, wanting so badly to get back
home.
Perhaps I feel this way because
government officials — from President
Barack Obama to the too-big-to-fail
treasury secretary, from finger-point
ing congressmen to my county commis
sioners — resemble “that man behind
the curtain.”
I've worked hard to put a roof over
our heads and two cars in the drive
way. To save money for college. To fund
retirement so my wife and I can enjoy
our golden years. As much as our sav
ings have been socked by the market
collapse, I feel we can weather that
catastrophe. It's the government-cre
ated catastrophes that have followed
and more that will follow that produce
my fear.
Years of easy credit, wild lending,
and deficit spending are said to be
solved only by more of the same. Much
more. And if that doesn’t work, even
more than that.
What? Electroshock to the frog won't
make it leap? Then super-size the stim
ulus. What? Not a twitch? Then super-
dooper-super-size it, man, fast!
If we were suffering from a hang
over after a night of heavy drinking
and asked our leaders for a prescrip
tion, their debate would be between
slapping back a half-dozen shots of
rum the next morning or downing a
whole bottle.
Uh, two bottles? Really?
The world has always been a strange
place. Even John Maynard Keynes’s
crazy ideas, though obviously misguid
ed, were not totally surreal. The sur
realism stems more from the constant
repetition that no matter what the
problem there can be only one solution:
pump money to someone somewhere.
Or everyone everywhere.
Any failure of this brilliant strategy
must be a failure of amount, of not
pushing a large enough dose.
As a byproduct of the federal govern
ment taking over the economy, bail
ing out financial institutions and car
companies and specifically AIG, we are
now treated to an Orwellian “two-min-
ute hate” at the AIG bonuses. Before
that we were supposed to envy their
corporate jets.
The simple solution to corporate
excess is to make execs pay for their
own excess. Not with tongue lashings
added to billions in bailouts, but with
going under. That is, with the real-
world costs of failure. Had AIG been
allowed to fail, these bonuses would
not only not be paid by taxpayers, they
would not be paid at all.
There are millions more frightening
little signs of both the depth of the eco
nomic trouble and the ignorance and
self-dealing of the political response to
it. One was listening to Chinese Pre
mier Wen Jiabao tell reporters, “We
have lent a huge amount of money to
the U.S., so of course we are concerned
about the safety of our assets.”
It’s not that I blame him for worry
ing. I’m worried, too!
Truth is, I don’t want to be on the
hook for trillions to anyone. Not my
best friend or a malevolent loan shark.
Though, if I had to borrow, I’d prefer
my best friend, of course.
But I especially don’t want to borrow
these trillions from China. Do you sleep
well knowing that the Butchers of Bei
jing serve as our largest creditor?
We’re told that we need the Chinese
rulers — that our standard of living in
the greatest bastion of freedom in the
history of the world is largely depen-
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