A Hearty Thank You...

As you have described it, the war in Iraq serves almost no other purpose than to secure U.S. oil supplies. Its complete ineffectiveness to do so aside, this begs the question of whether the cost justifies the benefit. That cost includes not only $3 Trillion but also the cost of over 100,000 deaths, that is if we count Iraqis as our equals. This is not to mention the intangible but substantial cost of rising anti-Americanism around the world. Furthermore, the "at your leisure", comfortably separated mentality of Americans with regard to the military engagement in Iraq has been fostered, more than anything else, by the Bush administration and former Republican Congress, which asked us to make no collective sacrifices for this pseudo war effort.

The false promise of corporate tax cuts, as evinced by the exponentially rising U.S. trade deficit, is only one small part of the broader false promise of corporatism, which not just wrongly but deceitfully conflates the market with the general welfare of the people. Because I'm limited to a 2000 character response I'll offer rising income inequality since 1972, as documented by the U.S. Census Bureau, as one example of evidence for the fallacy of that promise. The assertion that any government intervention in the economy, without exception, is detrimental to it, is a radical position held by a small minority of fiscal libertarians in this country and is without any merit. Government intervention is detrimental to the economy in so far as anything in excess is detrimental to that which it affects. Please elaborate on this point. What do you make of the government guarantee of Freddie/Fannie? Did that diminish shareholder equity? What about the FDIC? Does that diminish consumer confidence? Is the Fed’s monetary policy not able to quell inflation and promote investing? Can public projects work not help to reduce unemployment?