My letter to Adam Green at Bold Progressives--June 15--suggested that we encourage the creation of an American National Infrastructure Job Recovery Bank. A bill for an infrastructure "bank" has been sitting in Congress for months, and Dylan Ratigan, Fareed Zacharia [MSNBC] and we should begin to "beat the drum" for it. Ratigan Ranted about it a day or two ago.
I don't hear Barack Obama raising Hell about it. He doesn't have the balls to tell corporate America to DEMAND that Congress pass this legislation.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...
Why are these bold ideas not trumpeted by President Obama? Why does he NOT raise Hell that Congress has not acted on it? Is he--Is everybody in government--“owned” by mega-corporations and Wall St. and Washington, D.C. lobbyists? Or does he simply think that it is not "cool" to use the BULLY PULPIT to do what is RIGHT for America?
"Hey, I'm not a bully," Obama said. That's the problem, Sir. Republicans think you're a wimp, so they treat you like one. We elected you to fight for us. What do you do? You let them bully you. Bully us. You hand over "your lunch," our lunch, goddamn it, and they come back the next day, too. What do you do? You smile. You think you've "gotten along with the Republican bullies."
That's not a president. You're not presiding over them. You're not not presiding over anyone or anything; you're relinquishing the AUTHORITY that we gave you to FIGHT FOR US.
George Carlin said it years ago:
http://video.search.yahoo.com/...
These ideas are not esoteric: Fareed Zacharia suggested an infrastructure Bank last month. A bill languishes in Congress. American corporations hold in excess of $1.5 trillion in profits in foreign banks. Not to bring these gains back to the USA, where they could be invested in public projects, ought to be criminal.
My suggestion?
Yolk together these ideas:
1. create a National Infrastructure Job Bank and
2. repatriate the $1.5 trillion in corporate profits that are held hostage overseas (yes, give the corporate bastards a tax break for bringing back those funds) and deposit a trillion or two into the infrastructure job bank.
Invest these funds exclusively to create JOBS in the USA. Otherwise, George Carlin's satirical barbs will prove to be not satire and socio-political criticism but history.