A rebuttal to some of the Fingerpointing Madness

     The events of the last two weeks (as inevitable, and easily predictable, as they were) has given rise to a wave of hysterical fingerpointing. All of The Powers That Be are busy trying to shift blame and create boogeymen to act as the fall guy for the recent unpleasant events, from the "Dirty Joooos" to "Commies" to "Right Wing Religious Zealots", but none have been the target of fire more than the Tea-Party adherents. This is because there is no more dangerous man in the world than one who wishes to NOT spend someone else's money on a pointless project. A commentor on The Belmont Club, Don Rodrigo, refutes the nonsensical allegations beautifully;

"One of the most outrageous and surreal aspects of the American branch of this world financial debacle is the attempt to blame the “Tea Party” for both the debt agreement and the credit downgrade. Insane. Exponential Mendacity.

The “Tea Party,” in this case a catchall term to try to define something amorphous, got nothing from the deal. Nothing. Nada. Bupkiss. For one thing this “tea party” semi-phantom wanted to not raise the debt ceiling, and, failing that, they wanted a balanced budget amendment, and they wanted to slash a whole lot more from current and future fiscal years. None of this happened; nothing went the “Tea Party” way, although some tea party types are foolishly claiming credit for the debt deal results. Fools. If anything the just-left-of-center deal that was signed by Obama should have sent up a sigh of relief from the establishment for having dodged a tea party bullet.

Yet this “Tea Party” is blamed. Fingers are also being pointed at S&P as well. Good Lord, what a spectacle — what a disgrace. For at least 30 years this thing has been building, and yet a group of people who’ve only tasted some power for 8 months, and who’ve never created a $1.65 trillion deficit, never put together a trillion dollar stimulus, never allowed Ninja mortgage loans, never banned drilling and mining, never bailed out auto companies and Wall Street, never sabotaged the American health care system, and aren’t much greater in number that the Black Caucus — are to “blame” for all this?"

Well Said, Don, well said.

If only that clarity of thought was to be found in the White House we would be far better off.