From Guest-Blogger Robert Hennkens: The Fiscal Cliff and the Responsibilities of Government Vs. the Private Sector

What wealthy folks are investing in saving our 750,000,000 acres of public trust lands? In housing for homeless? In cleaning up the plastic island in the Pacific larger than Alaska? In cleaning up the mercury from the oceans, the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Caribbean Sea?  In cleaning up sewer and gray flush water? In getting rid of Africanized Bees? In finding solutions to the 20 million malnourished American kids who go to sleep hungry every night? In the 27,000 square mile Navajo Nation with 400,000 citizens that are 50% unemployed? In finding a cure for diabetes for 60% of the children on the 585 First American Nations?

What wealthy folks are investing in the rusting inner cities or the 23,000 rural communities at risk of extinction? In saving millions of homes in foreclosure? In Veterans Administration Hospitals? In our crumbling bridges and highways? In closing and protecting our borders? In soil restoration after prolonged drought? In 20,000,000 Americans who are unemployed or underemployed?

The fiscal cliff is an invention. After the Second World War, the United States had a much larger percentage deficit than today. President Truman enacted many social programs for 7+ million returning vets for VA education, training for jobs, VA Hospitals, Marshall Plan, housing construction programs for VA, HUD, FHA,and Mae’s, Building and Loan Associations, USDA’s Land Bank, Bank for Cooperatives, and Federal Intermediate Credit Bank, loans for ship, torpedo, and tank manufacturers to convert to car manufacturing, cans for Coca-Cola and Budweiser, and boiler manufacturers, loans to convert military aircraft to civilian aircraft, and about 1900 other local, state, and federal incentives to keep the war economy in gear. Ike continued Truman’s economic recovery miracles with the Federal Highway System, FAA, new airports, commercial radar, FCC for television, oil and gas refinery guarantees, steel and aluminum recycling, seaport conversions from war to commercial powerhouse, etc.

The unions and returning vets did the work. The wealthy investors did nothing until they were sure that a profit could be made. These people do not invest in creativity or innovation, unless a five-year and out IPO or sale to a large corporation is projected by the small business person with a patent (that is already being reversed engineered by the Chinese or Indians). They have adopted the Pierpont Morgan philosophy of never investing their own money in anything. Wealthy investors sit like a bunch of vultures waiting for some smart person to give them the world on a silver platter full of risk-free opportunities.

Unfortunately, the once Grand Old Party of Republicans of Ike and Reagan who ran up huge deficits to win the war of the deficit (jobs and taxes are much better than no-jobs and no-taxes proven when the WWII budget was balanced) and the Cold War are gone.

We now have a Party of 1850s Whigs. Obstructionists, who can’t get over the idea that they are running a government and not running their wife’s housing budget.

None of us particularly liked Slick Willy Clinton, but he balanced the budget through job stimulation. We are sure to have a giant recession with budget constriction on the very fragile economy that is slowly working through the George W. recession, the worst since the Herbert Hoover great depression. What did both of these presidents have in common? Both were crummy businessmen who ran the government for friends and wealthy investors. Don’t believe me? Check the history books.

The idea that every man, woman, and child in the U.S. has a debt of $51,000+ is simply silly. The debt is in the form of bonds or other instruments provided by the government under the policy of “full faith and guarantee.”

Our nation has enormous wealth assets in our public trust lands, seaports, military equipment and manpower, highways, railroads, airports, 700+ federal laboratories, National Cancer Institute, Communicable Disease Center, NASA, Commerce, great universities and colleges large and small, farm lands, waterways, commodity exchanges, FBI, CIA, federal laws and judges. Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Anchorage, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Phoenix, Albuquerque  Cheyenne, Denver, Dallas, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, Jackson, Birmingham, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Des Moines, Kansas City, St. Louis, Memphis, Nashville, Louisville, Dayton, Columbus, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Newark, Boston, Hartford, Albany, Washington, D.C., Cooperstown, New York City, and yes even the illusion of wealth that is called Wall Street. And most-importantly we have the intangible yet very real asset of 310,000,000 U.S. Citizens who are proud of their land and heritage, and who want to contribute in their own way possible to our way of life and independence.

The $17 trillion dollar debt owed by and to the people of the United States is chicken feed when all of these and so many more U.S. assets are inventoried and bundled. It would not surprise me if the Island of Manhattan alone had more than $17 trillion in assets in that small area alone, even after the devastation of Sandy. And we bought that Island for about $28 dollars in wampum and beads.