STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 11 March 2013

[Demeter]

18. Sequester, the Ultimate Poker Game...Only the Rich Can Win... By Jeanine Molloff

http://www.nationofchange.org/sequester-ultimate-poker-gameonly-rich-can-win-1362755286


The President loves poker. In fact his days as an Illinois state senator were filled with backroom...poker games. Word was that Barack could bluff with the best of them--and never blink. These dubious talents have served him well during his meteoric rise ...all the way to the Oval Office. Unfortunately, we now find ourselves as a nation stuck in a game of legislative 'chicken,' and the stakes couldn't be higher.



Sequester aka...Extreme Poker...



President Obama and Congress are both playing 'extreme' poker, (much like testosterone-driven teen-age boys playing 'extreme' skateboarding sans helmet)—only with the budget and our futures. They are using the nuclear option of the sequester as the ultimate test of their cohunes—treating the US citizenry the same way a mangy dog lifts his leg to 'water' the plants.



Congressional leaders and Obama himself are quite aware of the savage economic violence the sequester or automatic spending cuts will cause—but this fight isn't about responsible budgeting--it's about raw, naked power more akin to an addiction than any legitimate concerns. The sequesters origins trace back to the 1985 'Gramm-Rudman' budget law, continue with Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles of the Simpson-Bowles Commission all the way to the present day—while frantically maintaining the echo chamber from the Peterson Foundation funded Astroturf front group—Fix the Debt—waiting in the wings with a 'final solution.'



The history of the 'sequester' or automatic spending trigger…ENDLESS DOCUMENTATION AT LINK

Conclusion:

This austerity mess, disguised as 'fiscal medicine' in 2013, is brought to us from the good people at 'Fix the Debt.' The president and both parties in Congress have unilaterally surrendered their authority by passing the 2011 Budget Act which was engineered to have the very spending cut trigger the billionaire class demanded—especially Pete Peterson. The sequester trigger was designed to be such an egregious non-starter, that the people would accept the Simpson-Bowles austerity plan, in order to save other budget items like education—while leaving the military-industrial-complex budget intact—along with the negative tax balances of these same corporations belonging to—'Fix the Debt.'

Congress acquiesced to the demands of the post-modern robber barons. The Simpson-Bowles Commission would have succeeded in using the sequester as a tactical maneuver to push virtual dismantling of the social contract, especially Social Security and Medicare—with the exception of some crazy, recalcitrant GOP congressmen failing to cry 'uncle'—to their game of fiscal 'chicken.'

The fact that the fiscal disaster was caused by a toxic mixture of massive corporate fraud in the investment sector, (via exotic instruments such as derivatives), even more massive corporate tax evasion, and a wholesale continual outsourcing of jobs worldwide—is a mere triviality to Dems and the GOP. On top of this premeditated fiscal treason is a set of economic theories based on even bigger lies. The 'inconvenient truth' of the sequester lies in the fact that our government is controlled by a handful of oligarchic billionaires who like Caesar, are never quenched in terms of their greed. The Obama Justice Department has refused to criminally prosecute the Wall Street thieves for obvious fraud, declaring the banksters as 'too big to fail,' aristocrats. The attack on the same social contract funded by OUR payroll taxes—has truly been bipartisan and representative of our bogus '2-party' system—a spit away from a banana republic.

The rule of law is dependent on a sense of justice or fairness. When the arbitrary and capricious law of man replaces the rule of law—our system becomes illegitimate. The only way to save us now—is to copy the French—and storm the streets. Otherwise, the nation's birthday present for 2013...courtesy of 'Fix the Debt', will be perpetual economic feudalism. The Peterson toadies will fulfill their goal, achieving..."a Simpson-Bowles style "grand bargain" on an austerity agenda for the United States by the nation's 237th birthday on July 4, 2013."

Happy birthday to us.