America: Are we ‘stuck on stupid?’
Leave it to a hard-nosed general to provide the right words to portray how many people are feeling these days.
Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, the military commander brought in after Hurricane Katrina to take charge of the New Orleans recovery effort, was holding a press conference while Hurricane Rita was gathering strength in the Gulf of Mexico.
When he told the press corps that Rita evacuees would be asked to assemble at the convention center for transportation out of the city, reporters asked whether that was a wise move given the bad memories of the convention center in the aftermath of Katrina.
“Don’t get stuck on stupid!,” said the general. That was the last hurricane, he said, and people had to get focused on the next one.
The reporter’s question was understandable, but so was the general’s response.
And with political decision-making in this country looking more and more like a chain-reaction collision on a busy interstate highway, one begins to wonder whether the entire nation is “stuck on stupid.”
Slipping on the oil patch
The two major hurricanes that roared through the Gulf of Mexico put an exclamation point on growing concerns about energy consumption and the vulnerability of the American petroleum industry.
Between surging world demand for oil and the political instability that continues to threaten oil supplies worldwide, you would think it wouldn’t take a hurricane to create a sense of urgency about our economy’s over-dependence on oil, and fossil fuels in general.
For years, Congress has heeded the unwise lobbying of the auto industry seeking to avoid further rule-making designed to increase the overall efficiency of vehicles on our roads.
The argument has been that we can’t do that because it would “cost jobs.”
Really? Or are we “stuck on stupid?”
How many more jobs would be created by American (vs. Japanese) investment in developing new technologies to dramatically increase fuel efficiency?
How much lower would the inflation rate be if rising gasoline costs weren’t factored into the cost of everything else?
Well, we’re about to find out the true cost of neglecting the fact that the United States, with only about 5% of the world’s population, consumes 25% of the world’s energy. Some of this high consumption simply reflects our material affluence and the productive power of the world’s largest economy, but it is also a result of our profligate and foolish over-consumption of limited natural resources.
Greenhouse—our house?
Scientists have been careful to state that this year’s frequent and powerful hurricanes cannot be attributed to the greenhouse effect.
But they have also emphasized that the gradual long-term increase in ocean temperature attributed to the carbon dioxide we’re pumping into the atmosphere may well produce more powerful storms more often in the future.
Of course, we don’t discuss the greenhouse effect or global warming very often because the Bush administration spinsters, aided by Dick Cheney’s lunch buddies from the energy industry, have convinced the public and the press to substitute the phrase “climate change” (that phrase sounds less scary than “global warming”).
Help me out here—if we, like millions of other Americans living on the low-lying southeastern coastline, are at risk of rising seas, hotter air temperatures and more powerful hurricanes, aren’t we “stuck on stupid” if we’re unconcerned about global warming?
How comforting is it to know that not all scientists agree on the evidence at hand?
In essence, we’re carrying out the biggest science experiment in history while hoping that it doesn’t work the way most scientists think it will.
And no, we’re not likely to be treading water here in the Charleston area in the next few decades, but is that an excuse for disregarding the possibility that our children or grandchildren will have to plan for an orderly withdrawal from a substantial portion of the entire Southeastern coastline?
For those of you still not concerned, I have two words: New Orleans.
Buddy, can ya spare a billion?
Budgeting for the federal government has always involved a generous amount of sleight of hand accounting, but things have gone from sleight of hand to out-of-control.
Want to know the current budget estimates for the Iraq war or Hurricane Katrina recovery?
No one’s even bothering with estimates any more. Now we’re told the tab is going to be “as much as it takes for as long as it takes.”
Both of these situations obviously call for a great deal of federal spending, but shouldn’t somebody be getting out the green eyeshades and doing some serious number crunching?
Of course, if they did the number crunching, it would be immediately obvious that there is no plan to pay for these expenditures other than borrowing more and adding to the already rapid growth in the federal deficit. The logical response would be to raise taxes, which is officially “off the table,” or cut other spending.
But which spending?
One would hope Congress would revisit the pork barrel highway bill that included such gems as the $223 million “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska that would serve about 50 people.
One might also hope that the pork laden energy bill would get a healthy trimming, but life inside the Beltway is so dominated by lobbyists these days that I wouldn’t count on it.
These near-term issues are blips on the radar screen of a Congress and administration drunk on deficit spending. Both branches of government have abandoned any semblance of fiscal responsibility.
When an individual or business handles their finances this way, they go bankrupt.
When the federal government is the culprit, in the end we all go bankrupt.
Columnist David S. Broder recently reported on a meeting of many of the men and women who have steered U.S. economic and fiscal policy during the past two decades. One of those present said, “I think it’s 1925, and we’re headed for 1929.”
I hope that assessment is wrong, but I’d sure like to see some fiscal sanity return to the halls of Congress and the White House.
Is America “stuck on stupid?” Yep.
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