Something Bright For Days That Seem So Dim, Desperate, And Nuts

McCain’s Baffling Response to the Economic Crisis; How Much $700 Billion Really Is; And Something Bright For These Dim Days

You might have heard a dirty little rumor about how our economy is suddenly in turmoil.  It is something that a number of Republican candidates have now woken up to, after realizing that American voters are going to care more about the day-to-day impact of whether they can pay their bills than any number of wedge issues that have divided the country over recent years but have paved the way to GOP victory on so many first Tuesdays in November. Here’s news: Americans have been worried about the economy for months and months.  Yet Senator John McCain is now worried enough that he has postponed his campaign "until we have taken action to address this crisis," while asking the Commission on Presidential Debates to delay Friday’s scheduled debate during an election season that has already pushed the conventions and debates closer towards Election Day than ever before.

This economic crisis is not just a paradigm shift, however.  Whenever you have the kind of market instability, shrinking liquidity, and dwindling investor confidence like we have seen in recent months, it’s more like a paradigm earthquake. And even though an agreement in principle on the $700 billion economic recovery plan has been reached as of this afternoon, we must take a moment to understand why a man who claims to be the best qualified for the presidency would do something so seemingly impulsive and out-of-left-field.  And we must address the issue of just how much $700 billion actually is.

A Business Week columnist deemed this "Another Hail-Mary Pass For McCain," and Dan Balz at the Washington Post said that McCain’s move may well be seen as "a judgment by voters that his move was a reckless act by an impetuous and struggling politician that hardened partisan lines in Washington at just the wrong moment and complicated efforts to deal with the biggest financial crisis in more than half a century."  Perhaps one anonymous GOP insider put it best, calling the move "desperate and nuts."

Here is what I think: the multifaceted economic disasters we now face are not going to be fixed over four days but rather over four years, and longer.  To skip Friday’s debate is to ignore the long-term nature of the economic problems that we face after Americans have overextended themselves and our leaders have overspent our tax dollars, failed to save and chosen to plunge us deeper into debt, and, perhaps most severe of all, opted to underinvest in those fundamental underpinnings of a strong economy and a healthy society.  The last eight years have witnessed a Republican Administration that has touted small government and fiscal conservatism while increasing the debt by more than all other presidents combined (as our own Eric Sapp so strongly argued just a few days ago).  Now that is desperate and nuts.

No matter the amount we spend on this economic rejuvenation plan, there is no magic plan that is going to solve this situation; and I do not envy the next president and his staff, what with the enormity of this situation.  But we can use this time of soul-searching to reprioritize where we spend our money.  We might develop robust, innovative infrastructure systems for our safe commutes and smooth delivery of goods.  We could pay for the very best educational opportunities for our students and the highest pay for those public servants who dedicate their lives to teaching.  Continue the list with whatever issues you care about the most.  A few folks have started crunching numbers to come up with the following back of the envelope calculations:

•  $700 Billion is nine times the amount spent on education in 2007.
•  $700 Billion is seven times the amount needed for universal health  care for all people in the U.S. without it.
•  $700 Billion could rebuild the Katrina-ravished Gulf Coast ….. three and a half times.
•  $700 Billion could pay for 2,000 McDonalds apple pies for every single American.

Sources: http://www.cjr.org/the_kicker/what_can_you_buy_for_700_billi.php

http://consumerist.com/5054163/what-else-can-700-billion-buy

http://www.buzzmachine.com/2008/09/21/what-700-billion-could-buy/

Now that is enough apple pie to return us to our values.  I’m not endorsing the way any of these numbers have been tallied, but I will go ahead and include two other sources: a graphic from the New York Times that was put together once the Iraq War topped $1.2 Trillion and a website called http://www.sevenhundredbillion.com/.  Here is the Times image:

And then there’s the website http://www.sevenhundredbillion.com/, which was started by a sixth grade teacher in Ohio, showing her students’ calculations (including 7,000,000,000 one laptop per child computers and 241,379,310,345 school lunches).  The current financial crisis is absolutely an issue of government financial mismanagement.  And it is absolutely an issue of personal financial mismanagement.  It is both.  But the amount of money we are collectively spending on this bailout is simply outside of the realm of comprehension.

So why in the world is this column titled "Something Bright For Days That Seem So Dim, Desperate, And Nuts?"  Well, you might have guessed it based upon the articles penned by  Rachel Johnson and Eric Sapp earlier today.  There is a man running for office in Alabama who deserves a rousing introduction on the national scene.  His name is Bobby Bright and he is the part of a much broader movement in the Democratic Party throughout the South.  In the midst of these crippling economic decisions that have been made by government leaders, big business, small businesses, individuals, everybody — from the top, bottom, and middle — there is a new version of political leadership on the horizon with a new vision of how you get the job done.  It means fiscal responsibility, accountability, and transparency.  It involves social justice throughout and requires seeing budgets as moral documents.  It certainly does not mean plundering future generations by pummeling them with debt we have irresponsibly plunged ourselves into, as we have seen from the outrageous debt that has been piled up in recent years.  It has gone by the name of Warner, Webb, and Kaine in my home state of Virginia; and it is going by the name of Perriello in a hard-fighting congressional campaign in the southern part of the Commonwealth.  (And while we are on the topic, do not miss Perriello’s plan for economic revival in the fifth district of Virginia: http://www.perrielloforcongress.com/revival.html).

This new era is being ushered into the Wiregrass Region of Alabama by this incredible man named Bobby Bright.  As you have read in the FD columns from earlier today, Bright has been unfairly attacked by a 527 as a "tax and spend liberal" when the truth is that he has a record as one of the best mayors in Montgomery’s history , who has revitalized Montgomery’s downtown and riverfront, renewed the City’s tourism industry, balanced the City’s budget every year, created a $30 million rainy day fund, and maintained "AA" credit rating, the very best rating in the state.  Here is what the Wall Street Journal had to say:

The story of Mr. Bright, the current mayor of Montgomery, could have been sketched by Robert Penn Warren, the novelist who famously captured the essence of Southern populism. Stocky and square-shouldered, Mr. Bright professes a love of chicken livers and is a deacon in Montgomery’s First Baptist Church. Despite nearly a decade in politics, he is still a bit rough around the edges: A poster on the wall of his campaign office, scrawled in black marker, reminds Mr. Bright to say "please" when making fund-raising calls.

 

Mr. Bright toyed with the idea of running as a Republican. He spoke with party activists "and prayed on it." But he decided that he felt more at home with the Democrats, whom he describes as the party of working people and the party of diversity.

 

"The Republican Party has done a wonderful job of making it appear that you don’t have a choice," said Mr. Bright, standing on a sidewalk in downtown Prattville, dabbing at sweat beading on his forehead. "But that’s changing. That’s changing with me." […] 

When Mr. Bright ran for mayor of Montgomery in 1999, he wasn’t given much of a chance against the long-time incumbent, a defender of the city’s political establishment. Yet Mr. Bright knocked him off, arguing the city — the cradle of the Confederacy and a birthplace of the civil-rights movement — needed to move beyond its history of racial discord.

I am encouraged by candidates like Bobby Bright and I encourage you to read up on the Bobby Bright story.  We can only hope that the leadership that he brings — and that is offered by others who are cut from the same quality cloth and knit from the same strong thread — will lead us from dim to brighter days.  Let’s just hope, too, that the politicians presently in power do not go completely nuts by mortgaging our futures entirely away before new leadership brings about the changes we all need so desperately.