Third District Rep. John Sarbanes offered succinct analysis of the world economic crisis Tuesday that managed to be scary and uplifting at the same time.
He told members of the BWI Business Partnership there is “a new spirit that can lift us to a new level.” Wonderful.
But he sandwiched between references to “exiting an era of excesses” and “entering an era of common sense” the accusation that “we all” participated in “excessive behavior.”
Wrong, congressman. Most of us worked hard, paid our taxes, made our payments and scrimped money from our pathetic paychecks into our even more pathetic 401(k) plans if rising health insurance and energy costs left us anything to spare.
We never got in on the excesses. We got snared, as usual. The only difference this time is politicians are extorting more in the form of public “rescue” or “bailout” money.
The hard fact is only a few incomprehensibly rich people got in on the true excesses. They herded us toward the precipice of a worldwide catastrophe. Sarbanes acknowledges that “it was the excess of some that created problems for all. A lot of innocent bystanders got run over by the recklessness and greed of a few.”
Then why do they get to threaten the little we have left if we refuse to pay trillions in taxes now and for generations?
We don’t have much choice. For one thing, our government will fine and imprison us if we refuse. We may have to pay, but we don’t have to like it. And we sure don’t have to pretend it’s somehow our fault.
The fact that a few million working Americans actually had the temerity to believe they could live in nice houses, and then had no choice but to pay too much in a market artificially inflated by — you guessed it — an unholy alliance of government and Wall Street, is no reason to blame those working Americans.
And this certainly is no reason to indict free-market capitalism — as do some in government who were in on the scam in the first place — because what we actually had was captive-market charlatanism.
Sarbanes and a host of government leaders actually look scared when they try to reassure us. They think this may be the Big One that puts even their secure, privileged status at risk.
Good. Scared politicians listen, one thing Sarbanes promised the new administration would do. As long as they are listening, hear this: We, the vast majority of the American people, are the victims here.
And like victims everywhere, we refuse to take the blame. What we demand is justice. If anything must be in excess for this crime, let it be punishment.
