I was recently watching a report on Prince William and Kate’s 11-day swing through North America, when the reporter said the Duchess is bringing with her 40 different outfits, but not her “stylist.” I guess I should applaud her for being able to dress herself for a week and a half, but that simple statement just reminded me of the chasm between the royals and the rest of us. I am no fan of a leisure class living off the hard work of others, either in Brittan or in this country.
Yes, we have our own royals; they just go by the name “super rich.” Words do not describe the disdain I have for politicians that in the attempt to get our country’s fiscal house right propose aiming such belt tightening solely at the middle class and below, while refusing to ask the super rich to share the burden that Wall Street and investment banks created.
You know we live in a world upside down when CNBC’s Jim Cramer of Mad Money fame (a Wall Street cheerleader if there ever was one) says he is embarrassed to be in line at Starbucks knowing his Wall Street gains are being taxed at a much lower rate than the incomes of the middle class workers behind him.
We are now almost three years out from when we learned those whiz kids on Wall Street were actually just street hustlers using our money to put billions into their own pockets while putting at risk our entire national economy.
In the summer of 2009, I sat down with The Nation’s columnist Bill Grieder to talk about the financial mess our country was in. Grieder has spent the last 40 years covering our nation’s capitol and says when it comes to pointing fingers for financial meltdown and subsequent recession; there is enough blame to go around.
In fact, he says it’s not the fault of either political party. It’s the fault of both, thanks to years of collusion with big money backers, And, Grieder was quit prophetic in 2009 when he told me we are just at the beginning of a really long, hard passage in which Americans, like it or not, have to adjust to some new realities.
In today’s video blog we bring you the first seven minutes of an extended interview you can find on our website at OKHorizon.com under August, 2009.
~Rob McClendon
On the Horizon: A Royal Pain from Alisa Hines on Vimeo.
Note: The political views expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the collective summary views of the RDC Contributor Group. Thanks.