The discussion over whether or not Obama should be trusting the recommendations of Timothy Geithner makes me think about the previous Administration’s trust of its “experts.”
Donald Rumsfeld served as Secretary of Defense during the period that saw the United States nearly lose the initiative in Iraq and is firmly to blame for allowing Afghanistan to rot on the back-burner.
I’ll be blunt: Americans died because of the ineptitude of Donald Rumsfeld. Why would he, of all people, have even been looked to for expert policy enactment? Well, it was because he was leading the administration into a “new” military mission-plan: privatize everything we can, while maintaining a technological edge over the opposition. He wasn’t putting into place a military to build countries or fight prolonged wars, but one made of quick strike packages that could hit anywhere at any time.
Rumsfled was, essentially, a corporate hack that was going to turn the U.S. military into a profitable enterprise. Private companies would be more “efficient.” Our foreign policy would be about being able to threaten anyone anywhere with outrageously superior weapons technology. Seems pretty empirical, if you ask me. But that’s been the neo-conservative sense of American exceptionalism that makes “by any means necessary” acceptable.
In the end, this proved to be an untenable plan of action. Guerilla warfare is designed to bog down Rumsfled’s military dream and corporatizing the military has led to the death American soldiers as companies race for a bottom line to make a profit off of war. It has been a disaster and it resulted by allowing a politically-connected man in a suit make decisions like a businessman and not a public servant. Big Business doesn’t care about people unless it serves the bottom line.
Now the question to ask is whether Tim Geithner is an expert cut from the same clothe of a financial industry that is robbing us blind and trying to pretend that none of this economic crisis is their fault. They are a big part of the problem, so why should we be taking cues from a guy that CAME FROM that group of offenders?
I honestly don’t know if Geithner is on the level as far as his sense of accountability to the financial lobby…I would not want to accuse anyone of being purposefully corrupted. Rumsfeld wasn’t corrupt, he was stupid. He really thought his ideas would work. Unfortunately, he was mired in the wrong-headed mindset that thought you could run a country like a corporation.
We need to know if Geithner is thinking outside the “box” that he has worked in for his entire career. If his expertise derives from the same kinds of beliefs that led us into this crisis, he is the last person that should be Secretary of the Treasury.
Congress passed a new defense bill that cancels the much-loved F-22 fighter program. It’s much-loved by airplane enthusiasts (like me), defense contractors, a lot of people in the Air Force, and some members of congress. Oh, and Michael Bay. It’s not so much-loved by the Secretary of Defense, the President, and anyone who might have happened across
I find it hard to swallow that there could really be people who don’t want to see everyone in this country have access to affordable healthcare.