Global Socialists Toast Victory Over America
By Cliff Kincaid
November 17, 2008
The American people may be losing their jobs and savings, but on Friday night, on the eve of the international financial summit, they provided President Bush and other G20 leaders a lavish banquet that included $300-a-bottle wine, Vermont Brie, eggplant fondue, and rack of lamb. Details of the "culinary delights" and "sumptuous feast" provided to the politicians who departed their black limousines were included in wire service stories. They were toasting the demise of America as a global economic and military superpower and planning to loot another trillion dollars from U.S. taxpayers.
Stories about the feast can only cause rising anger in the United States. A C-SPAN moderator on Sunday morning, hosting a discussion of the growing financial crisis and taking calls, himself commented that there was a lot of anger out there. One caller mentioned taking up arms against the government over the looting of the taxpayers.
We have seen the people react this way in the past to proposals for Congressional pay raises and illegal alien amnesty. But the growing anger over the endless series of taxpayer bailouts is getting louder and louder. In response to the stories about the lavish G20 banquet and my own columns on the growing financial crisis, I received this email:
"I just finished reading the menu that I and the US Taxpayers just bought these idiots and thieves. $300 bottles of wine? Racks of lamb? (Does the image of Nero fiddling while Rome burns come to mind?) What if Bush had announced that the menu was going to reflect the seriousness of the situation? Maybe a great minestrone soup and some good Carlo Rossi red? Show the world that he (Bush) was serious about caring for our money. I realize it doesn't make a bean's worth of difference in the whole budget but when do we, as taxpayers, get any respect? Personally I resent more and more everyone associated with my government. And especially the country club Republicans that Bush (I was fooled) and [Treasury Secretary Henry] Paulson represent. I may have to lay off two good guys this coming week. I'm sure they will understand that the President had to keep up the image to all these 'important' people and that the King of Saudi Arabia and the Premier of China and assorted other international flotsam enjoyed their largesse."
By the way, Carlo Rossi red is a California wine that goes for about $6.99 a bottle. It apparently wasn't good enough for the global elite.
In a development that attracted the attention of some media, the U.S. agreed at the conference to the establishment of "supervisory colleges" by March 31, 2009, to monitor "all major cross-border financial institutions." It is the beginning of a new global regulatory body that could eventually impose and collect a currency transactions tax known as the Tobin Tax, named after the late Yale University economist, James Tobin. Such a tax, which could affect stocks, mutual funds, and pensions, could generate hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
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