Appearing on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopolous, Greta van Susteren made a powerful, possibly inarguable argument that the American people were the biggest losers in the manufactured crisis known as the fiscal cliff.
Left unsaid was that youngest Americans were the biggest of the biggest losers. They'll be burdened with this ridiculous national debt their entire lives. That will necessarily cause the economy to perform at a much more anemic pace.
Here's a transcript of Greta's first display of righteous indignation:
And it shows that everyone...there really were no success stories in this. EVeryone was a big fat loser in this. It's disgusting, from the White House on down. This whole fiscal cliff resolution took 18 months to get to where we are. Even Simpson-Bowles said this was a missed opportunity.
And you [note- refers to Robert Reich) talk about we need some short term stimulus. There was stimulus in this bill. Goldman-Sachs, NASCAR and Hollywood -- they all got some short term stimulus in this bill...So why did they get the stimulus?
The answer to Greta's last question is simple: they're the ones with lobbyists. The people that got hurt the most, the American people, especially the youngest generations, don't have people fighting for them. Goldman-Sachs and Hollywood have well-paid lobbyists on K Street. They got the goodies. The American people got the shaft.
George Will jumped in, which led to this exchange between Will and Greta:
WILL: Don't neglect electric scooters, either, because this really tells you how Washington works. Electric scooters are built in Oregon. Sen. Wyden of Oregon said it is unfair that the government uses tax credits to bribe people to build electric cars. That's discrimination. That's why we should have tax credits to bribe people to buy electric scooters, which we now do.
GRETA: The point about this fiscal cliff deal is that it's a big, fat lie. It did have stimulus in it for its special interests, its pets, the White House's and Congress's pets. And that's disgraceful. They didn't do their job. They've known about this for a long time. If we didn't do our jobs, we'd be out of jobs. And the media lets them of the hooks, saying that "that's how it's always done." Well, maybe it's time that it shouldn't be done that way.
That's it precisely. It's time that it shouldn't be done that way. Washington is disfunctional because they're only paying attention to the DC echochamber's chatter. It's time these politicians stopped visiting with their allies, then saying that they're staying in touch with their constituents. It's time for politicians to go into parts of their state or district where they'll get grilled. That's the only way they'll truly represent their entire state or entire district.
That's the only way they'll actually work for the American people instead of working for K Street lobbyists. That's the only way the American people won't get shafted in the next negotiations.
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