Peterson's Deficit "Budgetball": The Fountainhead Meets Death Race!

[KoKo]

2000The Fountainhead Meets Death Race 2000 by RJ Eskow | May 15, 2010 - 1:07pm | permalink

"Budgetball is an innovative sport that combines fiscal strategy and physical play." ~ Budgetball Rulebook, "Pass the Ball - Not The Buck"

Billionaire Pete Peterson is funding an elaborate campaign to convince a nation with more than 15 million unemployed citizens that the most urgent crisis we face today is not unemployment ... or poverty, or inadequate health care, or the decimation of the middle class. He's already created a "news service" to propagate his ideas -- the Washington Post outsourced its financial reporting to him -- and hosted a "deficit summit" headlined by the same people that got us into the mess we're in today. (Greenspan? Rubin? That's not called a "summit." It's called "rounding up the usual suspects.")

Now Peterson's funding an "America Speaks" series of town halls with participation from President Obama's deficit commission. No matter who's in charge, money always talks. ("Money doesn't talk, it swears," said the folksinger.)

In an especially peculiar use of his wealth, Peterson has also paid consultants to come up with the game of "budgetball." And in a Marie Antoinette-ish gesture, Peterson's deficit mavens will be playing this "game" on May 21, on the National Mall of a nation whose middle and lower classes are still racked by financial misery.

"To recap those revisions: women are still worth 10 points more than men in all age brackets, but teenagers now rack up 40 points, and toddlers under 12 now rate a big 70 points. The big score: anyone, any sex, over 75 years old has been upped to 100 points." ~ Sports Announcer, Death Race 2000

In Death Race 2000, as Wikipedia reminds us, " the United States has been destroyed by a financial crisis and a military coup. Political parties have collapsed into a single Bipartisan Party, which also fulfills the religious functions of a unified church and state." Participants in the "death race" win points for killing pedestrians, and many people eagerly throw themselves before the cars bent on destroying them. (Think Tea Party.)

Observers might be forgiven for recalling this movie when they hear that Peterson is making a game out of deficit cuts that would strike at the most vulnerable among us. (Other current events may stir their memories, too.) Maybe Budgetball could take a leaf from the "death race" playbook and award extra points for "sacrifices" (a Budgetball term) that especially affect toddlers and the elderly.

"If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject." ~ Ayn Rand

Make no mistake: Peterson is waging an ideological battle. Randian self-interest for the wealthy has been broadly discredited as a political philosophy. The rightist revolution promoted by the GOP, and accommodated (or worse) by centrist Democrats, is in profound danger as people see the ruin it's made of our economy. Everything Peterson does, from skewing the news to promoting the "rehabilitation" of people like Greenspan and Rubin as wise elders, is designed to rebuild this ideology in the public eye.

Here's your proof: You'll hear a lot out of Peterson about cutting Social Security, slashing Medicare, and finding other ways to break the social contract with American workers and the general public. Here's what you won't hear about: Raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to pre-Reagan levels. Withdrawing from unnecessary military adventures. Breaking up the big banks so we no longer have to rescue them, or forcing large banks to pay for any future bailouts.

More at.......

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/rj-eskow/28780/petersons-deficit-budgetball-the-fountainhead-meets-death-race-2000