Sur le site Politico.com, Robert Reich, ancien ministre de Bill Clinton raconte le déferlement d’appels, d’e.mails, de lettres et de fax qui a submergé le Congrès.
Typical Americans are hurting very badly right now. They resent people who appear to be living high off a system dominated by insiders with the right connections. They’ve become increasingly suspicious of the conflicts of interest, cozy relationships and payoffs that seem to pervade not only official Washington but our biggest banks and corporations. In short, many Americans who have worked hard, saved as much as they can, bought a home, obeyed the law and paid every cent of taxes that were due are beginning to feel like chumps. Their jobs are disappearing, their savings are disappearing, their homes are worth far less than they thought they were, their tax bills are as high as ever if not higher — but people at the top seem to be living far different lives in a different universe. They’re the executives and traders on Wall Street who have lived like kings for years off a bubble of their own making while ripping off small investors, the financial louts who are now taking hundreds of billions of taxpayer bailout money while awarding themselves huge bonuses and throwing lavish parties, the corporate CEOs who are earning seven figures while laying off thousands of workers, the billionaire hedge-fund and private-equity managers who are paying a marginal tax rate of 15 percent on what they say are capital gains while people who earn a fraction of that are paying a higher rate, and not the least, the Washington insiders who have served on the Hill or in an administration and then gone on to pocket millions as lobbyists for the same companies they once regulated or subsidized. To the American who’s outside the power centers — the places of entitlement and I’ll-scratch-your-back-while-you-scratch-mine deal making — the entire system seems rotten.
Beaucoup d’Américains se sont indignés du fait que Daschle ait non seulement "oublié" de déclarer des avantages en nature (une Cadillac avec chauffeur ) au fisc mais aussi qu’il ait amassé beaucoup d’argent en jouant un rôle de consultant auprès d’entreprises exerçant dans le secteur de la santé. Toutes pratiques qu’Obama avait promis de bannir de Washington.
Et la semaine s’achève sur de vertes critiques contre son plan de relance de 800 milliards de dollars qu’il a eu la faiblesse de "sous-traiter" au Congrès. Les élus en ont fait un monument de clientélisme qui n’aura pas forcément d’effet sur la croissance - en tout cas, pas immédiats.
Le Wall Street Journal en donnait récemment un aperçu : The Conference of Mayors report has about a dozen golf-course-related projects. A lot of cities want to use funds to upgrade parks, such as Chula Vista, with its plans for a dog park that would include shading and fountains. San Bernadino, Calif., wants $1.1 million for park improvements, including a skateboard ramp and two "splash-park installations." Austin, Texas, could use $886,000 to build a 36-hole "disc golf" course, for frisbee tossing. It would be "environmentally and financially sustainable."
Là aussi, les mauvaises habitudes de la capitale fédérale ont la vie dure et discréditent le slogan du changement brandi par Obama.
