I know things have to be bad when I turn on C-SPAN to watch the House of Representatives. I did it to watch the debate on the Boehner budget proposal. One representative hit the nail on the head: this bill enshrines the mistakes of the Bush II era. The giveaways that administration made possible for big oil, big finance, big incomes, probably also big hair for all I know… If it was big, Bush’s policies benefited it. If it was too big to fail, Bush’s policies were a dream come true. And now that 21% of hardcore Bushites are doing the equivalent of a temper tantrum to make sure their Dear Leader remains an albatross around the necks of Americans forever.

The US Government created $16 trillion out of thin air to bail out big automobiles and too big to fail finance. Yet, it can’t find a nickel, it seems, to aid the poor. Citibank could have failed and AIG could have been blown away and the FDIC had the money necessary to make sure that no depositor would lose his or her money: the former head of the FDIC revealed that Greenspan, Paulson, and Geithner all told her, basically, to rescue the gamblers. The richest of the rich, in other words.

America has the wherewithal to run its affairs fairly and properly. The problem is that the richest of the rich are greedy and that they own enough politicians to keep the laws in their favor. Boehner’s budget is awful. Reid’s is laughable. All of these budgets, in some way or another, ensure the rich keep their goodies. Boehner’s benefits them the most, while Reid’s is essentially no real change, so it’s no loss to them.

The Republicans aren’t good for America. The Democrats aren’t as bad, but they’re still not good. The Tea Party is suicide. The richest of the rich have had their grip on the nation since the crisis of 1861, when the US plunged into war with itself. To finance that war, the bankers did not pledge their money as grants: they loaned it to the government on condition that the debt be perpetual.

We live in a plutocracy, with trimmings of a republic. There are charades enacted by the plutocrats to appease the masses, but the true power is in the hands of the richest of the rich. Every political faction with organization is manipulated with the money of the richest of the rich. Not every person: just enough in order to mess everything up.

As a nation, we are governed by a class that has no compassion for the poor. This is why we can’t have nice things.