Between 1992 and 1994, a historic swap took place in U.S.
politics. Republicans, who had had a quarter-century lock on the
White House, gave it up to the Democratic Party, while Democrats,
who had had a 40-year lock on the Congress, gave it to the GOP.
The GOP traded a horse for a rabbit. Congress has become about
as relevant to the most fateful foreign-policy decisions as the
student council at Ridgemont High. Consider the last 10 days:
-- The United States has given an ultimatum to Belgrade: Pull your
troops out of your Kosovo province, or face NATO air strikes. But
Congress never authorized any ultimatum or air strikes.
-- At Wye Mills, Md., President Clinton agreed to have the CIA
monitor and judge compliance with the Netanyahu-Arafat accord.
We are diverting crucial intelligence assets to duties having nothing to
do with U.S. security, exposing CIA agents to terrorism, and ensnaring
America in a 50-year-old ethnic, religious and territorial war. Congress
was out of the loop.
-- The New York Times reports that Treasury Secretary Robert
Rubin is cobbling together a $30 billion Mexico-style bailout of
Fernando Cardoso's Brazil, with tax dollars that Congress never
appropriated.
Clinton's cohorts have, in 10 days, trapped us in possible foreign
wars, foreign quarrels and foreign bailouts. The New World Order
rises brick by brick, as the GOP chats up its hopes of picking up
seats next Tuesday. Why, pray tell, does it want them?
With $18 billion sent off to the International Monetary Fund as
Congress' final act, and a $30 billion bailout of Cardoso on the way, at
last we know where our budget surplus is going -- to finance Brazil's
deficit.
Aiding Rubin's public relations offensive are journalists who know
better. The Times' story reports the bailout is to "insulate Brazil
and the rest of Latin America from the financial turmoil circling the
globe." It is being sold by the Big Media as a U.S. flu shot for Latin
friends who are faced with an Asian contagion that is no fault of their
own.
But in the case of Brazil, this is as fraudulent as it was in the case of
Moscow, where we now know we were lied to. A glance at its fiscal picture
shows that Brazil's problem is Brazil, not Asia. And $30 billion will not
bail Cardoso out; it will only bail us in.
Brazil is running a budget deficit of 7.5 percent of gross domestic
product; half of its $70 billion in hard currency has left the country
since July; interest rates have been pushed up to 40 percent. This is like
the United States running a $640 billion deficit and Alan Greenspan hiking
interest rates to 40 percent to finance it. If that were our situation,
could a U.S. president get away with claiming it was all Asia's fault?
Not to worry, we are told, now that Cardoso is re-elected, he will
impose an austerity program that will make our bailout billions a
wise and safe investment. But, as the saying goes, fool me once,
shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
It took us 30 years to erase our own deficit. And if neither Ronald
Reagan nor a GOP Congress has been able to cut spending to 20
percent of GDP, does anyone believe Cardoso, with his leftist
coalition partners and neo-Marxist opposition, can wipe out the
equivalent of a $640 billion deficit in two years, or three, or four?
Unlike politicians, markets do not lie. What the markets are saying
is that Brazil's regime is fiscally irresponsible, it cannot or will not
control spending, and its debts are so huge that a default or devaluation
is in the cards. In demanding 40 percent interest on money, Brazil's
markets are saying: You take a huge risk buying our paper.
But if investors are dumping Brazil's paper, unless paid loan-shark
rates, why would the U.S. government put tax dollars into it?
Answer: Clinton's globalists are investing in a global world order.
They are ready to take risks to bring it off. They have the courage
of their convictions and confidence in their capacity to buffalo the
frightened free-marketeers of the GOP Congress.
What an opportunity has been lost. When Asia crashed, the whole
idea of an interdependent Global Economy was discredited. The
evidence for an America First policy of protecting our markets from
foreign man-made disasters was being daily adduced.
The Republicans could have thundered: "We told you the Mexican
bailout would come back to bite us! Not one more dime for the IMF!
Let free markets, not socialist bureaucrats, decide winners and
losers in the world economy."
Instead, terrified that Clinton would blame them, they buckled and
broke, voted the IMF another $18 billion and kicked the can up the
road. Thus, when the collapse comes, some hapless Hooverite
Republican may be sitting in the Oval Office.
Tell us again why we should all go out and vote for the GOP.
