Burn Witch Burn
Congress demonstrates their incompetence and corruption.
Are Democrats in Congress attempting to discover the truth about Russian involvement in the 2016 elections or are they just on a witch hunt to reverse the outcome of that election and bring down Donald Trump? Democrats have repeatedly introduced fake documents to support their arguments while calling anything that contradicts them as “conspiracy theory.” I think one of the most egregious and obvious examples of Democrats illusions was Rep. Adam Schiff’s reading into the Congressional record a made up and falsified rendition of a telephone call between President Trump and President Zelensky of Ukrane.
Rep. Adam Schiff’s Opening Statement On The Whistleblower Complaint
I could go on and on with more examples of their incompetence. Sadly, this is nothing new. Congress has long been divorced from reality and representatives from both sides seem more interested in lining their own pockets at the expense of America.
Déjà vu
As I watched the Congressional hearings surrounding the Enron Financial Collapse in Feb. and March, 2002, I was shocked at what I observed (although not totally surprised).
Senator after Senator from both sides of the aisle lined up to demonstrate their incompetency as a representative of this great country and their total lack of objectivity as someone seeking the truth. Almost without exception, every Senator clearly demonstrated having pre-determined their response with a total disregard for truth and a fair hearing of the facts. Clearly they were not asking questions with the anticipation of getting an answer. They already had their answers pre-determined and only had to tolerate the time the witnesses had to respond in order that they could then grandstand with some inane comments designed to woo their constituents back home into voting them back into office.
When presented with a fact, the common response from the Senators was most often a reaction that they didn’t even listen to what the witness had to say and chose rather to debase themselves with childish name-calling.
Similar has been the response from committee after committee. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) on the Sentate Commerce Committee clearly demonstrated his bias over and over again as he led his committee on their witch-hunt.
When Jeffrey Skilling insisted to Sen. Ron Wyden they look at the actual documents he was asking questions about, Wyden reluctantly allowed Skilling to read “word-for-word” from one document. All the while Wyden squirmed in his seat and retorted by reading his own “out of context” document from a meeting that had no chronilocgical relevance. Obviously, he was getting into an area he didn’t want to go because what he would likely find was not consistent with what he wanted to find.
When Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) asked Skilling for his opinion of what happened to cause the collapse, he got a detailed description from Skilling of a systemic problem occurring in our economy and one that Congress should be addressing.
He went on to describe how the disastrous effects of MAC (Material Adverse Change) clauses that have creeped in to all levels of financial transactions. These clauses allow banks to pull money out of a company that is threatened. It was these MAC clauses that essentially triggered a classic “run on the bank” scenario and brought Enron down. What the Federal Reserve Board put into place to protect banks are automatically built into contracts for corporate America allowing banks to suck liquidity out of companies at the slightest provocation.
I thought Skilling did a masterful job of turning the responsibility right back into Cleland’s lap along with the rest of Congress. What was Sen. Cleland’s response? He totally minimized Skillings response by comparing it to George Baley, Jimmy Stewart, and “It’s A Wonderful Life.” While that response drew laughter from fellow Senators, it clearly showed this bafoon didn’t have a clue and didn’t really want to know what caused the collapse of Enron… he just wanted a chuckle to help him get through his meaningless day.
Not to be outdone, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) followed with her version of comedy with a video showing Skilling nodding his head in agreement to a suggestion that Enron employees buy Enron stock. And in another notable example of a total lack of responsibility, Sen. Boxer defended the government’s role of imposing MAC clauses on corporate America and then completely ignored Skillings response to her question about the truthfulness of a “so-called simple fact” asserted by Ms.Watkins that a company can never use its own stock to generate a gain or avoid a loss on its income statement. When he responded with a specific example contradicting Watkin’s claim and then going on to pointing out that she (Boxer) had introduced legislation to keep the executive stock option exemption in place, she found herself in an area of truth she didn’t want to go. Since she didn’t get the answer she wanted and Skillings response clearly put her on the defense, she replied by saying that she understood stock options and quickly changed the subject.
I do not believe these elected representatives have any intention of seeking the truth, let alone improving the lot of the American citizen. Rather, they are participating in a classical witch-hunt, where regardless of the truth, the “big bad corporate executives” are what’s evil in our country and must be destroyed.
From what I’ve seen, Senators from both sides of the aisle have but one objective in mind… and that is to further the cause of socialism in this country by denigrating the capitalist structures that are the foundation of our economic power. Clearly, they will not be happy until EVERY American institution is federalized and all power is vested in the sovereignty of the government.
As common sense might dictate, perhaps our focus shouldn’t be so much on the accounting practices of Enron and other American corporations, but do we really want the failed policies of a bankrupt American government to dictate to profitable corporations how to conduct business?
On numerous times, I heard Skilling and other witnesses offer suggestions regarding what the real problems might have been behind the collapse… only to be brushed off by the closed minded inquisitor with a meaningless remark.
What the Senators did prove was they ARE NOT INTERESTED in the truth and don’t want to hear about any solutions, they only want to make some childish remarks and engage in name-calling so they can tell their constituents back home, “they care.”