Economic damage is beyond repair

Gerard Sanchez, Las Vegas

Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012 | 2 a.m.

The federal government can’t solve America’s economic problem with a Congress whose majority favors the wealthy and the special interests.

In 2009, President Barack Obama’s economic advisers Timothy Geithner, Larry Summers and Ben Bernanke, a Wall Street insider, devised an economic recovery that further enriched their cronies on Wall Street.

In 2010, Democrats lost the majority in the House of Representatives and almost lost the majority in the U.S. Senate because many Democrats in Congress were “Dinos” — Democrats in name only — who opposed President Obama’s reforms and watered down the medical reform that passed, leaving them without the public option and cost control measures, and the financial reforms to serve the special interests only.

Income inequality has grown far more in the United States in the past 10 years. The cost of living has increased while the working and middle classes watched their incomes stagnate, while Wall Street speculators, who contributed to the economic catastrophe and the housing meltdown, and the wealthy have benefitted from hefty tax cuts and low rates. Now the economic situation appears beyond repair.