海角大神

JP Morgan Chase,聽 Goldman Sachs, BP, Chevron, WalMart, and billionaires Charles and David Koch are launching a multi-million dollar TV ad buy Tuesday blasting President Obama over the national debt.

Actually, I don鈥檛 know who鈥檚 behind this ad because there鈥檚 no way to know. And that鈥檚 a big problem.

The front group for the ad is Crossroads GPS, the sister organization to the super PAC American Crossroads run by Republican political operative Karl Rove.

Because Crossroads GPS is a tax-exempt nonprofit group, it can spend unlimited money on politics 鈥� and it doesn鈥檛 have to reveal where it gets the dough.

By law, all it has to do is spent most of the money on policy 鈥渋ssues,鈥� which is a fig leaf for partisan politics.

Here鈥檚 what counts as an issue ad, as opposed to a partisan one. The narrator in the ad Crossroads GPS is launching solemnly intones: 鈥淚n 2008, Barack Obama said, 鈥榃e can鈥檛 mortgage our children鈥檚 future on a mountain of debt.鈥� Now he鈥檚 adding $4 billion in debt every day, borrowing from China for his spending. Every second, growing our debt faster than our economy,鈥� he continues. 鈥淭ell Obama, stop the spending.鈥�

This is a baldface lie, by the way.

Obama isn鈥檛 adding to the debt every day. The debt is growing because of obligations entered into long ago, many under George W. Bush 鈥� including two giant tax cuts that went mostly to the very wealthy that were supposed to be temporary and which are still going, courtesy of Republican blackmail over raising the debt limit.

In realty, government spending as a portion of GDP keeps dropping.

As I said, I don鈥檛 know who鈥檚 financing this big lie but there鈥檚 good reason to think it鈥檚 some combination of Wall Street, big corporations, and the billionaire Koch brothers.

According to the reliable inside-Washington source 鈥淧olitico,鈥� the Koch brothers鈥� network alone will be spending $400 million over the next six months trying to defeat Obama, which is more than Senator John McCain spent on his entire 2008 campaign.

Big corporations and Wall Street are also secretly funneling big bucks into front groups like the US Chamber of Commerce that will use the money to air anti-Obama ads, while keeping secret the identities of these firms.

Looking at the all the anti-Obama super PACs and political fronts like Crossroads GPS, Politico estimates the anti-Obama forces (including the Romney campaign) will outspend Obama and pro-Obama groups by 2 to 1.

How can it be that big corporations and billionaires will be spending unlimited amounts on big lies like this one, without any accountability because no one will know聽 where the money is coming from?

Blame a majority of the Supreme Court in its grotesque 2010聽Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission decision 鈥� as well as the IRS for lax enforcement that lets political front groups like Crossroads GPS or the U.S. Chamber of Commerce pretend they鈥檙e not political.

But you might also blame something deeper, more sinister.

I鈥檓 not a conspiracy theorist (you can鈥檛 have served in Washington and seriously believe more than two people can hold on to a big story without it leaking), but I fear that at least since 2010 we鈥檝e been witnessing a quiet, slow-motion coup d鈥檈tat whose purpose is to repeal every bit of progressive legislation since the New Deal and entrench the privileged positions of the wealthy and powerful 鈥� who haven鈥檛 been as wealthy or as powerful since the Gilded Age of the late 19th century.

Its techique is to inundate America with a few big lies, told over and over (the debt is Obama鈥檚 fault and it鈥檚 out of control; corporations and the very rich are the 鈥渏ob creators鈥� that need tax cuts; government is the enemy, and its regulations are strangling the private sector; unions are bad; and so on), and tell them so often they鈥檙e taken as fact.

Then having convinced enough Americans that these lies are true, take over the White House, Congress, and remaining states that haven鈥檛 yet succumbed to the regressive right (witness Tuesday鈥檚 recall election in Wisconsin).

I desperately hope I鈥檓 wrong, but all there鈥檚 growing evidence I may be right.聽 聽