Bitter economic pills as Congress adjourns at midterm

The Second Session of Patria's 49th Congress adjourned today for its summer recess (winter recess for our friends in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, etc.) with the traditional "State of the Union" annual message to Congress warning of some bitter economic medicine - aka European-style austerity - with no real promise of recovery. Note also an endorsement in the 2012 US presidential race.

The following is the text of the Annual Message to Congress:

Om premamritanandamayyai nityam namo namah. Adorations to the Mother who is full of divine love and immortal bliss.  With the Divine Mother’s blessings, the 49^th Congressus Patriaë has reached the midpoint of its term of office. 

 At the mid-term mark, we can say that Patria’s economy has improved marginally from this time a year ago when citizens of Patria were exhorted to take up smoking as a means of creating jobs and creating tax revenue. Certainly there has been some improvement since the annual message to Congress that was delivered on this day in 2009 or since the start of the GED [Global Economic Downturn] in late 2008. Nonetheless the economy has not improved enough so that the danger of sliding back into recession has abated. There is still a very real possibility of a double-dip recession in the upcoming quarter of this year, as has already happened in the United Kingdom, or even a full-blown Euro zone-style depression such as in Spain or Greece.

While voters in France and Greece have rejected austerity, in Patria the need to rein in government spending, cut the bloated bureaucracy, stop the gravy train dead in its tracks and reduce the burden of taxation is no greater than in the Euro zone, Rob Ford’s Toronto, or the Tea Party’s vision of America. Both the Positive Possibilities and Diet Coke Party coalitions know, as do most of the small independent parties, that in the remaining two years of this Congress’ term of office some bitter economic pills, such as cutting thousands of public-sector jobs and slashing the budgets of virtually every federal, precinct and local government department or ministry, must be swallowed in order to stave off a new great depression, the likes of which will make the 1930s seem like boom times. Austerity – or tapas, to use the Sanskrit term – is the price that must be paid in order to avoid a massive debt crisis that we, our children and our children’s children will be paying down for decades to come. Austerity is the short term pain for long-term gain so that Patria’s economy can truly grow, made-in-Patria will replace made-in-China, and an entire generation of college graduates will have a better future than unpaid internships, short-term contract jobettes, and minimum wage jobs as McDonalds burger flippers and Starbucks baristas, still living with mom and dad in their 30s, still paying off student loans in their 40s, and still unmarried and childless in their 50s, unable to bear the cost of settling down to raise a family thanks to decades of debt.

As the economy in Patria and in the macro-world failed to thrive in 2011 and 2012, this session of Congress witnessed the growth of the Occupy movement. Beginning on Wall Street, proliferating among the major cities of North America and Europe, it was not long before this rag-tag, unwashed, scruffy band of anarchists, leftists, stoners, unemployed and unemployable set up camp in Vivekananda Park, in full view of the Castoropolis Stock Exchange. Our message to the occupiers, should they return this summer, perhaps like in Quebec, using university students as pawns in their game: some of the “one percenters” you so despise got to be part of the one percent by marketing personal care products such as soap, shampoo and deodorant. Introduce yourself to these products, get a job, work hard, and become productive members of society. Even if your job pays only a minuscule fraction of what the average “one percenter” takes home, you will at least derive satisfaction from the simple acts of paying a mortgage, balancing a checkbook, filing an income tax return and other adult responsibilities.

 Only a few days ago, massive budget cuts and apathy to public broadcasting on the part of Canada’s ruling Conservative government forced the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to end Radio Canada International’s shortwave broadcasts after almost 70 years on the air. Nothwithstanding the extent of austerity measures, this Congress is committed to providing adequate funding so that Ramrajyavani may continue to broadcast to the world via shortwave radio, which is not an electronic relic or a refuge for nerds and luddites, but a cost-effective, easily accessible, virtually censorship-resistant method of broadcasting that has done yeoman service for nine decades, can reach parts of the world where internet access is restricted, unavailable or unaffordable, and will still be functioning even in times of natural disasters, extended power outages and internet censorship.

Two years ago, the Inaugural Address proclaimed that “Patria must be made a safe place for social conservatives”. But Patria’s social conservative values do not particularly include those shibboleths so dear to Republicans in the US and right-wingers generally such as outlawing abortion – that tired old horse left the barn in 1973 – or banning gay marriages, or limiting grade school sex education classes to abstinence only. Patria’s social conservative values, however, do include modest dress for women. In Patria we believe women should dress with the dignity worthy of visiting a temple or tirtha [place of pilgrimage, e.g. Kayavarohan]. Though not by passing of legislation mandating formal dress codes such as in Iran, Patria will nonetheless continue to insist that women and girls avoid dressing like sluts and tempting men into violence and unwanted sexual advances, or at least luring men to believe that they are fair game. Patria will continue to advocate social conservative values in order to make this realm a safe place and a comfort zone for those men who chose to practice lifelong celibacy through monastic vows or those who have had celibacy thrust upon them by lacking in National Union-style traditional male macho or by being on the autistic spectrum and never being able to experience an intimate relationship. Patria commits itself to creating a safe community for such introverted, sensitive, socially lacking men in the remaining two years of this Congress.

During the second session, as Tim Tebow’s legend grew on and off the field, the former Denver Broncos and now New York Jets quarterback became a role model for Patria’s youth. Being so intensely grounded in his faith, proudly proclaiming his virginity, never uttering a four-letter word stronger than “gosh”, and maintaining a scrubbed, milk-fed, clean-cut appearance when out of his football uniform, Tim Tebow is a shining example of the social conservatism that Patria is seeking to instill. We can only hope that Tebow’s fundamentalist Christianity will not stand in the way of his being open to the unconditional love of the Amrita Party’s house leader and someday receiving Amma’s darshan.

Patria generally does not endorse candidates or parties in foreign or macro-national elections. But as America votes in November and US citizens in Patria take the necessary steps to register and obtain absentee ballots, Patria will, albeit rather unenthusiastically and with some reservations, endorse Barack Obama for a second term as President of the United States. Yes, the world’s most powerful economy has mostly failed to turn around. And for all the promises of “change” that have actually been delivered in the past four years, the Obama administration might as well be George W. Bush’s third term. The continued imprisonment of alleged terrorists without trial or charges and targeted assassinations of US citizens by drone missiles would even outdo Bush. Just as in 1980, a weak, dithering incumbent Democrat has bumbled away four years doing too little to repair a failing economy and deal with an ongoing crisis in the Persian Gulf. But to the Republicans in America and their supporters in Patria: this is not 1980, Barack Obama is not Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan is not walking through that door. Neither is Rick Santorum or Ron Paul. To many US Republicans, and true paleo-conservatives in Patria, Mitt Romney is a mediocre, uninspiring RINO – Republican in name only – who has little to run on except extreme wealth and a father who managed to persuade people to drive Ramblers and Gremlins. Romney is a dishwater-dull, bland near-centrist claiming to be a bona fide conservative, following in the tradition of Bob Dole in 1996 or John McCain in 2008. One can only wonder “is this the best the GOP can do”? At least Dole and McCain were decorated war veterans. It is a rather dismal choice that Americans face, particularly for economic and social conservatives, but also for liberals and progressives who are still awaiting the promises of hope and change.

 Om Sri Gurubhyo Namah. Hari Om.

Vishwa me shanti rahe. Let peace prevail on earth. 

Under the power vested in me by the Constitution of Patria, I declare closed the Second Session of the 49^th Congress, and call this Congress to re-assemble here on Wednesday, the 19^th of September 2012, to open the Third Session of the 49^th Congress.