Fw: THE REAL BUSH AGENDA
----- Original Message -----
From: Global Network
To: Global Network
Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2005 3:03 PM
Subject: THE REAL BUSH AGENDA
http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102~8854~2691835,00.html
Brattleboro Reformer
The Real Agenda
Friday, February 04, 2005 - Running beneath the Bush administration's
talk of creating an "Ownership Society" is something they won't come
right out and say openly: They are crafting a long-term strategy to
render the Democratic Party impotent for decades to come.
It's no secret that virtually every act of the Bush White House is done
with political considerations in mind, usually camouflaged with
Orwellian language.
"Tort reform" is a code phrase for defunding the trial lawyers, one of
the Democratic Party's biggest financial backers.
The No Child Left Behind Act and support for school vouchers for private
schools are designed to destroy public education and the teacher unions
that reliably back Democrats.
Expanding the North American Free Trade Agreement to the entire Western
Hemisphere is not just about free trade, but destroying labor unions,
another reliably Democratic group.
Packing the federal courts with conservatives ensures that the most
odious elements of the Bush agenda will be upheld.
Permanent warfare in pursuit of empire ensures that dissent will be
equated with treason and will keep people too scared to speak up.
But initiatives such as these are just the warm-up act compared to the
crown jewel of their "stick it to the Democrats" strategy --
privatization (a word now banned by the Bush administration) of Social
Security.
By diverting part of the money we currently pay in Social Security taxes
into the stock market, Americans will become part of what conservative
strategist Grover Norquist calls "the investor class."
Here's where it really gets diabolical. If privatization becomes a
reality, every issue from that point on can be framed as a potential
threat to people's retirement funds. Environmental laws. Labor laws.
Corporate taxes. Liability laws. The whole regulatory framework of
modern corporate America will suddenly be transformed into a drag on
stock earnings and a direct attack on the retirement funds of millions
of Americans.
It's not much of a leap from there to call the entire idea of the
maintenance of the welfare state into question. The next step of the
grand Bush strategy is to remove taxes on investment income and put the
federal tax burden squarely on the shoulders of wage earners. When this
happens, the cries to cut government spending will get louder and the
legitimacy of government will get attacked further.
This feeds into the master narrative of conservatism that we've heard
for decades -- if we can eliminate all the constraints on capitalism,
society will flourish. Every major social program enacted since Franklin
D. Roosevelt's New Deal -- most especially, Social Security -- is held
up as examples of government interference in the natural order of
economics.
We know what the natural order of economics looks like and what the end
result looks like. The stock market crash of 1929, and the Great
Depression that followed it, was the unhappy ending to a decade of wild
speculation fueled by laissez-faire economics. It took Roosevelt's New
Deal to save capitalism from itself.
Bush's "Ownership Society" is nothing more than the same old "us against
them" vision of the world where they who have, get. It's a vision where
taxes aren't viewed as the membership dues we pay for a civilized
society, but instead are seen as theft. It's a vision that rejects the
democratic ideal of mutual support and collective responsibility. It's a
vision that rejects the idea that government exists to promote the
general welfare, and not to merely help the rich grow richer.
Social contracts? Safety nets? Collective responsibility? To the Bush
administration, these are concepts they view as being as quaint and
obsolete as the Geneva Convention. There is little doubt who will be
able to join Bush's Ownership Society and who will be on the outside
looking in.
Copyright (c)1999-2005 New England Newspapers, Inc.,
a member of MediaNews Group, Inc.
Brattleboro Reformer
The Real Agenda
Friday, February 04, 2005 - Running beneath the Bush administration's
talk of creating an "Ownership Society" is something they won't come
right out and say openly: They are crafting a long-term strategy to
render the Democratic Party impotent for decades to come.
It's no secret that virtually every act of the Bush White House is done
with political considerations in mind, usually camouflaged with
Orwellian language.
"Tort reform" is a code phrase for defunding the trial lawyers, one of
the Democratic Party's biggest financial backers.
The No Child Left Behind Act and support for school vouchers for private
schools are designed to destroy public education and the teacher unions
that reliably back Democrats.
Expanding the North American Free Trade Agreement to the entire Western
Hemisphere is not just about free trade, but destroying labor unions,
another reliably Democratic group.
Packing the federal courts with conservatives ensures that the most
odious elements of the Bush agenda will be upheld.
Permanent warfare in pursuit of empire ensures that dissent will be
equated with treason and will keep people too scared to speak up.
But initiatives such as these are just the warm-up act compared to the
crown jewel of their "stick it to the Democrats" strategy --
privatization (a word now banned by the Bush administration) of Social
Security.
By diverting part of the money we currently pay in Social Security taxes
into the stock market, Americans will become part of what conservative
strategist Grover Norquist calls "the investor class."
Here's where it really gets diabolical. If privatization becomes a
reality, every issue from that point on can be framed as a potential
threat to people's retirement funds. Environmental laws. Labor laws.
Corporate taxes. Liability laws. The whole regulatory framework of
modern corporate America will suddenly be transformed into a drag on
stock earnings and a direct attack on the retirement funds of millions
of Americans.
It's not much of a leap from there to call the entire idea of the
maintenance of the welfare state into question. The next step of the
grand Bush strategy is to remove taxes on investment income and put the
federal tax burden squarely on the shoulders of wage earners. When this
happens, the cries to cut government spending will get louder and the
legitimacy of government will get attacked further.
This feeds into the master narrative of conservatism that we've heard
for decades -- if we can eliminate all the constraints on capitalism,
society will flourish. Every major social program enacted since Franklin
D. Roosevelt's New Deal -- most especially, Social Security -- is held
up as examples of government interference in the natural order of
economics.
We know what the natural order of economics looks like and what the end
result looks like. The stock market crash of 1929, and the Great
Depression that followed it, was the unhappy ending to a decade of wild
speculation fueled by laissez-faire economics. It took Roosevelt's New
Deal to save capitalism from itself.
Bush's "Ownership Society" is nothing more than the same old "us against
them" vision of the world where they who have, get. It's a vision where
taxes aren't viewed as the membership dues we pay for a civilized
society, but instead are seen as theft. It's a vision that rejects the
democratic ideal of mutual support and collective responsibility. It's a
vision that rejects the idea that government exists to promote the
general welfare, and not to merely help the rich grow richer.
Social contracts? Safety nets? Collective responsibility? To the Bush
administration, these are concepts they view as being as quaint and
obsolete as the Geneva Convention. There is little doubt who will be
able to join Bush's Ownership Society and who will be on the outside
looking in.
Copyright (c)1999-2005 New England Newspapers, Inc.,
a member of MediaNews Group, Inc.
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 729-0517
(207) 319-2017 (Cell phone)
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://www.space4peace.org
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 729-0517
(207) 319-2017 (Cell phone)
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://www.space4peace.org
posted by carol wolman @ 8:42 AM
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