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Budget Wars Consist of One-Sided Compromises
The national calls for “shared sacrifice” during these times of austerity presuppose that giant corporations like Goldman Sachs and Exxon Mobil share the same amount of privilege and power as, say, your grandmother.
If the upper one percent has to pay slightly more taxes, say the GOP and some Democrats, including the president, then octogenarians have to say bon voyage to their traditional Social Security and Medicare payments.
It remains to be seen if the GOP is willing to meet President Obama halfway on his plans to tax the wealthy at slightly higher rates. Even if the president did get the GOP to acquiesce in this one area, the lavishly rich would still be taxed at historically low rates (no one is seriously considering going back to Eisenhower’s 91 percent, or Nixon’s 70 percent.)
Basically, this is all a fight to go from 35 percent to the Clinton-era 39 percent top marginal rates. A four percent increase simply doesn’t carry the same punch as significantly gutting the social safety net for the poor majority. A single mother of four is going to feel the toll of dwindling food stamps way, way more than a hedge fund manager is going to feel the miniature tax creep – if it happens at all.
Yet, this narrative of “shared sacrifice” – as if all parties are equally sacrificing their means – has fully permeated the national discourse.
Nowhere is this kind of one-sided compromise more apparent than the funding chaos that just ensued in New Jersey. Using his line-item veto authority, Gov. Christie hacked away at the Democratic-controlled legislature’s spending plan, slashing $900 million from the budget.
Christie nixed health care funding for low-income workers, tax credits for the working poor, and money for AIDS relief and mental-health services, yet he managed to add funds ($150 million) for some of the wealthiest towns in the state.
The governor’s attack against the poor follows his recent signing of a law that limits the ability of New Jersey’s public employees to collectively bargain for health care benefits, and cuts the paychecks of those workers in order to increase their contributions towards health care plans and pensions.
The state Democrats laid down during this vicious attack on the working poor in the spirit of bipartisanship, naturally. Sharing the sacrifice, and what not. Of course, then the Democrats were simply shocked – shocked! – that a Republican governor, who they had just sold out their own party in order to support, would then turn around and stab them in the back. Senate President Stephen Sweeney furiously spat that Christie was a “bully” and a “punk,” and that he wanted to “punch him in his head.”
But there was no need for Sweeney to feign surprise. This is the era of the one-sided compromise, where millionaires are taxed at rock bottom rates while the working poor have their pensions stolen from them.
The starkness of Christie’s one-sided compromise is made all the more apparent when one considers that his education cuts could be reversed simply by implementing a millionaire’s tax. Of course, that would entail calling for actual shared sacrifice, and that simply isn’t acceptable.
Instead, the governor decided to briefly go to war with the state Supreme Court over education funding before the court ultimately found that he hadn’t allowed the schools to provide for their students, and ordered the state to restore $500 million in funding.
In a speech on Tuesday, President Obama coupled his demand for tax increases on the wealthy with a pledge to take on spending in “entitlement programs.” These two items are often paired together as if they carry equal weight.
Cutting the fat from an upper tier that is currently enjoying historically lavish wealth and gutting state pension plans are not equivalent acts. It makes sense when John Boehner crafts this comparison, but it’s disconcerting when President Obama plays into the false narrative.
11 Comments so far
Show AllAnd the winner is the extreme right wing as opposed to the moderate right wing represented by the president and a majority of democrats. Reagan, Clinton, Bush and Obama have all worked to make the United States the most unequal society in the world.
I GAVE UP ON THE DEMOCRATS over a year ago and I gave up on the Presidential form of democracy. I agree with most of the frustration expressed in the comments on this blog. I still hope real change can be made by peaceful means but I'm afraid things have gone too far to have any real expectation that that is still possible.
I think we should try as a last resort, a national strike. I know we are not good at united behavior and don't have the experience European nations like France has doing a national strike but we can learn and we must learn. The plutocrats have too many weapons for marches and such to work so we have to use new tactics. The web also probably has methods we could use.
If its one-sided, its not compromising, its capitulating.
Yes, it is an oxymoron to call it a compromise when no compromise has occurred.
Just as Bill Clinton was labeled the great communicator, Obama will be labeled the great capitulator. Between now and the August 2 debt ceiling deadline we will see another episode in Obama's serial capitulation.
Obama is not a capitulator. According to Merriam Webster, capitulate means "to surrender often after negotiation of terms b: to cease resisting : acquiesce." Obama is not surrendering or ceasing to resist. He's doing exactly what he wants to do. Do not paint him as being basically good, but somehow surrendering. He's not surrendering. He's doing exactly what he wants in order to secure his own wealth.
exactly lefttown
and ray's post ( luv you ray :~D ) shows how hard it is for all of us to keep the facts foremost and reject the popular paradigms. It's a constant struggle.
Why can't these pr*cks admit that for an economy to benefit all citizens you tax the fat, not the bone!!! Is that so hard to explain?
What we have seen throughout the Obama presidency cannot be simply described as "Budget Wars".
What we are experiencing is a bi-partisan "class war" waged against the economic interests of ordinary working people to benefit the wealthiest individuals and to maximize the profit of the corporations.
Obama has continued and expanded the major foreign and domestic policies of Bush and the Republican Party. As a result of this bi-partisan class war, the crises apparent under Bush are vastly expanded. These crises are never addressed adequately because to do so would decrease the profit, power, and wealth of the ruling elite who benefit from maintaining the "status quo".
* Global warming, climate change, continues and becomes more devastating everywhere on the planet including the United States.
* Wars and militarism have become a major "profit center" to the most profitable corporations and the entire "military-industrial complex". With the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the US became the world's military super-power. The neo-con think tank "Project for the New American Century" realized that warfare could bolster U.S. corporate profit to U.S. capitalism in decline. The PNAC agenda became the foreign policy of the United States with Bush/Cheney, and continued under Obama.
* Millions of jobs of gone overseas due to "Globalization". Maximum profit was possible by exploiting foreign workers. To replace these permanently lost millions of "living wage" private sector jobs what is needed are millions of "public sector" jobs.
* Obama's "Health Care Reform" is a "healthy profit care plan" for the private insurance companies. "Single payer" was not even allowed serious consideration in Democratic Party controlled Senate hearings.
* Obama now leads the attack, started by the Republicans, against public education, public schools and teachers, against public sector unions, by not bailing out the bankrupt state and local governments and school systems.
* The organized labor movement has betrayed the interests of organized labor and working people by continuing to support the Democratic Party.
What is desperately needed is a new political party, suggested name
the Solidarity Party, to represent the economic interests of all working people in the coming 2012 election.
Read daily the World Socialist Web site: http://www.wsws.org.
These many "class war" attacks are never discussed on corporate owned mass media, NPR or PBS, or even middle-class biased "Progressive Media".
Extremely astute analogy:
Repubs and Democs are two cheeks on the same ass!!
The president doesn't write any laws. I am so tired of reading the comments and everyone seems to blame Obama for everything. This is the exact reason why you hold out hope that some magic 3rd party president is going to change everything. Good luck trying to get 535 people who have a vested interest in status quo to follow what a single person in the white house says. You have the entire Republican Party saying no to raising taxes. How the hell do you figure some 3rd party candidate is going to get into office and get a single progressive idea pass congress?
Obama matters not. We have a corrupt government. Whoever the POTUS is doesn't really change much.
Obama plays into the FALSE NARRATIVE because he helped CREATE the false narrative!