Guns for the workers, Butter for the rich

[Conghaileach]

Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 16, 2003
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------

BUSH'S "ECONOMIC STIMULUS" PLAN:
GUNS FOR THE WORKERS, BUTTER FOR THE RICH

By Leslie Feinberg

Ask people cobbling together a living today what economic stimulus
means and their first answer would most likely be: A decent job.
Health insurance that doesn't compete with the ability to pay for
groceries. Retirement savings that don't evaporate like a mirage. A
secure nest egg for unexpected emergencies.

And a little left over for exciting recreation and a relaxing vacation.

Neither President George W. Bush's ballyhooed Jan. 7 economic
"stimulus" program nor the timorous counter-proposal by the
Democrats will bring this modest goal within fingertip reach for
millions living from paycheck to paycheck, fretting anxiously
over unpaid bills. And what about the millions who don't even have a
job, who are mired in poverty in this, the richest country on the planet?

If the extent of this economic distress sounds hyperbolic, consider
these statistics that represent flesh and blood lives.

Appeals for emergency food aid--an often arduous and tedious process
for those with growling bellies--increased an average of 19 percent in
2002, according to a 25-city survey released by the U.S. Conference
of Mayors on Dec. 18.

Almost half the urgent pleas for food came from members of
families with children. And 38 percent of the adults needing
meals were employed. Even with a job, they don't earn enough to
put food on the table.

As housing costs outstripped incomes, requests for emergency
shelter by those without a roof over their heads also rose by 19
percent in 2002, the sharpest rise in a decade. Twenty-two percent
of homeless people in the surveyed cities were employed.

The steep increase in numbers of people shivering on cardboard
boxes or taking refuge from rain under bridges was attributed
in this poll to a dearth of affordable housing, lack of needed
services for mental disabilities and addictions, and low-paying jobs.

And the services to support so many lives of quiet desperation
are disappearing. Cash-poor states are bogged down in a morass of
major budget deficits caused by economic stagnation and tax
cuts for the rich and virtually bottomless spending. Now add to
that the cost of the impending Pentagon invasion of Iraq and
"Homeland Security."

California alone is facing a $35-billion budget shortfall. (AP, Jan. 5)

As a result, in states from coast to coast, social service programs
that could affect the quality of lives are on the chopping block. Last
year, resources to meet the need for emergency food aid
plummeted 52 percent in the cities where hunger was gnawing so
deeply.

State, federal and municipal employees, who once hoped their
jobs would be secure for a lifetime after having won unions and
benefits like health care, are staring a major attack in the face.

In the private economy as well, more mass layoffs are looming. The
latest shocker came from AT&T, whose bosses just announced
that 3,500 workers are about to get the axe.

These workers face an "economic draft" into the already large army
of the unemployed.

Even though they knew they'd eventually have to extend
them, the House of Representatives allowed unemployment
benefits to lapse for more than 750,000 workers on Dec. 28.
Jobless workers' gooses were cooked when the politicians
adjourned for holiday meals without legislating an emergency
extension.

A BOON FOR BILLIONAIRES

What's the solution?

There's President George W. Bush's "bold" approach, unveiled on
Jan. 7. The price tag on his economic package--an estimated
$674 billion over 10 years--could go a long way if invested in
the lives and working conditions of the class hardest hit by economic
dislocation.

Instead, Bush sent his chief economic advisor, Stephen Friedman,
and other top aides to Wall Street and Capitol Hill hawking
the administration's own brand of snake oil: They claim that windfalls
for the already wealthy are the antidote for what ails the economy.

Bush wants to rapidly relieve the richest from the burden of
taxes. Of course, the average tax rate on the profits of the barons
of big business has already plunged to a nearly six-decade
low. (New York Times, Jan. 7)

The Bush administration had reportedly considered slowing
down already-passed income tax cuts for the highest-income
echelons "in order to deflect criticism" over new tax cuts on stock
dividends he wants to give the rich. (Daily Southtown, Jan. 3)

However, reported The Cincinnati Enquirer, the idea of delaying this
belated holiday gift to the affluent "prompted a storm of objections
from conservative groups," and the White House caved.

A centerpiece of Bush's proposal is completely eliminating
taxes on stock dividend income. In late December the White
House floated the idea of a 50-percent cut in dividend taxes.
But the rich and powerful squealed like pigs, so Bush agreed to
abolish the tax altogether.

The donation to Wall Street of no more dividend taxes is aimed at
boosting stock prices. It's a boon to the stock market--the central
nervous system of the U.S. capitalist economy--in its third year
of stomach-churning descent.

But the money will go into already deep pockets. The Tax Policy Center
tabulates that about 64 percent of the benefits from abolishing tax
dividends will go to the wealthiest 5 percent of taxpayers.

And merely giving big investors more cream off the top doesn't add up
to
capital investment or job creation. Businesses slashed production so
deeply in 2001 because they had unsold goods, not because they had no
funds to invest with. Furthermore, the Federal Reserve Bank has lowered
interest rates so much that it's practically paying businesses to
borrow
money and expand. But they're not doing it--because they know there are
already more goods on the market than there are buyers.

"The animal spirits of business have been depressed," observed Jerry
Jasin ow ski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers.

But there's nothing in the Republican or Democratic economic packages
that will medicate this malaise.

GUNS AND A PAT OF BUTTER

After the GOP gavel opened the 108th session of Congress on Jan. 7, the
Senate finally approved a five-month extension of unemployment
benefits.
It demonstrated their worries about the duration of the recession and
their concerns about popular anger as the government goes to war.

The measure was also put forward "in order to quiet critics and improve
the [budget] proposal's chances of congressional passage," noted
several
major news sources. (post-gazette.com)

The Democrats, with all eyes on the election horizon, claim to be
fighting the Republican proposal tooth and nail. They're standing up
for
the "little guy," these politicians say.

Their "bailout" package for this year is timid--it offers only chump
change to working people, like tax rebates of $300 per individual and
$600 per couple.

It includes $31 billion aid to states, but much of that is earmarked
for
"homeland security projects" that mean more police powers and more
surveillance. (cnn.com, Jan. 7)

A couple hundred bucks, or a couple of thousand, would be a welcome
temporary relief for many people scrambling to pay their bills. But in
the overall game of mega-monopoly, it won't last long.

There's been a $5 trillion drop in household net worth in the three
years since the economic slowdown began, according to Mickey D. Levy,
chief economist for Bank of America. (Washington Post, Jan. 3)

That comes to an average of about $75,000 per household. No wonder so
many credit cards are maxed out and people are struggling with second
mortgages.

ELEPHANTS, DONKEYS & AN 800-LB. GORILLA

The Republicans and Democrats are hurling demagogic accusations of
"class warfare" at each other about their economic proposals.

"There is no question," intoned Daniel Mitchell, an economist at the
right-wing, pro-Republican Heritage Foundation, "that the left will try
to drag out the pagan god of class warfare and say this is just a sop
to
the president's rich friends." (enquirer.com, Jan. 6)

That's how far to the right the pendulum of the establishment is
swinging--Mitchell is referring to the Democrats as "the left"! But the
Democrats aren't going to filibuster for workers' rights, militate for
a
general strike that could flex the muscle of organized labor, rally the
millions to surround Capitol Hill or call for mass encampments of the
jobless and homeless on the White House lawn.

The Democrats claim to be the party fighting on behalf of "just plain
folks." However, this society is divided into workers and bosses whose
class interests are diametrically opposed to each other. The Democratic
Party pretends it can resolve this irresolvable contradiction of
capitalism. But the Republicans are right--this is a class war. And you
can't be on the side of the workers and be beholden to big business at
the same time.

A relatively few ruling families hold in their hands ownership of the
entire collectively built apparatus of production, by which all social
wealth is created--from Microsoft to General Motors. The race for
profits drives production at the speed of an Indy 500, resulting in
periodic traffic jams of over-production. This abundance of
commodities--
this over-production--is the paradox at the root of the current
unemployment, homelessness and hunger.

There is a class war raging, but it is still pretty one-sided. With
more
layoffs and budget cuts, more attacks on Medicaid and Social Security
coming down the pike, the struggle will heat up. Both political parties
are conscious of the potential for massive resistance by the working
class and oppressed.

The problems of workers and the most downtrodden will be enormously
exacerbated by the war. However, the Democrats fell right into line on
the war vote for military aggression. They can't lead the fight for
better conditions at home when they are shackled by their support of
imperialist wars that are bleeding the treasury.

Bush can't rely on war spending to pull this economy out of its
recession. His father learned that the hard way when he failed to win a
second term after the first Pentagon onslaught on Iraq, the 1990-91
Gulf
War. That war created a wave of debt to the banks and helped pull the
economy down in its undertow.

Today the terrible tank of Pax Pentagona is running roughshod over any
obstacles to capitalist globalization. But its own internal
contradictions are becoming more apparent.

This intensifying crisis has within it the seeds of reanimating furious
class struggle.

Who is carrying the brunt of the economic crisis in this country today?
Oppressed communities, working and unemployed people, immigrants,
students, women, youth, elders, disabled and so many others vulnerable
to the downturn in income and social programs.

They have a right to call for emergency grassroots meetings in towns
and
cities, reservations and communities and campuses across this country
to
discuss measures that will really help the people through this crisis.

They have a right to demand that the government turn over all necessary
resources to hold these meetings--with no strings attached. Every
armory, auditorium and other mass meeting place should be made
available
to the people free of charge to deal with this emergency.

First and foremost on the agenda of such meetings: the $100-$200
billion
that the government intends to squander on the slaughter of the people
of Iraq.

- END -

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(Edited by CiaranB at 10:25 pm on Jan. 15, 2003)

[CubaVictoria1983]

It's incredible how people know that most of the tax money they take out of everyone's paycheck is going into killing people on a foreign land yet no one stands up for it. I'm really sick and tired that I get $100- $150 dollars taken out of my paycheck which I work really hard for, and I don't get any type of benefit from it. I don't get any medical help when I'm ill nor do I get a carton of milk or a block of "government" cheese when I'm hungry. It really makes me sick how society is letting the rich get richer and the real working class who struggles to pay rent or get food get even more down the gutter.....