Bush's Anti-New Deal Trifecta MinutemanMedia
by Donald Kaul
Seldom does a single event in Washington seem to summarize an entire era, but last month saw such an event. Congress passed the 2006 federal budget, which gave a huge tax cut to the rich, took away money from the program that funds health care for the poor and opened the way for oil drilling in the Alaskan wildlife refuge.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is an anti-New Deal trifecta: Soak the poor, enrich the rich and to hell with effete concepts like “wilderness” and “conservation.”
My favorite quote of the day was supplied by none other than House Majority Leader Tom (Greasy Thumb) DeLay, who said:
”This is the budget the American people voted for when they returned a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican [pseudo-]president to the White House.”
Yes they did (although they may not have known it at the time).
And, as if Congress hadn’t done enough mischief, [Bush] followed by suggesting that the Social Security deficit can be ameliorated by cutting benefits.
At times like these I think of H.L. Mencken, who said:
”Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
That’s where we’re at now folks, getting it good and hard.
I know what you’re thinking. If the Republicans are such a malign party, inhospitable to the majority of the American people, how do they get elected?
I have a theory, several as a matter of fact:
1. Some people are Republicans by birth or habit or conversion. They identify with the GOP and simply cannot bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, no matter what. (Comparable Democrats are called “Yellow Dog Democrats,” because they’d vote for a yellow dog if he appeared on the Democratic ticket. Republicans like that might be termed “Bush Republicans.”)
2. Some people are rich. They don’t need a safety net; they’re attached to a bungee cord. They think what’s good for them is good for the country and they have their Mercedes to prove it.
3. Some people consider the wall between church and state an impediment to a moral society and see the Republican Party as the means to tear it down. These often are the same people who read the Bible mainly in order to memorize its prejudices.
4. Some people are dumb as dirt. We have raised successive generations of Americans who are accustomed to getting their information from television, where there is none. Thus they are easy prey to cynical campaign tactics that unfairly demonize opponents and mask true intentions (like lowering your Social Security). Both parties play this game, but the Republicans are much, much better at it.
Add them all together and what do you get? A Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican [squatter] in the White House.
That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.
One more word about Social Security, however. Despite his honeyed words, [Bush] is not trying to save the program for future generations. His aim is to get rid of it and the Trojan horse he has chosen as a weapon is “private accounts.”
Whether one will accumulate more or less retirement money in private accounts is a matter for legitimate argument but this much is clear: once people accept the notion that they’re saving for their own retirement and no one else’s, the concept of Social Security as a shared responsibility for the aged is doomed.
Because the next argument will be: What right has the government to force me to invest for my own retirement? If I want to invest in a flat-screen television instead, I should be able to. It’s my money. That’s an argument that will appeal to many young wage earners.
It won’t happen this year or the next or the next decade, probably. But the Republicans have been hacking away at this for the past 40 years or so. They’re not going to stop any time soon.
Donald Kaul recently retired as Washington columnist for the “Des Moines Register.” He has covered the foolishness in our nation’s capital for 29 years, winning a number of modestly coveted awards along the way. You can find him weekly at MinuteManMedia.
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