Friday, January 18, 2008

Bush "Stimulus" Plan: DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

President Bush claims to want to save us from a recession. He wants more tax cuts that might on average put a few hundred dollars into the pockets of individual Americans - which will do exactly what? Pay off 1% of their credit card debt? Encourage them to buy another HDTV?

I say that Bush really wants us to continue digging ourselves into a deeper and deeper hole with one key result:

The weakening and eventual collapse of the US Government as we know it.

Bush comes out of the neocon wing of the Republicans who have been pushing and following Reagan's longterm plan:

Defund the government so that it cannot provide services to its citizens so the citizens get more and more disgusted with the government so the middle class supports endless tax cuts (which almost always overwhelmingly favor the richest), meaning the government can do even less. Which gets people even more pissed up, so they support the next round of tax cuts.

Pile a war, no two wars, on top of that, causing a massive transfer of our tax dollars from health, human services, education, etc. into the pockets of executives and shareholders of Halliburton, Northrup, Boeing, etc.

And then push for increased privatization of government services -- since obviously the government is screwed up and can't do anything right....and eventually there will be no more government. Just a bunch of corporations extracting every last possible dollar out of the citizens of the greatest democracy on Earth.

Until there is nothing left -- and the Chinese middle class has grown large enough to provide the necessary consumption levels. And then US corporations (already thoroughly globalized) will simply write off US consumers as a bunch of losers. At which point the US government, run by lobbyists and their paid-for pals, will stop bailing out the economy and then recession will be a mild word for what we experience.

We don't need tax cuts. We need a government that uses our current tax dollars wisely. We need a government that cracks down on speculators and greedy millionaires and billionaires who pillage through the wallets of poor and middle class Americans - and then when their ludicrous pyramid schemes come crashing down go to the government (us) for a handout. We need a government that will stimulate investment and growth without stripping its own ability to deliver on services and regulatory enforcement.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Steven, I think what we need is a revolution. Seems to meet that the current regime has filled the courts and changed the laws so much already that to un bury us would take the act of wiping the slate clean and starting back on the unmodified constitution. Our future here in the US is not looking good and I hope the next president turns this boat around before we all sink.