Beautiful Corps
Bill Moyers critiques government by the (rich) people for the (rich) people:
The middle class and working poor are told that what's happening to them is the consequence of Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand." This is a lie. What's happening to them is the direct consequence of corporate activism, intellectual propaganda, the rise of a religious orthodoxy that in its hunger for government subsidies has made an idol of power, and a string of political decisions favoring the powerful and the privileged who bought the political system right out from under us.To create the intellectual framework for this takeover of public policy they funded conservative think tanks -- The Heritage Foundation, the Hoover Institution, and the American Enterprise Institute -- that churned out study after study advocating their agenda.
To put political muscle behind these ideas they created a formidable political machine. One of the few journalists to cover the issues of class -- Thomas Edsall of The Washington Post -- wrote: "During the 1970s, business refined its ability to act as a class, submerging competitive instincts in favor of joint, cooperate action in the legislative area." Big business political action committees flooded the political arena with a deluge of dollars. And they built alliances with the religious right -- Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority and Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition -- who mounted a cultural war providing a smokescreen for the class war, hiding the economic plunder of the very people who were enlisted as foot soldiers in the cause of privilege.
In a book to be published this summer, Daniel Altman describes what he calls the "neo-economy -- a place without taxes, without a social safety net, where rich and poor live in different financial worlds -- and [said Altman] it's coming to America." He's a little late. It's here. Says Warren Buffett, the savviest investor of them all: "My class won."
Look at the spoils of victory:
Over the past three years, they've pushed through $2 trillion dollars in tax cuts -- almost all tilted towards the wealthiest people in the country.
Cuts in taxes on the largest incomes.
Cuts in taxes on investment income.
And cuts in taxes on huge inheritances.
More than half of the benefits are going to the wealthiest one percent. You could call it trickle-down economics, except that the only thing that trickled down was a sea of red ink in our state and local governments, forcing them to cut services for and raise taxes on middle class working America.
Now the Congressional Budget Office forecasts deficits totaling $2.75 trillion over the next ten years.
These deficits have been part of their strategy. Some of you will remember that Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan tried to warn us 20 years ago, when he predicted that President Ronald Reagan's real strategy was to force the government to cut domestic social programs by fostering federal deficits of historic dimensions. Reagan's own budget director, David Stockman, admitted as such. Now the leading rightwing political strategist, Grover Norquist, says the goal is to "starve the beast" -- with trillions of dollars in deficits resulting from trillions of dollars in tax cuts, until the United States Government is so anemic and anorexic it can be drowned in the bathtub.
There's no question about it: The corporate conservatives and their allies in the political and religious right are achieving a vast transformation of American life that only they understand because they are its advocates, its architects, and its beneficiaries. In creating the greatest economic inequality in the advanced world, they have saddled our nation, our states, and our cities and counties with structural deficits that will last until our children's children are ready for retirement, and they are systematically stripping government of all its functions except rewarding the rich and waging war.
And they are proud of what they have done to our economy and our society. If instead of practicing journalism I was writing for Saturday Night Live, I couldn't have made up the things that this crew have been saying. The president's chief economic adviser says shipping technical and professional jobs overseas is good for the economy. The president's Council of Economic Advisers report that hamburger chefs in fast food restaurants can be considered manufacturing workers. The president's Federal Reserve Chairman says that the tax cuts may force cutbacks in social security - but hey, we should make the tax cuts permanent anyway. The president's Labor Secretary says it doesn't matter if job growth has stalled because "the stock market is the ultimate arbiter."
You just can't make this stuff up. You have to hear it to believe it. This may be the first class war in history where the victims will die laughing.
I stopped here: "One of the few journalists to cover the issues of class -- Thomas Edsall of The Washington Post--...."
From what planet does Mr. Moyers hail? Apparently the atmosphere on our world is much like that of his own. Yet the differences are confounding. To him. It would appear.
Crid at June 20, 2004 12:28 PM
Whatta crock placing the decadency of the rich solely on the back of corporations, Repubs, and any and all relig right. How about the richest pac group of all time, the goddam trial lawyer cabal? How many of those fuckers are repubs or religious zealots? They're dems. Rich dems!! And how many of them are complaining about tax cuts. Betcha Michael kiss my ass Moore has the best tax accountant he can buy. Just like Ann Coulter. See any rich and powerful Hollywood film and music assholes marching against tax cuts? How many repubs and relig rights in that gaggle? And if the film and music industry isn't one of the biggest corporate powerhouses in our country, then...aw, forget about it. Doesn't make a difference anyway. Got your political shills and panderers on both sides of the aisle, and they'll be yelling at each other from here on out just as they have been doing forever in democratic run countries.
Grab whatever money and security you can to protect yourself and your loved ones because there's some big changes coming in who will be in charge of the world in our lifetime. We may hang in there, maybe not. But it's not only the poor that are in jeopardy, it's all those suckers who owe way more than what they make on bubble inflated mortgages, credit cards and multi-car payments. A whole bunch of those "rich" guys only look rich. The US has taken borrowing to the most ludicrous and precipitous cliff in modern times. I'm seeing Thelma and Louise at the wheel...
allan at June 21, 2004 8:54 PM
Considering how finacial history has played out in the the last twenty years, can anyone have any doubt that David Stockman is proud of having played a roll in the Reagan Revolution?
Care to ask him?
Crid at June 21, 2004 9:26 PM