April 09, 2008

IMPEACH BUSH

IMPEACH CHENEY

GOVERNMENT CAN WORK

The right-wing mantra is that "big government" doesn't work. It's too bureaucratic and inefficient. It's a burden on business with all that cumbersome regulation. The private sector, they say, can work much more efficiently. When they get power right-wingers enact a self-fulfilling prophecy. They "prove" that government doesn't work. But government does work with the right people in charge. We're at a stage in our history again when we see the ruins left by conservative government, and we need a progressive government to address so many of our needs. This article by Paul Waldman looks at the claims of the right-wing pundits that the country is really "center-right." The article is at www.prospect.org:

Given the combination of dishonesty, corruption and incompetence that has marked the current administration, it's hard to blame the American people for their distrust. Republicans argue that government can't do anything right, then set about to prove it once they grab government's reins. Each successive Republican administration only provides more evidence for their contention that government is a bumbling beast incapable of solving problems. Few notice that they never deliver on their promises to reduce its size and scope; as a portion of GDP, the postwar federal government was at its biggest during the years of that famed enemy of big government, Ronald Reagan.

And what we hear from the soon-to-be Republican nominee sounds little different from the standard GOP litany: cut spending, cut taxes on the wealthy, have faith in the magic of the market. In other words, you're on your own. As Jacob Hacker put it in a 2005 New Republic article (not currently available on the web), "Call it the vicious cycle of insecurity -- if Americans feel no one can help them, they will back leaders who won't. In the '30s, Democrats saw economic security as the keystone of a broad coalition in support of their party. Today, Republicans appear to see insecurity in the same way." This has certainly been the strategy behind their doomsday predictions on Social Security: convince the public that the system is going bankrupt, and people will be much more open to dismantling it, because what does it matter?

WHY IS THE WEALTH-INCOME GAP A GOOD THING?

A new study shows the growing wealth income gap between the very rich and the rest of us. Some free-market advocates say that the poor and the middle class are living better than ever before because of the "basket of consumer goods" we supposedly have. It's the same asinine argument we've heard before. The claim is that there is no poor person in the United States because people have televisions and VCR's. The reality is that there is considerable hunger in the United States. There is considerable insecurity. You can do your job very well and suddenly find your job gone, or you suddenly don't get wages to keep pace with the cost of living. This article by Sam Zuckerman is at www.sfgate.com:

"We are not seeing shared prosperity," said Jean Ross, director of the California Budget Project, a liberal research group in Sacramento that is helping distribute the report. "There's a pulling away at the top that's leaving the bottom 80 percent of families behind."

The groups responsible for today's study issued a similar report two years ago. And government data show income inequality has been rising for more than 25 years.

The trend reflects a range of factors, according to the report's authors, including stagnant wages at the bottom of the income scale, robust pay increases at the top, and a hollowing out of jobs in the middle as manufacturing employment drops. In addition, investment income has grown faster than wages, benefiting those with large stock and bond portfolios. Government tax, trade and labor policies also contribute, the report contends.