The initiatives coming from the White House since the re-election show that the Administration’s attack on the poor is heating up, not cooling down
Previously I’ve talked about how the war on Iraq was in some ways an attack on the poor of this country who disproportionally make up the bulk of our nation’s military which simultaneously benefitting companies like Haliburton. Now with the new Social Security plan and the White House’s proposed 2006 budget cuts, it looks like the administration is waging war on our country’s poorest citizens.
First off, the social security plan. To get this plan in motion, the administration will need to borrow $1,000,000,000 (that is one trillion dollars) so that they can pay for the existing retirees. That is a debt that the rest of us will be paying off forever and will seriously cripple this country financially for decades if not forever. Simultaneously, a huge amount of money that is currently going into government bonds through Social Security will disappear completely as it gets moved into “private” accounts. These “private” accounts are actually controlled by the government so that is just a right-wing spin tactic. Now, the administration cites several other countries who have made this switch, but pretty much none of them has worked and people in those countries get significantly less money than if they had stayed with the old system. So now, we will have to borrow a huge amount of money while simultaneously devaluing government bonds and in the end we’ll be worse off than if we just left the system the way it is. The only one who will come out ahead in this scenario is the stockbrokers who will manage our accounts and the public companies who will get the investments. We’ll be screwed.
Now, the budget cuts. In order to pay for his tax cut for the wealthy and the war in Iraq while being able to claim some sort of fiscal responsibility, George Bush has proposed sweeping cuts in the 2006 budget. These cuts are across the board but will disproportionally affect the poor, the working poor, and veterans. The Washington Post has an excellent article with the details. What is also scary is that the Homeland Security Administration will also be cut. So now the poor will have less opportunity to advance, the rich will save money and we’ll all be less safer.
How the hell can anyone call this man a compassionate conservative? This is the least compassionate administration in the history of this country.