The same old thing
Today’s issue of The Progress Report included an excellent analysis of how Bush and his pals want to use Hurricane Katrina as yet another excuse for pushing the same old economic policies.
How does a nation with record deficits responsibly finance “one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen”? Already, President Bush and congressional conservatives have tried to set the foundation of the debate, claiming 1) tax rollbacks are out of the question; 2) more tax cuts are needed; 3) there is “no fat left to cut in the federal budget”; and 4) spending cuts thus must come from domestic programs that help middle- and working-class Americans. In other words, it’s the same ideological agenda as always: “aggressively slash taxes on the wealthy; run up huge budget deficits; then push for massive cuts in critical domestic spending under the guise of fiscal responsibility.” Or as Newsweek’s Fareed Zakaria termed it this weekend, “business as usual in the face of a national catastrophe.”
No matter how many lives are destroyed, no matter how many people suffer, Bush and his cronies are determined to fulfill their dream of transferring more wealth to the wealthy, and to hell with everyone else.
