Bush's Crony Capitalism

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http://www.hermes-press.com/bush_crony.htm

 

Bush's Crony Capitalism

 

Everything for Plutocrats

Nothing for Workers

 

By

Norman D. Livergood

 

 

The 2004 election will be a critical test of

American voters' savvy. Are we astute and aware enough

to see that Bush has done everything to devastate our

way of life?

 

* Took us from the biggest surplus ever to the

biggest deficit ever

 

* Lied to us to get us into a war for oil and

crony contracts (e.g., Halliburton)

 

* Put us into a deficit status which by the year

2012 will be a whopping $2.75 TRILLION!

 

* Reduced household income by a gigantic 1.7%

 

* Created a sagging economy which for the first

time in modern history has a decline in manufacturing

output

 

* Redefined our foreign policy as militaristic

imperialism, with more that 53% of our budget going to

Bush's crony defense industry contributors

 

* Destroyed over 2.8 million jobs

 

* Lied to us about tax cuts for the wealthiest 1%

creating new jobs

 

* Brought us into an incipient police state where

Miami gestapo agents attack peaceful demonstrators,

causing injuries and outrage

 

 

 

Favorable Indicators of Voter Sophistication

 

Fortunately, signs are already appearing that not

only are Democratic voters up in arms about Bush's

obliteration of our way of life, but even some

Republicans have had enough of Bush's cronyism and

insane spending.

 

Republican congressional leaders have already

said they will not move this year on Bush's proposal

to extend the tax cuts, because they are wary of the

impact of the cuts on ballooning deficits--and on

their re-election campaigns. Extending the tax cuts

for the wealthiest 1% of the population is the pillar

of Bush's budget plan for what he lies is a way of

" strengthening the economy. "

 

Bush is desperately trying to steer American

voters' attention away from his failed domestic and

foreign policies by advocating a Constitutional

amendment to protect the sanctity of marriage and

continuing the injudicial persecution of light-weight

Martha Stewart. Within days he will begin to use his

$140+ million campaign fund to air TV attack ads

against John Kerry, trying to distract voters from his

horrendous record.

 

Bush's crony capitalism is so deranged that the

normally staid Financial Times of Britain earlier

declared that " the lunatics are now in charge of the

asylum. " As Paul Krugman points out, " by pushing

through another huge tax cut in the face of record

deficits, the administration clearly demonstrates

either that it is completely feckless, or that it

actually wants a fiscal crisis. "

 

Diversionary Scams, Here They Come

 

Since the Bush junta has made it impossible for

the 9/11 Commission to do its work, we have no

definite proof that the Bushites were not complicit in

the twin towers/Pentagon atrocity. It's possible that

the Bush junta may become so desperate as Dubya's

rating continue to go south, that they'll resort to

fixing the 2004 election, perpetrating a 9/11 Part 2

outrage, creating a financial meltdown, or all three.

 

Speaking of diversionary scams, look for the

World's Most Wanted Criminal--Osama Been Forgotten--to

be suddenly " discovered and apprehended " by the Bush

junta just before the November election. And to try to

give Dubya a leg up in the election, Saddam Hussein

may suddenly begin revealing late-breaking TV

sound-bites.

 

The Financial Times suggests that " more extreme

Republicans " may actually want a fiscal train wreck:

they could then slash federal spending on social

programs and claim that it wasn't their fault.

 

Thus far, the Bush regime has been able to borrow

to make up the rising difference between taxes and

spending. As of June, 2003, China, Japan, South Korea

and Hong Kong owned a combined total of about $696

billion in Treasuries, about 46 per cent of the

outstanding bond debt. China alone now holds $290

billion in US government bonds, more than any other

foreign lender.

 

But at some point, China and Japan and the other

investors in America's bond market will balk. They'll

refuse to lend money to a government, even one with

the outstanding past economic record of the United

States, if Bush continues to increase our debt faster

than we're receiving tax revenues. To this point, the

Bush junta has no discernible plan to put its

financial house in order.

 

Corporation: " an ingenious device for obtaining

individual profit without individual responsibility "

 

Ambrose Bierce, " The Devil's Dictionary "

 

 

The Financial Times believes that the radical

right in the United States is in control of the White

House and is intent not only on " undermining the

multilateral international order, " but also on

bringing the country to its financial knees so they

can destroy Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

 

That theory certainly explains why the Bush

junta is pursuing its present financially suicidal

course.

 

As John Kerry has been proclaiming recently, the

people now running America aren't conservatives,

they're radicals who want to do away with our social

and economic system. The foreign and domestic crises

they're concocting could provide them the excuse they

want to take this country down in terms of finances

and civil liberties.

 

 

Capitalism's Intrinsic Defect

 

For many decades, the American capitalist

system--Bush's crony capitalism, the High Cabal's

vulture capitalism, and other forms--has been

suffering from protracted depression in profit levels

in the basic manufacturing industries.

 

Instead of trying to solve this intrinsic defect

in the capitalist system, the economic/political

elites have merely created an environment that

encourages every form of fraud. Many corporative

executives lack any faith in the long-term growth in

the real value of the companies for which they are

supposedly responsible. So they focus only on their

own short-term financial enrichment--through fraud.

Unable to create profits legitimately, they create

" profits " out of thin air by cooking the books.

 

So we have CEOs at Enron, WorldCom, Global

Crossing--and see late-breaking news for the most

recent corporate criminal--looting millions in pension

funds, all with the blessing of the Bush junta.

 

American corporate managers used to be persons

of genuine integrity who took pride in their work.

Under the criminal atmosphere that has increased daily

since Bush stole the presidency through criminal fraud

in Florida in 2000, business management has

degenerated into the arts of swindling, looting, and

deceiving.

 

 

Enough Is Too Much

 

But, as we saw above, the American people--of all

stripes--appear to have had enough of Bush's

deceptions, fraud, and decimation of Constitutional

rights. Even the right-wing National Association of

Manufacturers (NAM) recently issued a report warning

that 2.3 million US manufacturing jobs have

disappeared since 2000. The NAM points out that the

United States risks losing " critical mass " in

manufacturing.

 

A recent Defense Department technology-advisory

group report pointed out that so much " intellectual

capital and industrial capability " has been moved

offshore, particularly in microelectronics, that the

Pentagon is dangerously dependent on foreign

manufacturers to supply its high-tech weaponry.

 

This February 27, 2004 report seems to point to a

very interesting mutiny within the Republican ranks:

 

Behind Enemy Lines

 

" I spent last night at a fundraiser for a

Republican legislator. It was very interesting to hear

most of the attendees bitching about Bush. Most of the

griping centered around his mishandling of the economy

and fiscal matters, with a not-insignificant portion

devoted to sniping at the marriage amendment.

 

" But what was really surprising was the table talk

at the private dinner after the fundraiser. With two

exceptions, everyone at the table declared they would

vote for anybody but Bush. One of the exceptions was

an absolute die-hard Bush supporter, who declared he

would vote for Bush no matter what. The other

exception was the legislator, who said he wasn’t sure

he could vote for Bush.

 

" Turns out he and many of his fellow Republicans

are plenty angry at the president, and deeply troubled

at the direction the country is going in.

 

" Although I can’t divulge any of the details about

where this took place, I can tell you that all of the

politicians and power-brokers involved are in a

must-win state for Bush. If the people who should

constitute his base are upset enough that they are

considering voting against their own man, what does

this tell us about Bush’s electoral chances? "

 

The Republicans against Bush trend was first seen

in the New Hampshire Republican Party primary. Many

Republicans decided to skip the formalities and simply

vote against the president in the Republican primary.

Thousands of these Bush-bashing Republicans went so

far as to write in the names of Democratic

presidential contenders!

 

Under New Hampshire law, only Democrats and

independents were permitted to participate in the

Democratic presidential primary. That meant that

Republicans who wanted to register their opposition to

Bush had to do so in their own party's primary. One in

seven of them did just that, and the president

received just 85 percent of the 62,927 ballots cast.

 

Those abandoning the sinking Bush ship include

Republican policymakers, who in February, 2004 wrote a

joint letter opposing President Bush’s immigration

proposal. The Republican legislators warned Bush of

negative repercussions this election-year from

Republican voters.

 

The Congresspersons expressed disdain with the

intentions of Bush’s proposal, indicating that they've

received a flood of angry letters, e-mails and phone

calls from Republican constituents threatening not to

support the president’s campaign for reelection.

Twenty-three Republican Congresspersons signed the

letter, stating that they are taking this action in

response to the concerns of constituents. The letter

made it clear that if they don’t respond to these

concerns, they could jeopardize their own influence

and effectiveness in Congress.

 

This immigration issue could prove to be the

entering wedge of political failure for the Republican

party in 2004.

 

Even the Big Money people are beginning to have

second thoughts about Bush and the Republican Party as

investments tank.

 

 

Republicans voted against criminal penalties for

CEOs, tougher corporate regulations, executive

accountability, greater auditing safeguards, and

stronger protections for employee pensions. The chart

to the left shows why Wall Street is not pleased with

Bush and the Republican Party.

 

Republicans have long considered Bush's personal

likability as a kind of " firewall " against any

Democratic challenger. But a February, 2004 CNN/USA

Today poll showed that those surveyed were

significantly more likely to trust Kerry over Bush in

running the economy and also gave Kerry a slight

advantage in making decisions about war and peace.

They were more likely to rate Kerry in the political

mainstream than Bush and gave the advantage to Kerry

on several personal traits, including being in touch

with the problems of ordinary people, sharing people's

values and having a likable personality. The poll

revealed that an election now would result in Kerry

defeating Bush by 53% to 46%.

 

Self-preservation of this bipartisan kind seems

to be kicking in throughout the United States, as

workers wake up to what Bush has done in taking their

jobs, destroying their medical coverage, and turning

America into a banana republic.

 

We must do everything we can to see that Bush is

not re-elected in 2004, which means:

 

* Making sure that Bush doesn't fix the 2004

election