A 'Redistribution of Wealth' and Regime Change Mania

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Wed, 24 Nov 2004 17:22:27 -0500

A 'Redistribution of Wealth' and Regime Change Mania

 

http://www.fcnp.com/438/whitehouse.htm

Nicholas F. Benton's White House Report:

A 'Redistribution of Wealth' and Regime Change Mania

 

 

By Nicholas F. Benton

 

Is everyone paying attention to the impact of the Bush

Administration's second term taxing and budget priorities on small

businesses and their employees, as well as the poor and the middle

class, in general, and the environment?

 

Proposed policy shifts impacting small business are just more evidence

of the amazing redistribution of wealth that this administration will

continue to orchestrate for another four years. A friend, a CPA,

suggested the term, " redistribution of wealth, " may be a better

characterization of Bush's agenda than " tax cuts for the rich, "

because it suggests far more than just tax cuts.

 

Among other things, it involves " socking it to " the little guy by

measures such as " eliminating tax exemptions. " That way, Bush gets

away with heaping a greater burden onto, for example, small

businessmen while not getting accused of raising their taxes.

 

Two measures reported just this week are evidence of this: The first

is the austerity budget passed by Congress that includes the

elimination of subsidies to the Small Business Administration's loan

program. The second is Bush's intention to overhaul the tax code over

the next couple of years by, for example, eliminating the business tax

deduction for employer-provided health insurance. Bush is supposed to

name a bipartisan committee to mull " fundamental tax reform " such as

the measure just mentioned. Nothing is yet decided, but the proposal

has been floated.

 

Another way of " socking it to " the middle class without making it look

like a tax increase would be to eliminate the deduction of state and

local taxes from federal income tax returns. While that would hit

everyone across the board, eliminating the deduction for

employer-provided health insurance would be particularly cruel, and

would result in countless more Americans being without health

insurance. Businesses are already finding too many ways to avoid

providing any benefits for employees, and this one would represent a

major incentive to deny health coverage.

 

In fact, one can imagine that the mere mention of this proposal will

begin to deter small businesses that do not already offer the benefit

from considering offering health insurance to employees.

 

But now that Bush intends to spend his " considerable political

capital " during his second term, it's not just your savings, your

house and your cow that he's after, but try your first-born, as well.

The administration's thirst for military adventure is moving with a

noxious certainty toward a universal draft to prosecute an array of

wars that could easily flare into a really big one.

 

While the Falluja offensive in Iraq only further reminds us of the

kind of guerilla, insurgent war U.S. forces are now trapped in, and

while Sen. John McCain told NBC television Sunday that at lease 50,000

more troops need to be sent over immediately " to prevent the

insurgents from filtering back in, " press reports indicate the Bush

administration is mulling military strikes aimed at forcing " regime

change " in both Iran and North Korea. Such moves would have severe

repercussions for U.S. relations with China, among other countries.

 

The London Observer reported that Pentagon officials " are said to be

discussing possible military action to neutralize Iran's nuclear

weapons threat. " Rather than targeting nuclear facilities with air

strikes, however, the Pentagon is contemplating air strikes directed

toward regime change, " including attacks on the leadership, as well as

on political and security targets. "

 

The lack of clear intelligence about where key components of the

Iranian nuclear program are located has led to a " new modeling " at the

Pentagon, according to the report, and the shift from targeting

nuclear sites to political target lists " is said to be causing deep

anxiety among officials in Britain, France and Germany who last week

appeared to have negotiated a deal with Teheran to cease work that

could contribute to a nuclear weapons program. Washington is said to

be skeptical about the deal. "

 

Meanwhile, in the view of the Asian Times, a rare fax from William

Kristol, chair of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) to

opinion makers around Washington, D.C., last week, entitled, " Toward

Regime Change in North Korea, " signaled that a push is now underway by

Bush administration hawks to that end. Vice President Dick Cheney and

Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld are on the PNAC board.

 

Such a move would threaten to alienate, at best, China and South

Korea, according to the report. Both are staunchly opposed to a harder

U.S. line toward Pyongyang and its nuclear program, warning of " grave

repercussions. "

 

Nicholas Benton may be emailed at nfbenton