THE REAL REAGAN LEGACY

[Guest guest]

A

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 09:07:48 -0500

THE REAL REAGAN LEGACY

 

 

 

 

TRUTHOUT.ORG

 

NEWS YOU WON'T FIND ON CNN

 

 

 

What Reagan Started, Bush Is Finishing

 

By David Martin

 

10/26/05 " ICH " -- -- In recent weeks, every morning's newspaper seems

to carry another headline documenting the accelerating tailspin of

George Bush's administration into disastrous fiasco. Political pundits

may attribute the ongoing self-immolation of George Bush to the

general ineptitude of the Mayberry Machiavellis with whom he has

surrounded himself.

 

But there is another, more historically correct explanation for the

current presidential unraveling: the disaster that is George Bush is

the inevitable culmination of the " revolution " wrought by Ronald Reagan.

 

The Great Charlatan swept into office proclaiming that government was

the problem. If only it got out of the way, the energy, creativity,

and entrepreneurial spirit of the private sector would be unleashed

and a golden economic age would dawn. A rising tide of affluence would

lift all boats, and we would all sail off into a rosy sunset.

 

Now after eight years of the Gipper, four years of Bush I, eight years

of Republican Lite under Clinton, and five years of Shrub, we see the

truth of the Reagan Revolution. The gradual withering away of the

welfare and regulatory state has not unleashed the American

entrepreneurial spirit. Rather, it has set loose the predatory greed

of the 19th century robber barons, the class cannibalism of Social

Darwinism, and the winner-take-all rapacity of laissez faire capitalism.

 

The bright and shining " morning in America " that Reagan touted has

turned into a cold, gray dusk as the sun rapidly sets on the American

dream. In the 25 years since Reagan was sworn into office, the middle

class is shrinking and the gap between wealthy and poor is reaching

Grand Canyon proportions. During this period the average after-tax

income of the lowest fifth of Americans has increased by 5%, the

middle fifth by 15%, and the top fifth by 48%. The income of the top

1% of Americans, in contrast, has more than doubled, growing from

$298,900 to $631,700, an increase of 111%.1

 

The trickle down promised by supply-side economists has diminished to

a slow drip. The tax policies of George Bush have only exacerbated

this problem. The combined effect of his tax cuts has been to reduce

federal tax revenue to its lowest level as a share of the economy

since 1950. The inevitable result is the return of Reaganesque tax

deficits that Bill Clinton worked so hard to erase. George Bush is

mortgaging our future, and the Chinese hold the note.

 

Reagan came into office promising to shrink government to keep it from

stifling private initiative. He and his successors may not have been

too successful in shrinking the size of the government, but they have

certainly magnified its ineptitude. The government that once put a man

on the moon now cannot deliver ice to the Gulf Coast.

 

The American military that conducted a multi-front war to defeat the

formidable powers of Germany and Japan cannot subdue shadowy car

bombers in Iraq or the remnants of the Taliban in Afghanistan. A

military logistical system that was able to supply its armies across

two oceans somehow can't coordinate the delivery of armored Humvees to

troops stationed in Iraq or supply them with up to date bullet proof

vests.

 

Privatization was another of Reagan's sacred tenets. The theory was

that privatizing services once provided by government would result in

greater efficiencies at lower costs. The Iraq occupation was to be a

textbook case for the miracle of privatization. First the American

forces destroyed the Iraqi infrastructure (except for the oil

industry), then the job of rebuilding was turned over to large,

private, well-connected construction firms.

 

Two years after the American invasion the Iraqis have only

intermittent electrical service and inadequate water supplies. But the

construction firms did prove efficient in at least one area: ripping

off the American taxpayer. Billions of dollars have disappeared into

the black hole of Iraq reconstruction, and contract administrators can

only shrug and mumble about difficult circumstances.

 

The Bush administration may have fumbled relief efforts in the

immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. But it was well prepared to

apply the lessons of Iraq reconstruction to the rebuilding of the Gulf

Coast. The Katrina clean up could have been one huge WPA project to

help alleviate the widespread poverty so cruelly exposed by the

monster storm. Instead George Bush rescinded wage and environmental

regulations and turned the Gulf Coast into a free fire zone for crony

capitalism.

 

The same well-connected, underperforming firms from Iraq were given

the same no-bid, no oversight contracts in Louisiana and Mississippi.

As a result, illegal immigrants are being paid at below minimum wage

rates to do the work that should be done by displaced residents at

Davis-Bacon wage rates. One can anticipate the importation of workers

from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan as New Orleans displacees are

shuttled from one government trailer park to another.

 

Politicians and their supporters love to wax romantic about the legacy

they leave behind. Here's the Reagan/Bush legacy: failed wars, support

of terrorists, environmental degradation, the income distribution of a

banana republic, a credit rating a third world country would be

ashamed of, falling health standards, the disappearance of guaranteed

retirement pensions, and corporate malfeasance on an unprecedented scale.

 

George Bush loves to end his speeches with a request for God to bless

the United States of America. What he really needs to ask is for God

to save us.

 

David Martin - <damrtn48

 

Notes

 

1 Figures taken from Congressional Budget Office report, Historical

Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979 to 2002, March 2005.

 

2 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Tax Returns, A Comprehensive

Assessment of the Bush Administration's Record on Cutting Taxes, April

23, 2004.

 

 

 

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is

distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior

interest in receiving the included information for research and

educational purposes. Information Clearing House has no affiliation

whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Information

Clearing House endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)