Tea party took America hostage on debt ceiling

From the Communist Party:

After being subjected to a long, ugly hostage-taking drama in the nation's capital, millions of Americans woke up this morning relieved to hear that the United States of America may actually avert a politically-manufactured default disaster with a new  White House/Congress debt ceiling deal. 

But the relief may be short-lived for many Americans. The deal's slashing of vital government programs are a dagger in the back of an economy already slipping back toward recession, and will mean mass unemployment continued, homes foreclosed, schools and clinics closed, potholes unfilled.

Any sigh of relief will be tempered with disgust and anger at these cuts, at what is seen as the dysfunction of our government, and the failure to address adequately the main problem affecting the  U.S. economy: lack of jobs. Disgust towards government is exactly what the tea party wants.

Instead of focusing on job creation like they pledged in the run-up to the 2010 elections, the tea party/Republicans, backed by the corporate media and far-right corporate supporters, have conducted an all-out attack on working people and government "of, by and for the people." They have insisted on job-killing cuts in education, research, transportation, public safety and every program that supports our  nation's infrastructure or helps working people

The Republicans have instead accelerated the transfer of wealth from the working class and people to the billionaires, banks and CEOs. How? By attacking government spending including on Pell grants, Medicare and Medicaid — and even the most popular and deficit-free program in America: Social Security. 

The  debt ceiling crisis is the latest in a series of  hostage crisis, as tea party Republicans threaten economic sabotage by refusing to allow necessary government functions that are  essential to people's welfare and the entire economy

They do not really care about the deficit or the vast majority of people in our country. They will not be satisfied until all restraint has been lifted on  corporate greed, and government has been reduced to a protector of the rich and an instrument for them to loot what public wealth remains. 

(These are similar to  Big Capital's global policies of "austerity" unfolding now in Greece and Europe.) 

The deal struck by the White House and Congress still has to be voted on, and anything could happen, including its defeat in the House. But whatever the outcome, this crisis has shown the Republicans are willing to  sabotage the entire economy in their effort to discredit the Obama presidency, retake the White House in 2012, and impose their extreme, anti-working-class agenda. 

Part of the hostage-taking by Republicans was their absolute refusal to agree to increasing revenues — i.e., cutting  tax loopholes for billionaires, oil corporations and corporate jet owners

One may be legitimately angry, as we are, at ground ceded by the president and Democrats, but to equate them with the Republicans, or, worse still, to ignore the role of the Republicans and focus only on the Democrats distorts the real political dynamics of the current situation, and is not a truthful reflection of politics today. It demobilizes and divides the broadest possible coalition necessary to fight the cuts.

This deal may tissue paper over the political crisis, but deep spending cuts will impact millions of households, renew budget crises faced by every state and local government, and threaten a new downward economic spiral. 

It was of vital importance that the American people, in the eleventh hour,  spoke out strongly -- at the urging of the president as well as of many unions and progressive organizations -- calling their members of Congress. Many organizations urged their constituents to tell Congress hands off Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, end wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, tax the rich and invest in job creation to reduce deficits. 

This eleventh hour rally seemed to have taken some of the worst anti-people measures off the table. Plus, the bloated military budget is on the table for cuts.

In the meantime, just as the American people began to understand and act in this crisis, it must continue to shift the debate back to where it must be: focused on jobs. To fund investments in jobs — including public infrastructure, education, green energy — and guaranteeing that working-class Americans, seniors, the disabled, children and the most vulnerable are able to live a decent life, a key ingredient is increasing government revenues — by  taxing the billionaires

The Peoples Budget, proposed by the  Congressional Progressive Caucus, tackles America's real economic problems. It taxes the rich, ends the war, eliminates the deficit and, most important, creates jobs by rebuilding America. 

That's what this debate has to pivot towards in order to defeat the hostage-takers in 2012.

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  • This is a solid interpretation, one that deals honestly with the destructive nature of this "settlement" while at the same time standing with the Peoples Budget as an alternative. My only criticism is to the use of the term "tea party" for these ultrarightists. They have as much to do with the revolutionaries who dumped tea in Boston Harbor as Al Queda and the Taliban have to do with freedom fighters. They are the descendants of Know Nothings, "states rights" slaveholders, McCarthyites, John Birchers, and all of those who have tried to wrap themselves in the American flag while they advanced policies that threatened the livelihoods, standards of living, and quality of life of the overwhelming majority of Americans
    Norman Markowitz

    Posted by norman markowitz, 08/03/2011 8:10pm (13 years ago)

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