Bush's Anti-New Deal Trifecta 

by Donald Kaul


Seldom does a single event
in Washington seem to summarize an entire era, but last month saw such
an event. Congress passed the 2006 federal budget, which gave a huge
tax cut to the rich, took away money from the program that funds health
care for the poor and opened the way for oil drilling in the Alaskan
wildlife refuge.



That,
ladies and gentlemen, is an anti-New Deal trifecta: Soak the poor,
enrich the rich and to hell with effete concepts like “wilderness” and
“conservation.”



My favorite quote of the day was supplied by none other than House Majority Leader Tom (Greasy Thumb) DeLay, who said:


”This
is the budget the American people voted for when they returned a
Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican [pseudo-]president to the
White House.”


Yes they did (although they may not have known it at the time).



And, as
if Congress hadn’t done enough mischief, [Bush] followed by
suggesting that the Social Security deficit can be ameliorated by
cutting benefits.



 At times like these I think of H.L. Mencken, who said:

”Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

That’s where we’re at now folks, getting it good and hard.


I
know what you’re thinking. If the Republicans are such a malign party,
inhospitable to the majority of the American people, how do they get
elected?



I have a theory, several as a matter of fact:


1.
Some people are Republicans by birth or habit or conversion. They
identify with the GOP and simply cannot bring themselves to vote for a
Democrat, no matter what. (Comparable Democrats are called “Yellow Dog
Democrats,” because they’d vote for a yellow dog if he appeared on the
Democratic ticket. Republicans like that might be termed “Bush
Republicans.”)



2. Some
people are rich. They don’t need a safety net; they’re attached to a
bungee cord. They think what’s good for them is good for the country
and they have their Mercedes to prove it.



3. Some
people consider the wall between church and state an impediment to a
moral society and see the Republican Party as the means to tear it
down. These often are the same people who read the Bible mainly in
order to memorize its prejudices.



4. Some
people are dumb as dirt. We have raised successive generations of
Americans who are accustomed to getting their information from
television, where there is none. Thus they are easy prey to cynical
campaign tactics that unfairly demonize opponents and mask true
intentions (like lowering your Social Security). Both parties play this
game, but the Republicans are much, much better at it.



Add them
all together and what do you get? A Republican House, a Republican
Senate and a Republican [squatter] in the White House.



That’s my theory and I’m sticking to it.



One more
word about Social Security, however. Despite his honeyed words, [Bush]
is not trying to save the program for future generations. His
aim is to get rid of it and the Trojan horse he has chosen as a weapon
is “private accounts.”


Whether
one will accumulate more or less retirement money in private accounts
is a matter for legitimate argument but this much is clear: once people
accept the notion that they’re saving for their own retirement and no
one else’s, the concept of Social Security as a shared responsibility
for the aged is doomed.



Because
the next argument will be: What right has the government to force me to
invest for my own retirement? If I want to invest in a flat-screen
television instead, I should be able to. It’s my money. That’s an
argument that will appeal to many young wage earners.



It won’t
happen this year or the next or the next decade, probably. But the
Republicans have been hacking away at this for the past 40 years or so.
They’re not going to stop any time soon.



Donald
Kaul recently retired as Washington columnist for the “Des Moines
Register.” He has covered the foolishness in our nation’s capital for
29 years, winning a number of modestly coveted awards along the
way.  You can find him weekly at MinuteManMedia.