Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The Obama Spending Freeze — Opening Salvo for Deeper Attacks on Social Programs

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, March 14, 2010

The Obama Spending Freeze — Opening Salvo for Deeper Attacks on Social Programs

from Socialist Alternative.

In the last 10 years the U.S. ruling class busted the budget engaging in wars of aggression in the Middle East and South Asia. They busted the budget giving tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. The Bush Administration was given war authorization with overwhelming support from both Democrats and Republicans while the Bush tax cuts passed with enough Democrats voting for them to avoid a filibuster. Directly or indirectly, the two parties of Wall Street and big business ensured that the taxes paid by working people went to finance the gluttony of rich bankers, military contractors and big business in general.

So now, having sent the public debt even higher into the stratosphere by bailing out Wall Street after the crash of ’08, they want to make it possible to meet these new obligations by gutting spending on programs for poor and working people. A big part of these cuts will be the continuation of massive layoffs of public sector workers.