It's No Accident: Carnival of the Oppressor

------ Forwarded Message
From: John Lacny <jplst15+@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2002 16:43:10 -0500
To: "It's No Accident" <lacny@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [It's No Accident] Carnival of the Oppressor

It's No Accident, March 23, 2002

Carnival of the Oppressor
by John Lacny

Forget all the hoopla about the "war on terrorism"; there is only one war
for which the Supreme Court chose Bush the Younger as president: a one-sided
class war against the majority of this country's people. His proposed budget
reflects this.

Bush proposes a $46 billion increase in military spending for fiscal year
2003, which brings total military spending to $396.8 billion, little of
which has anything to do with "defense." Most prominently, to say that the
$15.6 billion devoted to nuclear weapons will improve the security of
literally anyone on the planet is nothing short of insane. The same goes for
the $7.8 billion devoted to so-called "national missile defense" and any
number of military projects which serve the interests of no one but
politically-connected contractors.

The increase in military spending alone is more than the federal government
spends on elementary, secondary, and vocational education combined. You may
be wondering who is going to pay for all of this, but Bush answered that
question last year with his massive tax cut for the highest income brackets:
the poorer you are, the more of the burden you'll be expected to share.

Using numbers from the Congressional Budget Office, the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities calculates that the top one percent of tax-filers receive
about one-third of the benefits of Bush's tax-cut package, or roughly twice
as much as the bottom 60 percent. In other words, the 1.3 million richest
tax-filers receive twice as much in tax cuts as the poorest 78 million
tax-filers combined.

Technically the tax cuts are supposed to expire in 2010, but Bush proposes
to make them permanent, including outright gifts to the wealthy like the
repeal of the estate tax.

What would this mean over the long haul? Well, do you remember how they're
predicting a shortfall in the Social Security Trust Fund over the next 75
years because of an ageing population? If made permanent, the cost of the
tax cut will be twice the size of that predicted shortfall. Tell that to the
next person who tries to sell you on Social Security privatization.

Meanwhile, as the National Priorities Project documents, the Bush regime is
putting on a fine display of its commitment to national unity by slashing
unemployment benefits and worker retraining programs. In real terms (i.e.,
when inflation is taken into account) the Bush budget cuts funding for
unemployment compensation by 11 percent and cuts funding for job training
for dislocated workers under the Workforce Investment Act by 12.5 percent.

Apologists for this shameless shafting of unemployed and displaced workers
will probably argue that the recession is now over. This conveniently
ignores the fact that the wealthiest members of this society never really
experienced the recession, especially with the veritable keg-party Bush has
organized for them at the expense of the rest of us. But even with the
recession "over" and profits up, job growth is likely to remain sluggish for
a longer period.

And those lucky enough to find a job will be less likely to find a decent
one. The Bush budget cuts funding for the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) by $9 million and eliminates 83 positions at that
agency, thus ensuring even less enforcement of basic safety and health
standards in the workplace. The National Institute of Occupational Safety
and Health (NIOSH) -- the only health research agency with a focus on worker
safety -- is cut by $28.3 million.

Remember when the government promptly evacuated (mostly white) Capitol Hill
staffers during the anthrax scare while treating the situation of (often
nonwhite) postal workers as something less than the emergency it was? Well,
Bush's budget symbolically gives the finger to people like that once again.

The AFL-CIO has done a fascinating breakdown of the proposed funding within
these agencies, and here the picture becomes even worse. So while OSHA
funding in general is cut, there is an increase in OSHA programs to help
employers comply with the laws they ought to be obeying in the first place.
And while Labor Department functions that protect workers are cut, there is
a substantial increase in funding for federal investigations of labor
unions.

There's no word on an increase in funding for investigations of people who
raise issues with the budget, but that's probably not far behind. United we
stand!


- - - - - - - - - -
"Tell no lies, claim no easy victories."
-- Amilcar Cabral

"It's No Accident" is a political column by John Lacny, a student activist
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