Sunday, February 20, 2011

Reagan, once again.

In my opinion, it is a mistake to believe that the bankruptcy of America was an accident. It was nothing of the kind. The whole point of the last 30 years in American politics has been to undo the welfare state that history brought us, to destroy the unions, and to "make the government small enough to drown it in the bathtub" as one right-wing wag has put it many times.


People should begin to analyze this crisis according to when it happened and who had the power. It began under Reagan who ran up a national debt that was almost inconceivable at that time. You may remember that he based his economic theory on"trickle down" economics. If you make the rich richer, they will spread the wealth.

Of course, that didn't happen. But, as much as he criticized the "welfare queens" and the "greedy unions" those people did not in those days hold power in Washington.

Reagan managed to maneuver a slash in the "revenue sharing" program begun in earlier times, and this caused a serious hurt to a lot of states and localities who were required to find new sources of revenue or cut programs, like road repair.

Then came G.W. Bush with his tax cuts that brought the country to the edge of bankruptcy. And when times got difficult, whom did he choose to favor? The wealthy interests that brought him to power, the wealthy interests that controlled the Congress (through legal bribery). Hence, the "Wall Street bailout" which most Republicans now blame on Obama who chose to fight for it.

Never forget that they will serve themselves who control the government. And right now, that is none of us.

3 comments:

Sparty said...

Well said. A further point - there aren't enough wealthy people to elect the Reagans, Bushes, Snyders, and Walkers of the world - they require votes from the very people who will be victimized by their policies. I'm wondering how many of the people protesting in the streets of Madison voted for Walker and how many of those who are going to protest in Lansing on Tuesday voted for Rick Snyder?

Dashmann said...

Sparty --you are right on !!!
These right wingers vote for Republicans with no appreciation of what the Pittsburgh steel workers in 1900 or the UAW sit downers did for them in 1937.
I was a 34 year salary worker at GM , never a member of the union, but with a great appreciatrion of what MY union did for for me ---
Dash

Alice said...

I was in the streets and representatives offices and senators offices on Tuesday lobbying and protesting. And I'm one who proudly and loudly cast my vote for Bernaro. I do agree with Sparty though. Today the firefighters and police were in Lansing protesting and both Unions backed Snyder in Michigan as did the same Unions back Walker in Wisconsin. It's amazing!! The House passed The Emergency Financial Managers' Poweers Bill today and have sent it to the Senate. It will allow the State Treasurer an individual or A PRIVATE FRIM to take over local governments and make all their decisions. It will be able to terminate contracts made by local governments except those made with banks. Bye bye life as we have known it. Check HB 4214-4218, 4246.