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Voices |
 
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"You’re
just going to have to work longer” is the mantra of the super-rich to the
super-poor. “Work ‘till you drop” |
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Slamming Entitlement
Posted February 26, 2004 thepeoplesvoice.org
By: Norma Sherry norma@togetherforeverchanging.org
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt must be turning in his grave. Entitlement programs,
hogwash. Medicare, phooey. Medicaid, who the hell cares? After-school
programs, let them take care of themselves. Social Security, let ‘em eat cake.
The New Deal is a dead deal, who cares about the little weasels?
According
to Federal Reserve guru, Alan Greenspan, who is obviously in touch with the
man and woman on the street, in the ghetto, in the old-age home, in the
nursing home, living hand to mouth, he proclaims the answer to our financial
woes of an overly exuberant and financially-bankrupt administration is to
cut from those who need it the most.
Greenspan
offered his latest mutterings, not as a spokesperson of the Federal Reserve,
as if one could separate the man who wields so much power from his titled
position of “Federal Reserve Chairman”. Not one word did he whisper to
our billions of dollars to fight a war that should never have been. Not one
word did he growl about the tax breaks zealously given to our corporations.
The same corporations, by the way, who have tax shelters up the ying yang,
off-shore headquarters created solely to exonerate them from our tax-paying
laws, and who have de-railed the American worker by importing and exporting
cheap labor. Nada. Not a word.
Not a
word denouncing how this deficit we, the American people, find ourselves in
without any say in the matter, and yet, it is the American public, its very
citizens and their promised benefits, Mr. Greenspan claims is the answer to
our financial debacle.
“You’re
just going to have to work longer” is the mantra of the super-rich to the
super-poor. “Work ‘till you drop” is their new singsong. There is no
consequence for the rich, for the corporate CEO and hierarchy, or for our
esteemed body of representatives. Nay, they have more than their financial
cushion. For all intents and purposes, they don’t have to work another day
in their lives. They’re the Paris Hilton’s, the arrogant, self-involved,
uncaring, unfeeling, unaware, ne’er-do-well’s spewing remedies that
secure their misbegotten wealth.
How is
it, Mr. Greenspan, that you haven’t decried this administration’s
foolhardy spending? Surely, Mr. Greenspan, you conveyed Economics 101 to our
president. How is it, Mr. Greenspan, that you didn’t suggest cutting the
free benefits to our legislators, you know, the one’s they didn’t have
to pay into like the poor working-class schlubs. Their free for life medical
care for their entire family, their pay for life, their spousal benefits for
life, their limousines and private planes, their free trips, their free
gifts, their free offices, their secretaries that can’t type – or yours,
for that matter, Mr. Chairman? I wonder, Mr. Greenspan, if you and yours,
and our revered legislators had nothing but Social Security and Medicare to
look forward to in retirement and in their most senior life, would your
recommendations be the same?
Let’s
take a quick look at what Mr. Bush deems worthy of our astronomical debt.
Obviously, it is not clean air despite his claims to the contrary. Would you
believe, even President Reagan did more for this issue than Bush? But I
divert. The Bush administration has outsourced 70% of our national park’s
service staff. He has weakened the 30-year-old Clean Air Act; he has
instituted management goals that fall below the federal legal requirements
for preserving our national parks. He is permitting construction of power
plants outside several national parks without any strict pollution controls,
and he has rendered a 137-year-old mining law useless, which leaves our
treasured national parks unprotected from the greed of land developers.
Certainly,
our money hasn’t gone to our national parks. In fact, this administration
has failed to fulfill the president’s pledge to provide the necessary
funding during his first four years in office for the backlog of
construction, maintenance, and resource protection.
So, we
haven’t gone in debt for the betterment of our national resources.
We
already know it’s not the Medicaid system that’s bankrupting our nation.
This administration has done all but eliminate the program. Given the
opportunity that, too, will come to pass.
It’s
not due to an increase in unemployment benefits or educational programs for
the more than ten-million unemployed and 20-million and counting,
underemployed. However, Bush did propose a $680-billion “stimulus”
package benefiting corporations and the top 5% of the population – a
bonanza for the wealthy.
So,
it’s not due to the betterment of national resources, Medicaid for our
most needy citizens, unemployment benefits for our heretofore, treasured
workers – the tally is definitely lopsided.
It’s
not health care for women and children because in 2001, this president of
family values, proposed cutting Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening,
contraceptive coverage for federal employees, Maternal and Child Health
Block Grants, which provide health care to women before, during, and after
pregnancy. He proposed freezing the healthy Start Program, the Supplemental
Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, the discretionary
portion of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, Safe and Drug Free
Schools, After School Centers and eliminate entirely, the School Counselors
Program and funding for Reading is FUNdamental. Not bad for the “leave no
child behind” president. Additionally, the budget reduced the Equal
Opportunity Commission and The Small Business Administration. This is the
same president that ran on “W is for Women”, makes one ponder what the
“W” actually represented.
Greenspan
wants Congress to make President Bush’s tax cuts permanent and cover the
$1 trillion price tag by ‘trimming’ future benefits in Social Security
and entitlement programs. At a time when the largest bloc of citizens will
come of age – that of retirement for baby boomers, this issue has the
potential of backfiring in the face of ‘compassionate conservatives’.
For the
$103-plus-billion spent thus far on the unnecessary, ill-conceived, and
illegal war in
Iraq
, ten million children could have spent a year in Head Start; nearly
32-million children could have had a year of health care. More so,
1.5-million teachers could have been hired, nearly 2-million young people
could have gotten a 4-year scholarship to a state university, and a million
affordable housing units could have been built.
In the
prophetic words of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, on April 16, 1953,
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired,
signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed,
those who are cold and are not clothed."
While
our “Compassionate President” and our “Compassionate Legislators”
destroy the fabric of our humanity, consider these numbers. Worldwide
16-million people are dying of starvation, 800-million are undernourished,
980-1000-million people are without medical care, 1-billion people lack
adequate shelter, and 100-million are homeless. It appears abundantly clear
that the answer to our ills is not to eviscerate the programs that offer
some semblance of dignity to those who are in need.
No,
Chairman Greenspan, it’s time to find your humanity – and while you’re
at it, bring George Dubya back to class with you.
-###- © Copyright
Norma Sherry 2004 All rights reserved. Norma Sherry is co-founder of
Together Forever Changing, an organization devoted to educating,
stimulating, and igniting personal responsibility particularly with regards
to our diminishing civil liberties. She is also an award-winning
writer/producer and host of upcoming television program, The Norma Sherry
Show. Her Email: norma@togetherforeverchanging.org
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