Monday, April 14, 2008

How's that workin' for us now?

Some of you may not be old enough to remember when St. Ronnie, patron saint of greedy corporations and big business, said that government wasn't the solution to the problems facing our country and that indeed, government was the problem.  

Well, a succession of US Presidents, including Bill Clinton, after him took his mantra to heart and they cut government programs and used that money for corporate welfare and they privatized many essential governmental services.  I got to wondering how all that has worked out for us and here's what I came up with:
  • We've had more food and product recalls than ever before. 
  • FAA inspectors have been told to go easy on airline safety checks.
  • We've had more deaths due to shoddy FDA tests on drugs than ever before.
  • We are losing millions of dollars a day to companies like KBR, Halliburton, and Blackwater in what are known as "cost plus" contracts with the federal government.  Cost plus means the companies in question don't have to be competitive in price, they charge the government what ever they like for what they provide and we have to pay for it,
  • Corporate America is running, or should I say ruining, the Labor Department, HUD, the FDA, the USDA, and many other cabinet level offices and departments.
  • Corporate America is writing our laws and paying our legislators to vote for them.  Case in point, I refer you to the Medicare Prescription Drug program, it was written by big pharma lobbyists.  
  • Our legislators are not beholden to us, they are beholden to whoever pays for their reelection campaigns.
Our government is supposed to be a government of the people, that is run by the people, for the people.  Instead ever since St. Ronnie hoodwinked us, it's become a government of the corrupt corporations, that is run by the corrupt corporations, in order to line the pockets of rich white men and women.  Reagan started it, Bush the elder continued it, Clinton went along, and Bush the idiot perfected it.  And we're all getting screwed as a result.

Maybe after the other shoe drops in the current financial meltdown we can kick these greedy bastards out and we can rebuild our country like FDR and the Democratic Party did after the Great Depression.  All those programs and laws that they enacted helped people like you and me, the working class that built this country.  And they, Reagan, Bill "NAFTA is good!" Clinton, the Bushes, and their enablers in Congress, dismantled them.  

The period after the Great Depression, which by the way was brought on by out of control capitalism which is what we have today, and after World War 2 was the most productive period ever for working class people.  Our parents and grandparents were able to climb out of poverty, buy homes, cars, and give us baby boomers great childhoods because laws were written that reigned in big business.  Big business still made money, they just didn't make as much as they wanted, some of their profits went back to their employees and to the cities and states where they had their factories and stores.  The big difference between then and now is big business doesn't care about you or me anymore, they don't have to care because they got the laws changed in their favor.  The money that used to go to our parents and grandparents and to our communities now goes to the people at the top of the corporate food chain, look at how much their pay has increased and look at how much yours has decreased.

St. Ronnie led us all down a rathole.  And then him and his buddies in big business filled the hole in with dirt.  It's time to dig out and take back our country, our economy, our Congress, and our world.  What Wall Street wants is not what's good for us, less restrictions and less taxes on big businesses and the rich is not the answer, the fact that they do not pay their fair share is the fucking problem.  It's time to make big business and the rich pay their fair share again and to have some regulation again. 

13 comments:

Mnmom said...

And don't forget bridges that collapse

Jay Allbritton said...

The trail of breadcrumbs always leads back to Ronnie. His presidency continues on and on and keeps getting worse. They just keep passing the baton except for that one 8 year stretch where...

We should go on strike.

Oh wait, Ronnie outlawed that.

pissed off patricia said...

As someone said, banks are not in business to help you make money, they are in business to make money. Insurance companies aren't in business to take care of you, they are in business to make money.

Like you said, big businesses are being allowed to make the laws and the money, while we are left to just watch it happen. It's time for a big damned change.

SamuraiFrog said...

Well said. While I was doing the research for my posts on the presidents this week, I was actually kind of scared to discover that Reagan's supply side economics are pretty much exactly the same as Hoover's economics. Hoover's economic policy was actually called "trickle down economics," and the fact that Reagan thought it would work again is astounding. I'm amazed it's taken this long for another Hoover presidency, frankly. This is like the 1920s all over again; only about 10% of our money exists in physical, tangible currency, and the rest is on paper. With the dollar devaluing, there are places in Europe now refusing to take the dollar (currency exchanges, mainly). Why does it always have to take a disaster for America?

dguzman said...

You're talking like a commie pinko monkey, you commie pinko monkey!

Dean Wormer said...

So true.

Just look at the airline stuff just this last week. Our system of air transportation is a mess. Anyone that's had to fly anywhere in the last couple of years could tell you how awful it is. Isn't this an indicator of how "civilized" our society is?

What Wall Street wants is not what's good for us, less restrictions and less taxes on big businesses and the rich is not the answer, the fact that they do not pay their fair share is the fucking problem. It's time to make big business and the rich pay their fair share again and to have some regulation again.

I agree with this completely. Business uses the roads, court systems and airways to a greater extent than everybody else in society they can sure as hell pay more to keep it up.

Claire said...

Well said!

Life As I Know It Now said...

Well said Dr. M--
"What Wall Street wants is not what's good for us, less restrictions and less taxes on big businesses and the rich is not the answer, the fact that they do not pay their fair share is the fucking problem. It's time to make big business and the rich pay their fair share again and to have some regulation again."
Excellent!

vikkitikkitavi said...

I would say that during the Clinton administration, there was a lot less of the "fox guarding the hen house" thing going on with regulatory agencies. You've got to give it to George W on that score. No one has been more corrupt in that area since the days of Teapot Dome.

But yeah, your thesis is correct that we need really basic overhauls of our system. I have my doubts that the majority of Americans feel likewise, however.

Distributorcap said...

gas hitting $4, price of wheat doubling, houses prices collapse, jobs moving to Moldova, a worthless dollar, shoddy products, collapsing bridges.

but hey, lets elect the guy it is fun to have a beer with, aka the guy who calls his wife the c-word in public

move along little people, we have idols to vote off

Matthew Hubbard said...

If I was president for a day and got to sign one executive order, I'd get rid of one idea from the Reagan era, the despicable "core inflation rate". It's just a scam to keep cost of living adjustments low, in other words, How To Steal From Pensioners.

Good post.

Micgar said...

as a person who was in his late teens in the "Reagan era" I have always felt that this is where it all started. The flies laid their eggs around then-the beginnings of the Evangelical Christian meddling and infiltration into our gov't, the talk radio crap, the "conservative foundations" that became more powerful then, the military interventions that came into fruition around this time.
And of course all the above that you mention-it has been having a domino effect since then and now the little maggots have come out of hiding-they can be more free in this administration!
All this is because of this mantra by the right that less is good for you, unless its for private investment, and profits of course!

Ubermilf said...

Don't forget deregulating the Savings and Loans. But then, the government stepped in to bail them out. So, I'm confused -- government is evil unless it's taking money from everyday working people through taxes and giving it to corporations? Am I getting that?