In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein argued that Milton Friedman-style conservatives seized on troubled situations in order to institute what she called "disaster capitalism"--"the rapid-fire corporate reengineering of societies still reeling from shock."
Early in the administration, in reference to the financial crisis, Rahm Emanuel famously said something-or-other about "not letting a good crisis go to waste." I took this as a hopeful sign that perhaps progressives had finally come to understand what conservatives have known for some time, which is that crisis situations open a window to far-reaching reforms.
As it turned out, not so much. After getting bashed on the "stimulus"--which worked--the administration back-tracked into worrying about the deficit. The administration caved on the ideological issue right off the bat, i.e. that debt reduction is a bigger concern than jobs.
The Republicans stuck to their guns. In presenting his budget proposal, Cong. Paul Ryan said, "This is a cause." What is the "cause"? The same thing "disaster capitalism" always seeks--low taxes, no regulation, no entitlements.
To put it another way, anything that helps the rich is good. Anything that interferes with the rapacious desire of the oligarchs is to be ended.
Credit where credit is due, the Ryan proposal does take seriously its own rhetoric. By that I mean that finally we have a document somewhere, with numbers on it, that show where the GOP wants to lead the country. The numbers are cooked, but at least they're there.
Their goal has relatively little to do with the deficit. If they were serious about the deficit, not only would they raise taxes, but they would cut defense. Ryan's proposal leaves defense alone and actually lowers taxes, making the deficit problem worse.
In addition to acknowledging that seniors, disabled and elderly people would be hit with much higher out-of-pocket health care costs, the CBO finds that by the end of the 10-year budget window, public debt will actually be higher than it would be if the GOP just did nothing.
They don't care about the deficit that much. The Democrats don't either. That's because the deficit doesn't matter as much as both parties are now saying, but it's easier to yammer on about the deficit than do something about jobs.
Ryan's true goal is the shrinking of government, using the current fiscal crisis as the excuse to do it. Shrinking government sounds like a laudable goal, but they're shrinking the part that actually helps most of our citizens and leaving absolutely intact the parts that help the rich.
Their cuts come entirely out of the 12% of the budget that is discretionary spending, and in entitlement programs--Medicare, Medicaid--that help people who aren't rich. Many functions of government which help and protect many people would have to be cutback or shuttered--Environmental Protection, National Parks, Wall Street regulation, transportation, education, consumer protection.
Supposedly, this is the way out of the recession. Except wait: Aren't those exactly the same policies, pursued from 2001-2009, that got us into the financial crisis? Oh yeah. They are.
Reality notwithstanding, this will get ginned up in the corporate press as being "bold" and "serious". Half a beat later, the mainstream press will chime in with "bold" and "serious" as well. Before you know it, your pocket has been picked again.
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