Bob Frey's Blog

Of all the political talking heads and bloggers out there, only two are telling it like it is. One is Ed Schultz, host of The Ed Show, a daily talk program on MSNBC, and The Ed Schultz Show, a nationally syndicated talk radio show. The other, Paul Krugman, an American economist and winner of a Nobel Prize for economic sciences, is a columnist and blogger for The New Times. Sure, there are others. But no one has been as consistently on message as these two patriots. And I mean that in the truest sense of the word. No one defends our country with more passion than Schultz and Krugman.
     Now from just what menace are Schultz and Krugman defending us? Simply this: Republicans, or the Grand Old Party as they like to call themselves, are hell bent on repealing the Great Society and the New Deal. They want to pull these programs out by their roots and go back to the good old days when the robber barons ran the country, a time when then were no pesky regulations or antitrust laws, no union riff-raff, or troublesome tax laws. Make no mistake. They want to turn this country into a banana republic where corporations are king, and it’s okay to pollute the environment and not give a damn about public health and safety. And they are well on the way to doing it.
     Harsh words? Liberal drivel? Over the top? Consider. From the time of Ronald Reagan, a president who archly said, “Government is not the solution to our problem, it is the problem,” Republicans have been pursuing a perfidious strategy called “Starve the Beast.” Here’s how it works: simply run up the deficit to create a crisis where the government cannot meet its fiscal responsibilities so that cutting social programs such as Social Security and Medicare becomes a necessity. Bush came into office with a $236 billion surplus, and he left with a $1.3 trillion deficit. That was no accident. And it worked. In fact, it worked so well, the GOP even conned a Democratic president—a man they laughingly call a socialist—to do their dirty work for them. Obama not only bailed out Wall Street and extended the Bush tax cuts to plunge this country deeper into debt, he offered social security and Medicare on the chopping block for Republicans to savage.
     But hold on, wait one damn minute, you say. Why didn’t the GOP attack these programs when Obama gave them a chance? Because, with the presidential election looming, they were afraid to risk it. Americans may say they oppose big government, but, when push comes to shove, they support programs such as Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. The first order of business is to defeat Obama, gain back the presidency, and hopefully the House and Senate. Then, now that the American people have been softened up into believing that cutting the deficit is a dire necessity, they will have the justification they lacked for so many years to cut social programs to the bone.
     Let’s review a little history. The New Deal, introduced in the 1930’s by FDR, was a set of programs and policies designed to promote economic recovery and social reform in response to the great depression initiated by the stock market crash. Among others, it included the Wagner Act to promote labor unions, the WPA, and the Social Security Act, all benefits for working stiffs. When Ike was elected, conservatives salivated in anticipation he would repeal it. But he didn’t. Then along came Mr. Conservative himself, Barry Goldwater astride a white Cadillac, to scourge it from the books. But, alas, he lost in a landslide to Lyndon Johnson, who quickly doubled down on the New Deal with the Great Society, a set of social reforms designed to eliminate poverty and racial injustice.
     Conservative pulses quickened once again with the election of Richard Nixon. But Tricky Dicky not only didn’t repeal the New Deal or the Great Society, he added to the welfare state with regulations such as the Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies. Finally, in 1980, Republicans thought they had their man. But Social Security, Medicare, and other social programs were so popular by then, Ronald Reagan not only didn’t dismantle them, he raised taxes eleven times to keep them funded. What’s a poor conservative to do? Wait. And his wait was rewarded in the controversial election of George W. Bush, whose obscene tax cuts for the rich resulted in massive deficits and a tanking economy. That was more like it.
     With the election of Obama, liberals looked forward to a reversal of conservative inroads and a new area of social programs for the poor and middle class. As we now know, that didn’t happen, and some say we elected a conservative in progressive clothing. But that’s a subject for another blog, and we won’t go into that here.
     But what about the deficit, doesn’t it matter? Sure, but according to Paul Krugman, the worse thing you can do in times of an economic turndown is to reduce government spending. Despite their crocodile tears, Republicans don’t give a hoot about the deficit. If they did, they would compromise on tax increases for the rich. When Bush ran up the deficit with unconscionable tax cuts for the wealthy, started two costly wars, and introduced an expensive drug program that mainly benefited the pharmaceutical industry, there wasn’t a peep from his fellow conservatives. It was only when Obama was elected, the deficit became a crisis, and the Tea Party crawled out of the woodwork.
     But don’t tax cuts for the rich create jobs? If so, why did an unemployment rate of 4.2% when Bush took office balloon to more than 10% after a decade of his tax cuts? The so-called trickle down theory doesn’t work and never has. Yet, Republicans still sing the same song today along with another fat lie: regulations lose jobs. It was deregulation running wild that let to the Wall Street collapse and our present economic woes. So, whatever Republicans tell you, my advice is to let go in one ear and out the other.
     Still not convinced? The top 1 percent in this country have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, while those in the middle have seen their incomes fall. The top 1 percent now control 40 percent of the wealth and the top 20% some 85%. The righties own the mainstream TV and radio networks. They have successfully pitted the middle class against itself. They have destroyed labor unions and outsourced American jobs. They have wrecked public education with defunding and No Child Left Behind, gutted the EPA and FDA, and poisoned our water supply with pollution.
     The Occupy Wall Street movement is spot on when they say the 99% are being screwed by the top 1%. But, believe me, if the GOP has its way, you haven’t seen anything yet. We are on the cusp of becoming a third world country where workers have no bargaining rights, there is nothing but contempt for people in need, and corporations have unlimited power. The Cut, Cap and Balance Act, which the GOP would love to enact, is the final step of their Starve the Beast strategy. In place, it would radically limit the flexibility of the government to provide a social safety net and buttress the economy in tough times, now and in the future. The middle class, the backbone of America, is slowly but surely being squeezed out of existence. Class war? You bet your ass, it’s class war. We are on the cusp of a brave new world where only the rich will prosper and the rest of the 99% will work their tails off just to stay afloat.
     So, if you want to know what’s going on, tune in Ed Schultz on his TV and radio programs, read Paul Krugman’s column in the New York Times, or follow them both on Twitter. We are at a crossroads in American history. And that’s no hyperbole.