Greenspan's
Solution; Cut From Those Who Need It the Most.
By
Norma Sherry
OpEdNews.com
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
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.
©
Norma Sherry 2004
Norma
Sherry is co-founder of TogetherForeverChanging.org, 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 on WQXT TV.
Email
Norma: norma@togetherforeverchanging.org
