- NEW YORK--Somebody
at Homeland Security must have slipped the manuscript of my next book to
Karl Rove. Among other things, my upcoming political manifesto posits that
the Republicans won't be able to surf the 9/11- generated shock-and-awe
wave forever. It's still the economy, stupid; it always will be. All the
foreign policy successes in the world--catching Saddam, terrorizing Libya
into unilateral disarmament, dragging Osama's bloated carcass down K Street--won't
make 3 million people forget that they've lost their jobs or that Bush,
whose estimated net worth runs between $9,634,088 and $26,593,000, refused
to extend their unemployment checks.
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- Unless there's another dramatic attack in '04, domestic
issues will determine what happens in November.
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- Word has it that Bush will kick off his "re"election
campaign with a package of domestic economic proposals to be announced
during next month's State of the Union address. What the GOP calls "The
Ownership Society," writes conservative New York Times pundit David
Brooks, will "embrace the more productive and fluid economy, but make
sure government aggressively moves to give workers the tools they need
to cope."
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- "The Ownership Society," which acknowledges
that most people change employers and careers throughout their working
lives, shows that conservatives have been doing some creative thinking
about their domestic agenda. Among the highlights:
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- Portable Health Insurance: Tax credits would subsidize
medical premiums, the number of people who qualify for existing government
programs like Medicare would be expanded, and small businesses would be
allowed to form pools so their employees would qualify for group plans.
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- Reemployment Accounts: Unemployment stipends would be
replaced by lump- sum personal "accounts" that layoff victims
could spend, says Brooks, "on training, child care, a car, a move
to a place with more jobs, or whatever else they think would benefit them."
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- Privatizing Social Security (news - web sites): This
idea has been around for years. You would decide where to invest the money
in your Social Security "account," like employees do now with
their 401(k)s. As with a 401(k), you would reap big rewards during stock
market booms but risk getting wiped out in a crash.
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- Except for Social Security privatization, which would
excessively endanger retirement funds to line the pockets of politically-connected
Wall Street brokerage houses, these are interesting ideas--in theory. If
you take a closer look, however, reality asks a lot of tough questions.
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- Bush says he wants Americans to adopt a "responsibility
culture." But his Ownership Society concept requires more responsibility
than most folks should be asked to bear. The health insurance tax credit,
for example, would come in the form of a big refund check after taxpayers
file their 1040s. Many workers, hit hard by stagnating wages and unexpected
expenses, will spend the government windfall on other bills. The same thing
goes for reemployment accounts. If a guy blows his lump- sum unemployment
payment on a casino riverboat or Internet gaming-site bender, he and his
family could end up out on the street. You and me, we might spend the money
on computer classes. But for too many people, it's too big a temptation.
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- Worse still, the GOP's track record suggests that Bush's
Ownership Society would merely replace the antiquated liberal safety net--which
assumes that a person works for the same employer his or her entire life--with
a privatized system that's so poorly underfinanced as to be worthless.
The much-ballyhooed No Child Left Behind Act has been, well, left behind--it
hasn't received a penny. Bush welched on his promise to spend $15 billion
on African AIDS (news - web sites) prevention. The average dollar value
of the school vouchers issued by Cleveland, whose program Republicans say
should be copied nationally, is so low that parents can't afford to move
their kids to private schools. And the average taxpayer will receive just
$800 from Bush's tax cuts--enough to bankrupt the treasury but not to stimulate
the economy.
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- "Congress and the administration are looking at
proposals that cost $50 billion to $80 billion over 10 years," The
Times says. But that's chump change next to the size of the problems they
claim to address. $8 billion per year would provide healthcare to just
three percent of America's 44 million uninsured. And it wouldn't leave
anything for reemployment accounts.
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- The only way to fund this election-year vote grab would
be to cancel the $1.8 trillion tax cuts and the $100 billion-per-year occupation
of Iraq --but Republicans aren't that serious.
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- "The public is not expecting perfection, but is
looking for progress," says GOP pollster David Winston. Perhaps he's
right--maybe the American people will view three percent as "progress."
But where I come from, three percent ain't even a tip.
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- Ted Rall is the editor of the new anthology of alternative
cartoons "Attitude 2: The New Subversive Social Commentary Cartoonists,"
containing interviews with and cartoons by 21 of America's best cartoonists.
Ordering information is available at amazon.com.
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