Rightward ho!

Max Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Wed Jan 3 13:56:12 PST 2001


CB: On the Bush tax cut, does it really matter ? The rich are already so rich and what is there to cut in social programs ?

Regarding taxes, you can throw them another couple of trillion bucks over ten years, over and above whatever else they get, or not.

As for spending, social spending has stagnated but there is still much left to eliminate. Welfare reform entailed reductions in what used to be AFDC, but that was not a large program to begin with. In terms of spending levels, more serious are the reductions in Medicaid and Food Stamps from reduced enrollment. But even so there is plenty left to savage. I don't think there will be much in the way of cuts, though I don't expect increases either. Don't forget that spending has not fared well under Clinton. In this particular dimension, there is indeed very little difference between Gore and Bush. Not so in other areas, contrary to Nathan's relentless erections of straw men, no pun intended.

One of my themes for this new Administration is their resort to three major types of reverse- Robin Hood redistribution. One is tax cuts, two is military hardware (missile defense in particular), and three is the give-away of public assets (logging rights, mineral rights, grazing, spectrum, R&D).

mbs

There isn't much federal money left for the working class , is there ? Welfare is abolished as we knew it. HUD is reinvented into oblivion. etc. What do we care about the federal government ( sorry ) ? Have the rightwing and the caps almost reached diminishing returns with respect to redistributing wealth upward by manipulating the federal government ?



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