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The corporatocracy’s war on government and labor
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Modern free societies rest upon a three-legged stool for equilibrium and balance: the means of production, labor, and government (for maintenance of order). Remove any one leg from the stool, and the free society collapses.
The wealthy elite and their servants in the Republican Party have forever opposed the interests of working men and women, and have a visceral hatred for organized labor. The Republicans have long been known as "the party of cheap labor." They want a work force just smart enough to do the work required, but not smart enough to organize and to challenge the weathy elite's exploitation of "cheap labor" by demanding fair wages, safe working conditions, and a share of the benefits of their labor.
Movement conservatism has waged an assault upon government for decades. Their goal is to convince you that government is incapable of doing anything right, that government is never the solution but the problem. Hence, Ronald Reagan's most terrifying nine words in the English language: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." We are all familiar with Grover Norquists' familiar threat that he wants to defund government so that he can "reduce government to the size that he can drown it in the bathtub."
You will notice that knocking out the legs of labor and government leaves only one leg of the stool — the means of production, controled by multi-national corporations with immense wealth and the über-rich investor class. Society's equilibrium and balance are destroyed.
Not only does this destroy the individualism of liberal capitalism but it will destroy the individualism of our democratic republican form of government in the process. This shift in the balace of power will result in replacing the form of government with which we are all familiar with a modern-day version of "absolutist corporatism," a class-society feudal system controled by multi-national corporations with immense wealth and the über-rich investor class. Individual liberties and freedom will be reduced to a feudal system of "serfdom."
This is the blueprint that the Republican Party is pursuing on behalf of its clientel, the multi-national corporations and the über-rich investor class. Reuters reported this week the Secret GOP plan: Push states to declare bankruptcy and smash unions:
Congressional Republicans appear to be quietly but methodically executing a plan that would a) avoid a federal bailout of spendthrift states and b) cripple public employee unions by pushing cash-strapped states such as California and Illinois to declare bankruptcy. This may be the biggest political battle in Washington, my Capitol Hill sources tell me, of 2011.
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[T]he Build America Bonds program (BABs) now accounts for more than 20 percent of new debt sold by states and local governments thanks to a federal rebate equal to 35 percent of interest costs on the bonds. The subsidy program ends on Dec. 31. And my Reuters colleagues report that a GOP congressional aide said Republicans “have a very firm line on BABS — we are not going to allow them to be included.”
In short, the lack of a BAB program would make it harder for states to borrow to cover a $140 billion budgetary shortfall next year, as estimated by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. The long-term numbers are even scarier. Estimates of states’ unfunded liabilities to pay for pension benefits range from $750 billion to more than $3 trillion.
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Republican Representatives Devin Nunes and Darrell Issa of California and Paul Ryan of Wisconsin have introduced a bill that would require state and local governments to estimate the size of public pension liabilities if their assets earned a more conservative rate of return than many plans currently expect. Failure to do so would result in the suspension of their ability to issue tax-exempt bonds.
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Some Republicans hope the shock of the newly revealed debt totals will grease the way towards explicitly permitting states to declare bankruptcy. Indeed, legislation amending federal bankruptcy law is currently being prepared by congressional Republicans. Local municipalities do declare bankruptcy from time to time, most famously California’s Orange County in 1994. But states can’t. Allowing them the same ability to renegotiate obligations could enable them to slash public employees’ pension benefits, a big factor in their financial woes.
[This is made possible by use of the "cram down" rules in bankruptcy court.]
Public employee unions have traditionally carried great influence with Democrats, even if President Barack Obama’s willingness to freeze their pay on the federal level suggests their clout may be waning. From the Republican perspective, the fiscal crisis on the state level provides a golden opportunity to defund a key Democratic interest group. For the GOP, it’s an economic and political win.
Republicans’ day of shame holding America hostage for the “two percenters”
