Now let us be seated.
Our Good Emperor, Barack Obama I, speechified in Pittsburgh PA (no sign of Sestak, BTW) on the topic of "Moving Forward on The New Foundation." Yes. Yes. Yes.
And what we have here is a somewhat mitigated recipe for neo-liberal economic restructuring of the United States based on the continued and perpetual impoverishment of the masses and the extended enrichment of the upper 1%. The Rich Get Richer and Everyone Else Gets Poorer model of economics.
The Way It Should Be.
This isn't the New New Deal, this is what would have happened if Hoover had been re-elected in 1932. We need to get real. Obama is no liberal let alone a Socialist. He is a double-dip dyed Neo-Liberal whose policy prescriptions are Neo-Liberal.
And in Pittsburgh, he made that double-plus clear.
"The New Foundation" is what he calls his program of reduction of services and benefits for the masses, while maintaining and increasing the wealth and power of the aristocracy.
His New Foundation, he says, has five pillars:
It's a foundation built upon five pillars that will grow our economy and make this new century another American century: Number one, new rules for Wall Street that will reward drive and innovation, not reckless risk-taking -- (applause); number two, new investments in education that will make our workforce more skilled and competitive -- (applause); number three, new investments in renewable energy and technology that will create new jobs and new industries -- (applause); number four, new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses; and number five, new savings in our federal budget that will bring down the debt for future generations. (Applause.)
What exactly does he mean? We don't know, do we. That's the point. After all the high-flying calls on the People's better angels, we find that the actions of Our Mister Barack serve the interests of the Plutocracy first, foremost and always. You plebes may -- or may not -- get a crumb in due time. Oh, and by the way, you plebes are paying for whatever the calls for Hope and Change require.
It's the way the world works.
The goal is to reduce the spending deficit by $1 trillion over the next three years, at the rate of approximately $333 billion a year, by raising some taxes and cutting solely from "discretionary spending," cutting nothing from defense and national security, and given the way these things have been going, that's tantamount to enabling increases in defense and national security spending while tightening the belt on discretionary entitlements like social programs. We'll get to that.
The Federal Budget has been running about $3 trillion a year, so cutting $300+
billion or so means a 10% reduction in budget overall, and since discretionary spending is around 65% of the whole budget, that will mean an overall discretionary spending cut (primarily from social programs and services) of around 20+% each year for the next three years. And counting.
How do they think they will do that? Well, of course, nobody will say. That's the point of the Deficit Commission meeting behind closed doors.
The Deficit Hawk measures Obama brought up in Pittsburgh include: letting the Bushevik tax cuts on the rich "expire." Of course he mentioned this first, because it is the one suggestion that will get the masses riled up and cheering, even though it is the one suggestion that has the least likelihood to succeed in our Bought and Paid For Congress. Given so much bitter experience with these things over the this and the previous administration, it is fair to predict that the tax cuts for the wealthy will remain; they could conceivably be expanded. Since "taxes are punishment" according to the received wisdom of the American Enterprise Institute, it's only natural to confine taxes to the "losers." Yes?
Secondly, Obama will recommend that the Deficit Commission's recommendations be followed. This commission is purposely set up to provide cover for cutting Social Security and Medicare, for increasing taxes on the working class, for streamlining and reducing taxation on the Aristocracy, and for presenting a framework for a neo-liberal government "austerity" program far into the future.
Education, research and development, transition to a green economy and so forth are held out as baits in order to achieve the prime objective -- which is the neo-liberal wet dream of enhanced private wealth for a few while forcing most social and other costs (including education, R&D, etc.) onto the increasingly impoverished masses.
Bueno. What's not to like?
This "austerity" regimen is essentially what's already under way in Europe, will be under way in Britain shortly, and has long been the IMF's practice to impose on "debtor" countries world wide. The living standards of the masses are to be reduced. Substantially. And permanently. And it will be done in order to ensure the continued comfort and convenience of the Upper 1%, and to fund their extra-curricular activities such as wars of aggression and colonial occupation.
You think you've been seeing a transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top over the last 30 years? You ain't seen nothin' yet. That wealth transfer process is about to go into hyperdrive.
But in the end, we are assured by the Good Emperor Obama, it will all work out for the best.
It always does.
You may arise. Please. ARISE! you servile masses!
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