Bush Declares "Ownership Society"
Tells Convention He's Ordered Invasion of Social Security Trust Fund
[New York] Of all the bone-headed, whacky, breathtakingly threatening
schemes George W. Bush is trying to sell us in his acceptance speech tonight
is something he and his handlers call, "the Ownership Society." Sounds cool
"ownership." Everyone gets a piece of the action. Everyone's a winner as
the economy zooms. All boats rise.
Sure. Behind the hooray-for-free-enterprise crapola is that dog-eared
game-plan to siphon off Social Security revenues to pay for making Bush's
tax cuts for the rich permanent.
Here's what the President has in mind. Social Security is an insurance plan
You pay in, you get back. But it's hard to get your money back when there
s a war where the Clinton surplus used to be. It's not the war on terror,
or the war in Iraq, though Lord knows those have cost us a bundle with
nothing to show for all the lost loot. I'm talking about the class war that
Dubya and his Dick Cheney have waged on the average working person.
We're talking an economic Pearl Harbor here. While firemen and policemen
went running into falling buildings, the Bushmen were preparing to relieve
some gazillionaires, such as say, the Bush family, of the need to pay the
taxes that the rest of us pay. Work as a teacher, you pay Social Security
and income taxes on every darn penny. Sit on your yacht and speculate in
the stock market casino and you are off the hook on taxes on the "capital
gains."
Bill Clinton proposed putting his big surpluses into a Social Security
lock-box" for that predictable rainy day. But tonight, Bush instead
proposes to give the stock-options class a boost by lopping off a chunk of
Social Security insurance revenue for gambling in the stock market. He had
this same idea in 2000. If he'd had his way on his inauguration day, the
average "owner" in America, investing in the stock market, would be 7%
poorer, many flat busted. Some "security." Happy elderly "owners" would be
hunting for lunch in the garbage cans under Madison Square Garden.
Here's the latest report from the front lines of the class war: The World
Bank reports the USA has more millionaires than ever -- we'll see them at
the Garden tonight. Median household income's down -- most of us are median
-- while the bottom has fallen out for those at the bottom. Our poorest 20%
have seen incomes drop by a fifth. America's upper one percent now own 53%
of all the shares in the market.
And now the uppers want to crack open your retirement piggy bank, cut some
of your retirement benefits, then "allow" you to give them the remainder of
your money to fund their latest stock float schemes.
If betting trillions on stock market ponies doesn't produce a big win, what
does Mr. Bush propose to do with all the hungry old folk? I think I heard
George say, "Let them eat Enron certificates."
And the future market fall, Mr. President, is a slam-dunk certainty. Let's
do the math. OK, class, we all buy stock this afternoon to fund our
retirement. In fifteen years, baby-boomers are ready to kick back, take it
easy and retire on the stock they're about to sell. Did I say, "SELL"? And
HOW. Around 2020, tens of millions of "owners" will be selling their shares
… to whom? CRRRRASH!
A deliberate policy of aiming for another 1929 is appropriate for the
top-hat and pinky-ring party of Herbert Hoover.
The big problem is that supposedly non-partisan and even Democratic poobahs
are rushing to "reform" Social Security. We have Alan Greenspan, who has
barely a word to say about the multi-trillion dollar deficit wrought by Mr.
Bush's tax cuts, yet is already warning about some disaster in Social
Security based on "trends." Well, if we go by his own trend, the Fed chief
will soon be marrying a 12-year-old Girl Scout.
Hey, Alan, back to Economics 101 for you. As the boomers hit retirement age
we're going to need added borrowing for transfer payments like Social
Security to maintain purchasing power to keep the economy alive while
millions of old folk dump assets.
Listen, Mr. President, we had an "ownership" society once before. Luckily,
it came to an end when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
****
Greg Palast, nominated Britain's Business Writer of the Year by the UK Press
Association for his writings in the Guardian papers, is the author of the
New York Times bestseller, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." This month,
Palast, who has returned to his native USA, will release, "Bush Family
Fortunes," the film based on his investigative reports for BBC television.
[New York] Of all the bone-headed, whacky, breathtakingly threatening
schemes George W. Bush is trying to sell us in his acceptance speech tonight
is something he and his handlers call, "the Ownership Society." Sounds cool
"ownership." Everyone gets a piece of the action. Everyone's a winner as
the economy zooms. All boats rise.
Sure. Behind the hooray-for-free-enterprise crapola is that dog-eared
game-plan to siphon off Social Security revenues to pay for making Bush's
tax cuts for the rich permanent.
Here's what the President has in mind. Social Security is an insurance plan
You pay in, you get back. But it's hard to get your money back when there
s a war where the Clinton surplus used to be. It's not the war on terror,
or the war in Iraq, though Lord knows those have cost us a bundle with
nothing to show for all the lost loot. I'm talking about the class war that
Dubya and his Dick Cheney have waged on the average working person.
We're talking an economic Pearl Harbor here. While firemen and policemen
went running into falling buildings, the Bushmen were preparing to relieve
some gazillionaires, such as say, the Bush family, of the need to pay the
taxes that the rest of us pay. Work as a teacher, you pay Social Security
and income taxes on every darn penny. Sit on your yacht and speculate in
the stock market casino and you are off the hook on taxes on the "capital
gains."
Bill Clinton proposed putting his big surpluses into a Social Security
lock-box" for that predictable rainy day. But tonight, Bush instead
proposes to give the stock-options class a boost by lopping off a chunk of
Social Security insurance revenue for gambling in the stock market. He had
this same idea in 2000. If he'd had his way on his inauguration day, the
average "owner" in America, investing in the stock market, would be 7%
poorer, many flat busted. Some "security." Happy elderly "owners" would be
hunting for lunch in the garbage cans under Madison Square Garden.
Here's the latest report from the front lines of the class war: The World
Bank reports the USA has more millionaires than ever -- we'll see them at
the Garden tonight. Median household income's down -- most of us are median
-- while the bottom has fallen out for those at the bottom. Our poorest 20%
have seen incomes drop by a fifth. America's upper one percent now own 53%
of all the shares in the market.
And now the uppers want to crack open your retirement piggy bank, cut some
of your retirement benefits, then "allow" you to give them the remainder of
your money to fund their latest stock float schemes.
If betting trillions on stock market ponies doesn't produce a big win, what
does Mr. Bush propose to do with all the hungry old folk? I think I heard
George say, "Let them eat Enron certificates."
And the future market fall, Mr. President, is a slam-dunk certainty. Let's
do the math. OK, class, we all buy stock this afternoon to fund our
retirement. In fifteen years, baby-boomers are ready to kick back, take it
easy and retire on the stock they're about to sell. Did I say, "SELL"? And
HOW. Around 2020, tens of millions of "owners" will be selling their shares
… to whom? CRRRRASH!
A deliberate policy of aiming for another 1929 is appropriate for the
top-hat and pinky-ring party of Herbert Hoover.
The big problem is that supposedly non-partisan and even Democratic poobahs
are rushing to "reform" Social Security. We have Alan Greenspan, who has
barely a word to say about the multi-trillion dollar deficit wrought by Mr.
Bush's tax cuts, yet is already warning about some disaster in Social
Security based on "trends." Well, if we go by his own trend, the Fed chief
will soon be marrying a 12-year-old Girl Scout.
Hey, Alan, back to Economics 101 for you. As the boomers hit retirement age
we're going to need added borrowing for transfer payments like Social
Security to maintain purchasing power to keep the economy alive while
millions of old folk dump assets.
Listen, Mr. President, we had an "ownership" society once before. Luckily,
it came to an end when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
****
Greg Palast, nominated Britain's Business Writer of the Year by the UK Press
Association for his writings in the Guardian papers, is the author of the
New York Times bestseller, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." This month,
Palast, who has returned to his native USA, will release, "Bush Family
Fortunes," the film based on his investigative reports for BBC television.
posted by R7 | 9/02/2004 10:56:00 PM
1 Comments:
What Ownership Society?
Robert B. Reich
September 02, 2004
The idea of an ownership society—where everyone has private retirement and investment accounts, rather than Social Security—is great, if you've got extra money to invest for your future. Problem is, most Americans don't. Robert Reich shares ideas on what a real ownership society would require. For more of Bush's plans for a second term, see Roger Hickey's thorough analysis here .
Robert B. Reich is the Maurice B. Hexter Professor of Social and Economic Policy at Brandeis University, and was the secretary of labor under former President Bill Clinton.
You won’t be hearing much at the Republican Convention about jobs and wages, because job growth has stalled and wages are stagnant. But you will hear about something Republicans are now calling the "Ownership Society." The notion is to expand private ownership through more tax cuts on capital investments, tax credits for saving and privatized Social Security.
Sounds nice, but here’s the problem: The Republican rhetoric assumes most Americans can save and invest. The reality is, most Americans are deep in debt. Before they can join the "Ownership Society" they’ve got to pay their credit card bills, their rising variable-rate mortgages and their auto loans. After that, there’s no money left because jobs are in short supply and wages are stuck in the mud.
The Commerce Department reported this week that personal incomes rose a measly one-tenth of one percent in July, the lowest rise in almost two years. And—given rising prices for food, fuel and health insurance—consumers spent more than they earned. So last month, Americans went even deeper into debt. The result: Less ownership, not more.
It’s true that more than half of American households now own stocks in corporations. But for most, it’s just a few thousand dollars worth. And the total value of their current portfolio is less than they invested. They got lured into the stock market during the late '90s when stock prices were pumped up with accounting steroids.
The fact is, an Ownership Society based on the stock market would be a casino. The Bush administration would like you to put your Social Security payments into the stock market, but beware. If your timing is bad, you could find yourself retiring in a bear market. It’s happened before. That’s one of the reasons Social Security—as social insurance—was invented.
Face it: The Republican "Ownership Society" is hokum. Ownership of America is now more concentrated than since the days of the Robber Barons of the 19th century. The richest 1 percent of America owns more than the the bottom 90 percent put together.
There are only two ways to reverse this trend, neither of which the Bush administration will support. The first is to enact a progressive tax on wealth—say, one-tenth of 1 percent per year, on those who own the most. Right now, the only wealth that's taxed is real property. The property tax is often regressive because poor and working-class families tend to cluster in their own communities, which means they pay through their noses for schools and local services.
A fairer system would tax total wealth, and it would be administered nationally. Revenues could be distributed to communities on the basis of population—enabling poor communities to have good schools and better services. If George Bush suggests this Thursday night, I’ll eat my spinach.
The second way to reverse the concentration of wealth in America is with an educational system that assures that every American can make the most of his or her God-given talents and abilities, and become rich one day if that’s what she wants. But that's not what Bush has done. The administration has left the "No Child Left Behind Act" woefully underfunded, so states don’t have enough money to respond to children who are left behind in lousy schools. And the administration has cut funds for job training, making it even harder for today’s workers to get the skills they need to get ahead.
I’m all in favor of a real Ownership Society. But that’s not at all what Republicans are selling.
This commentary originally appeared on Marketplace, public radio's only daily business news program and is reprinted via a special arrangement between TomPaine.com and Robert Reich. Marketplace is produced by Minnesota Public Radio and is heard on 322 public radio stations nationwide. More online at www.marketplace.org.
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