-Caveat Lector-
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Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 18:15:01 -0500
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Screen 001 of 004 Record 0047 of 0373 General Magazine Catalog TRN
Library: North Dakota State Univ.
Location: LIBRARY does not own citation title
Database: EXPANDED ACADEMIC INDEX
Citation: Dollars & Sense Jan-Feb 1999, 221, 8(2)
Author: Bloch, Tobias Sheppard
Title: The true scandal of American politics.(1999 omnibus
budget bill) by Tobias Sheppard Bloch and Brendan
Smith
------------------------------------------------------------------------
COPYRIGHT 1999 Dollars & Sense
In a single 15 minute vote, the 535 members of Congress passed a 40 pound,
$500 billion, 4000 page bill that not one elected official had read in its
entirety. The bill, the Omnibus Appropriations Act, negotiated behind closed
doors by a handful of individuals representing Congressional leadership and
the White House, is swollen with so much rotten pork and dirty back room deals
that even veteran Washington pundits are holding their noses.
Stuffed to the gills with election-year goodies at the expense of
initiatives desperately needed by working America - health care reform, job
training, a minimum wage increase - the Omnibus bill whistles corporate
America's favorite tune. The bill teems with rebates for oil companies,
extended tax breaks for millionaires who own foreign companies, and $50
million for "war and revolution insurance" for corporations that throw
American workers out on the street and move their factories to unstable third
world countries. Congressional leaders even remembered old friends, setting
aside $2 million to start a Robert J. Dole Institute for Public Policy.
Seeking consolation in the 100,000 new teachers that Clinton insisted on
provides little comfort. The budget deal only pays for 30,000, while the other
70,000 are part of Clinton's education "initiative," with no money set aside.
Due to its enormous size, equaling one-third of the entire federal budget,
the Omnibus Appropriations Act contained many important programs. The funds
included in this bill will ensure that roads are built, seniors get their
medical prescription rebates, and family farms are saved. But that's the
trick. In order to get controversial measures passed that could not survive in
the light of day, the leadership coupled them with vital funding measures, and
therefore ensured passage of their favorite corporate welfare programs and
pork projects. Moreover, Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton took the opportunity
to attach several pieces of legislation that had been voted down on the House
floor, including $18 billion in funding for the IMF.
While this may shock those with a refined sense of democratic process,
Gingrich and Clinton couldn't be happier with the latest budget deal. Setting
aside their occasional disagreements over infidelity and abortion, this
marriage is based on philosophical agreement on most major issues, ranging
from economics and trade to defense priorities. Our President and Speaker of
the House come to the altar under a pro-business, pro-defense, pro-free trade
canopy. Life at the bargaining table is marital bliss when parties agree on
90% of issues, with no chance of divorce anytime in the foreseeable future.
Let's look at their latest pride-and-joy. Our illustrious couple added $9.1
billion to an already bloated $280 billion Pentagon budget, which represents
the largest peacetime military spending increase since the days of Ronald
Reagan's Cold War. Congressional leaders demanded $96 million in
"drug-interdiction" funding to aid the Colombian government in purchasing six
Black Hawk Helicopters to curtail Marxist guerrilla movements. The Republicans
insisted on earmarking funding for their defense contractor friends, but
refused to raise military pension benefits in order to help veterans
desperately in need.
They also added $1 billion to the useless $50 billion Star Wars program.
Each of the last five attempts to shoot missiles out of the sky has failed,
and the Department of Defense will tell you why. According to Gen. Henry
Shelton, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "putting more money into
[Ballistic Missile Defense] won't produce a product any sooner ... money will
not help solve the engineering and integration challenges that are being
faced."
Worst of all, the leadership of both parties poured $18 billion of US
taxpayers' funds down the International Monetary Fund (IMF) blackhole. The IMF
has become the prime architect and enforcer of corporate globalism. While
imposing a right-wing agenda on the developing world, the IMF has forced the
majority of the world's economies into a descent through hell. The recent
failures in South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand frighteningly emphasize the
IMF's disastrous policy prescriptions, which force countries to gut labor laws
and slash social spending for the poor in order to attract international
capital and bail out bankers.
This Gingrich-Clinton alliance is the true scandal of American politics.
Unlike the Monica affair, this marriage is fully consummated and brazenly
advertised. Unfortunately the relationship is far from impotent, allowing
policy to arrive nine months later that is deaf and mute to the needs of
working families in America.
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