------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 18, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
IT'S ALL HYPE: BUSH HAS NO PLAN FOR LAID-OFF WORKERS By Gary Wilson Has President George W. Bush flip-flopped from economic reactionary to economic liberal? Has he become a proponent of government spending in order to end the economic recession? Following the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Bush began outlining a new economic policy that included rebuilding New York and increasing "security" with more funds for the military. There was also a bailout for the airline companies, but that was said to be necessary because so much was lost in the airline industry in the weeks after the attack. The amount of money being projected for these new emergency programs was around $100 billion, give or take a few billion depending on which newspaper account you read. Everyone was supposed to get behind the president and cheer for this new plan. There were a few details, however, that muted the cheers. Some questions could be heard. Labor unionists showed up on Capitol Hill to question Congress. Why were the airline bosses being bailed out, while more than 140,000 workers were being laid off by those same bosses? And what about the workers suffering from the failing economy because of a recession that began before the attack and has gotten worse since? So Bush started talking about extending unemployment benefits. For a while the media was full of pictures of Bush shaking hands with workers, going out to meet real people, and so on. He suddenly became a regular guy who wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth and he was going to use government spending to stimulate the economy. Whew. That was a big change. The European press was universally amazed. The Financial Times of London wrote about the "conversion of Mr. Bush and his Republican Party to the cause of fiscal stimulus." That's the economists' term for liberal social spending programs. LITTLE BEHIND THE HYPE The U.S. press was full of reports that could have been written by public relations specialists about how the whole country was coming together, and the sure sign of it was President Bush's plan to extend unemployment benefits and other measures using government spending to stimulate the economy and pull it out of a recession. Oh yes, and all this while launching a war on Afghanistan. But, according to the Web site of the AFL-CIO, extended benefits aren't going to get to most of the people who need them. Last year, only 39 percent of those unemployed received any benefits at all because the majority were low- paid, often part-time or contract workers not covered by unemployment insurance. In this economic slowdown many restaurant and hotel workers are being laid off, and they fit right into this category, along with nearly two-thirds of the workforce. Furthermore, Bush's plan requires that a state's unemployment level must have risen by 30 percent since Sept. 11 to qualify for the extended benefits. This high "trigger" means that very few states will qualify unless the recession deepens into a disastrous depression, and that could take a while, leaving those laid off right now with no extended benefits. And undocumented workers, a significant segment of the U.S. workforce, receive no benefits of any kind if they lose their jobs. That won't change under anything being proposed by Bush or the Democrats. What about the war? Maybe Bush and the Republicans, like most of the Democrats, think that a war will pull the economy out of the capitalist recession. The problem is, they will quickly find it difficult to sell the "necessary war sacrifices." There might be more than just a few questions asked about who is doing the sacrificing and for what. So Bush started emphasizing his "stimulus" plans. He even reworded a new tax proposal, a total of $75 billion in cuts for the wealthy and businesses, and called it an "anti- recession relief" plan. Paul Krugman, an economics columnist for the New York Times, noted on Oct. 7 that Bush's plan to stimulate the economy seems to be almost all tax cuts. A "key administration proposal is an acceleration of tax cuts for higher income brackets," Krugman writes. The tax cuts won't stimulate the economy much, if at all, Krugman continues, but the real reason they are being accelerated now is because there is a "growing likelihood that part of the tax cut will eventually be rescinded." In other words, grab the tax cuts for the rich now before anyone can ask who is going to pay for Bush's new spending plans. ROBBING PENSIONS, HEALTH FUNDS TO PAY FOR WAR That's because the big-ticket items in Bush's stimulus package, such as doubling the increase in military spending, have to be paid for somehow. Right now, the only place to get those funds are from the Social Security and Medicare funds. These are the funds that candidate Bush used to say were in a locked box that would never be touched. But the locked box is being broken into and the funds stolen. According to Laura Tyson, the former chief economic adviser to President Bill Clinton, the big tax cuts being proposed as well as the spending increases can only be paid for in one way: "In the short run, there is only one choice: funds pledged to Medicare and Social Security will have to be used. Because of the tax cuts passed last spring, nothing else remains in the government's coffers." (New York Times, Oct. 8) So Bush may be making speeches that make it sound like everyone will get an equal helping hand from the government, whether you are an airline employee or a Wall Street banker or an arms merchant. But the reality is that a recession is coming on strong and the rich are making a grab for what funds are left in the government's vaults. And while they are at it, they'll be glad to sell the government whatever it wants for the war effort, at inflated prices, of course. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
