Hurricane aid used 'to test out rightwing social policies'

[sabra]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1575392,00.html

Hurricane aid used 'to test out rightwing social policies'

The Guardian

President Bush's multi-billion dollar reconstruction plans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina are being used as "a vast laboratory" for conservative social polices, administration critics claim.

The White House strategy involves the suspension of a series of regulations guaranteeing the going local wage and affirmative action for minorities, while offering tax incentives for businesses in the affected region.

Education aid for displaced children will include $500m (£276m) in vouchers for private schools, while a senior Republican has also proposed a new law permitting a wide-ranging waiver of environmental regulations.

The White House has argued that the deregulation measures are designed to disentangle the relief effort from federal red tape. But Democrats are furious at the proposals. They view them as an attempt to slip through unpopular policies under cover of the wave of sympathy for Katrina's victims. "The plan they're designing for the Gulf coast turns the region into a vast laboratory for rightwing ideological experiments," said John Kerry, the party's defeated 2004 presidential candidate.

[norml]

1. They are all about eliminating public services, protections, benefits, and

rights.

They have contempt for the very idea of there being a public good.

[slay]

2. "An attempt to slip through unpopular policies under cover of

the wave of sympathy for Katrina's victims." I think that quote pretty much says it all. That and, "The plan they're designing for the Gulf coast turns the region into a vast laboratory for rightwing ideological experiments." :( :mad:

[TankLV]

5. Just like after 911 - even more so.

Be afraid - be very afraid.

[moobu2]

3. Bush hates America.

[Kailassa]

4. Don't all Nazis?

Yet my Bush-loving friends daren't let themselves even think badly of Bush, for fear that would be disloyal to America and cause "the terrorists" to win. It's frustrating seeing the few freepers who believe they are atheists prostrating themselves adoringly in fromt of the bushgod, begging to be saved from poor people and terrorists.

[struggle4progress]

6. Well, who coulda predicted that?

:grr:

[Hissyspit]

7. The same right-wing socio-economic theories they are testing out in Iraq?

Read Naomi Klein.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. Specifically, her article in the September 2004 issue of Harpers

A real eye-opener

[Hissyspit]

18. Yes, thanks for looking that up.

You rock, etc. ;)

[Erika]

8. W pictures himself as world corporatist king

and damn the Americans if they disagree with him on education, environment, economic concerns, etc. The little gnats they are.

[lutefisk]

9. What are the odds they have legislation ready to go after Rita?

I predict something along the lines of "The Citizen Empowerment Act." Something like the Patriot Act that will pass quickly without anyone reading it. And, it will make tax cuts permanent, along with all provisions of the Patriot Act, among other things. Just a guess.

[Erika]

10. No chance

Congress has never been more torn about where to get the $ from. The GOP just wanted to keep borrowing it without regard to tomorrow, but it won't happen. So now, they will have to come up with offsets.

[lutefisk]

11. I hope things have changed since 2001.

But as of today, I don't see where there has been any significant resistance from members of the House or the Senate. A few brave and admirable men and women, but mostly a bunch of enablers.

As for "offsets," that seems to be what the Radical Right wants- no federal funding for any public benefit- only corporate benefit.

[Erika]

12. The GOP is in a tizzy as how to pay for these hurricanes

It's fun to watch.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. No it is not

for the moneys needed will not be there... nor will common sacrifice will be asked....

Now it is time to frame the ultra rich as hating america traitors for tehy don't want to help us recover from this... (and for the most part they are)

[sabra]

14. I wouldn't be surprised, nothing has stopped them in the past?

[PurityOfEssence]

15. Faith-based charities, vouchers for religious schools

It's just a bonanza, isn't it?

[november3rd]

17. They will fail

Everyone who has facts and inside information will see that the people are losing control of government and being deprived of a higher standard of living, wealth is flowing up the social ladder, public health, education and welfare are all jeopardized.

The question is, in the face of this evidence arising, will the neocons and the media be able to spin it so that everyone blames "the liberals." That is how, with supreme disregard for truth and the public interest, the "cons" will extend their policies beyond this new "laboratory."

[Demeter]

19. Excuse Me: What Is A Right WIng Social Policy?

All I can think of is concentration camps, death camps, gulags, and war. All social policies, all executed by the right wingers. None to be tried by any sane person.