Why Thousands May Die (The era of 'big government' is over)

[Q]

Published on Thursday, September 1, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Why Thousands May Die
by Cynthia Bogard
 
With a horrible decisiveness, Hurricane Katrina has sheared off the front of the American doll house, leaving our decimated national infrastructure for all the world to see. It's not a pretty sight, especially given the current administration's propensity to bluster about America as "the greatest nation on earth" and the "world's superpower."

The consequences of a generation of looting the funding for public works projects, anti-poverty programs, and local and national administrative capacity coupled with rollbacks of federal energy and environmental regulation have been revealed in all their stark reality by this epic storm. Relentless Republican-led but Democratic Leadership Council-supported attacks on "big government" (by which they meant programs of no immediate use to global corporations) in the past two decades have been remarkably successful. "The era of big government," as DLC poster boy Bill Clinton famously declared in the mid 1990s, "is over."

He was talking about what other wealthy democratic nations refer to as their "welfare state"--that constellation of tax-financed regulations and services that provide citizen security on "quality of life" issues such as housing, education, healthcare, safety, a healthy environment and economic stability in times of unemployment. Included also in other nation's welfare states is public infrastructure that can be counted on in such areas as transportation, communication, electricity, and clean water. In other wealthy democracies, that's what government is largely for; these are the kinds of citizen protections those living in poor nations dream about.

Now that Katrina's come to town, it's become all too apparent how far down the road to the wholesale giveaway of America's collective wealth to its wealthy we have traveled. And the consequences of purposely destroying our modest welfare state have become devastatingly clear--well, at least to some.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0901-31.htm

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Bush screws up ...

... and still, we bash Bill Clinton.

I can almost hear Yakov Smirnoff: "What a country!"

--p!

[Q]

4. I think you're missing the big picture here...

Our country's infrastructure has been sold out from under our feet. Our culture and society is crumbling...and all you can think about is whether Clinton gets some of the blame?

[Dogmudgeon]

9. ALL I can think of?

Tell me something -- who started the thread?

You posted the article that starts out by attacking Clinton. And you accuse me of tunnel vision? Spare me the "big picture" appeals and the Simon-pure picture of virtue.

A major part of the damage control will be to fob as much of this off on Clinton as possible -- and hand the bill to the rest of us. Whether it is done from the pages of National Review or Common Dreams is immaterial. Team Bush will take as little of the blame as is humanly possible.

Clinton funded FEMA and the New Orleans levee improvement program. Bush de-funded it. But the pundits will certainly say, "Look, even the Left acknowleges that Clinton is to blame!"

The Big Picture also shows that infrastructure issues were not neglected by Clinton, nor Carter, nor even Ford or Nixon. Even Nixon's response to Hurricane Camille in 1969 was quick and generous. Reagan and the Bushes have long yearned to outsource disaster preparedness and responsibility for infrastructure maintainance. They got their wish -- we got our nightmare.

--p!

[T Town Jake]

10. Incredible, isn't it?...

...clicking on any "Clinton" thread here lately is not much different than surfing through freeperville. 'Cept, at least the freepers aren't hypocrites about the matter: their blind hatred for Bill Clinton is animated by straight-forward partisan fervor and fanaticism.

The Clinton-hating horseshit being peddled around here, on the other hand, is by people who should know better, and yet somehow don't...

Hmmmm....

[jonnyblitz]

11. comparing people who criticize Clinton to freepers is BULLSHIT

if he behaves as badly as a republican by passing or supporting right wing legislatiion that hurts the poor then DAMN RIGHT he is going to get criticized on a progressive discussion board!!

[HereSince1628]

2. The pursuit of profit stretched the veneer of civilization to its limit

and Katrina has torn it open. Just as in the last days of the Soviet Union, there is no depth behind the facade of government. FEMA is a Potempkin government agency.

[whistle]

3. Correct, phony rhetoric for the past 56 months and total Bushit....

...being fed to the nation every single day. FEMA, Homeland Security, military adventure in Iraq and Afghanistan, tax breaks for the wealthiest, economy based on war and expanding debt, U.S. dollar tanking, interest rates rising, real inflation well into double digits, jobs out-sourced, industries out-sourced, an entire region decimated creating millions of refugees and jobless families and Bush steps forward with religious mobsters and says "send cash". Just talk, repuke talk!

No federal money or even the resources to provide help and relief to victims in the city of New Orleans, all funding has gone to Bush's War. Bastards, all of them must be impeached and put on trial for treason and crimes against the people of the United States.

[Q]

5. Good summary...

...but who will put them on 'trial'? Republicans? Democrats?

As America crumbles into the dust...so does our institutions and the checks and balances that USED TO work to keep the executive branch from becoming too powerful and usurping power of the other branches.

[whistle]

6. Good point....maybe special prosecutors for the people....

...made up by the people.

[Q]

8. The answer is simple: force our representatives to honor oaths of office..

...and protect and defend the Constitution and rule of law.

We now live in a country where the rule of law applies ONLY to the citizens and not those who presume to govern in their name.

[Q]

7. Homeland Emergency: Disaster Relief Suffering Under New DHS Bureaucracy

Thursday, September 1st, 2005
Homeland Emergency: Disaster Relief Suffering Under New DHS Bureaucracy

The Department of Homeland Security is spending billions on domestic spying and counter terrorism – is disaster relief getting sidelined? We look at the first major test of the massive homeland security bureaucracy with Matthew Brzezinski, author of “Fortress America.”

New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin estimated Tuesday that hundreds, maybe thousands of people have died since Hurricane Katrina hit the city. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is scrambling to find temporary housing for tens of thousands of people and to rescue people stranded on roofs and in the now-uninhabitable Super Dome. We turn now to the politics behind FEMA's relief efforts and ask the question - would Katrina have been so devastating if disaster relief had not been incorporated into the Department of Homeland Security?

FEMA was created in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and President Bill Clinton elevated the head of FEMA to a cabinet-level position in 1992. But after September 11, 2001, President Bush moved the agency under the umbrella of the newly created Department of Homeland Security. While FEMA oversees both disaster preparedness and relief, it may soon be reduced to coordinating only post-disaster efforts. Critics say this narrower mandate would limit the effectiveness of FEMA's work and that operating within the Department of Homeland Security consigns disaster relief to a lower priority than counter-terrorism related activities.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/01/147228

[Frederik]

12. Precisely

This is what "small government" means. And Clinton definitely deserves some of the blame for this.

[ElectroPrincess]

13. Oh no you don't! It's THIS government,, large or small is a moot point

It's just the freepers "stunt" to privatize every DAMN THING to include the Government.

These Vampires are Shameless. The Government exists for our highways, should exist for our health care, services etc. etc.

Our Government should not stand for Corporate welfare to the Oil, Gas and Pharmaceutic Mega-Companies. <--- This is the problem!

Not LARGE government per se, but "Corporate Run" vice "For the Working People" Government.

On Edit: Q, I'm not hitting on you for I understand your clarifications.

I just don't want THIS to be the excuse for the Bush Administration to give "corporate giveaways" by privatizing more of our military and other government agencies.

[Q]

14. You're right...

...but the point is this giveaway and 'privatization' of our country and government has been going on since the Reagan 80s. Clinton only enters into the picture because of the DLC's 'cooperation' with the Right in helping transform government into a front for corporations and selling off and neglecting resources and infrastructure.

When the Right (and the DLC) talks about the 'end of big government'...they mean replacing social with corporate welfare and privatizing everything they can get their hands on.