WHY Does Bush Want to Bankrupt Middle Class & Send Elderly to Poorhouse?

[Stephanie]

If, as everyone is saying today, the Bush SS plan will steal the principal plus 3% and leave the elderly to live on just the interest they can earn above that - if 80% of their savings will be taken by the government...

And if, as we have heard, he wants to let employers off the hook and force people to pay their medical bills from savings accounts, when we know that medical bills already lead to more bankruptcies than anything else ...

WHAT exactly is the larger goal here? WHY does BushCO want a bankrupt middle class and poverty-stricken retirees? What is the point? What are they after? I just don't get it. Can anyone explain?

When they lied about WMDs we were able to find their real reasons for invading Iraq by studying the PNAC papers. Where can we find the actual reason for these insane policies? Can anyone explain to me? Feeling very dense here.

[Birthmark]

1. Upward redistribution of wealth

The biggest plank of the Republican Party. They figure that by the time the people revolt, those who benefited from this reverse Robin Hood game (Bush & Friends) will already be dead. So, who cares? In the meantime, these thieves will be rolling in our money.

[moodforaday]

8. Another reason

Distribution of wealth certainly. Secondly, people who struggle economically are more docile. The Beat Generation were people of ideas (whetever your opinion of those ideas is). They were predominantly middle class kids who didnt have a lot of economic worries. If all your time is spent earning bread, you won't be doing much protesting, and when you do, it'll be about poverty rather than human rights.

[musette_sf]

2. Read "Crossing The Rubicon"

By the time you get through the introduction, this will all be spelled out for you.

Genocide of all but "The Elites" is their goal.

[CindyDale]

4. So "elites" is a euphemism for "chimpamzees"

I always wondered what that word meant.

[LizW]

25. I was going to post the same thing!

I'm reading this book now and it's scaring the holy crap out of me!

[musette_sf]

33. I have to plan *when* I read it

because it is so very disturbing.

[Stephanie]

27. This one?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0865715408/qid=1107457249/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-9419259-0306518?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil
by Michael C. Ruppert, Catherine Austin Fitts

Mike Ruppert is the Publisher/Editor of From the Wilderness, a newsletter read by more than 16,000 subscribers in 40 countries. A former LAPD narcotics investigator, he is widely known for his groundbreaking stories on US involvement in the drug trade, Peak Oil and 9/11.

Product Description:
The attacks of September 11, 2001 were accomplished through an amazing orchestration of logistics and personnel. Crossing the Rubicon discovers and identifies key suspects - finding some of them in the highest echelons of American government - by showing how they acted in concert to guarantee that the attacks produced the desired result.

Crossing the Rubicon is unique not only for its case-breaking examination of 9/11, but for the breadth and depth of its world picture - an interdisciplinary analysis of petroleum, geopolitics, narco-traffic, intelligence and militarism - without which 9/11 cannot be understood.

The US manufacturing sector has been mostly replaced by speculation on financial data whose underlying economic reality is a dark secret. Hundreds of billions of dollars in laundered drug money flow through Wall Street each year from opium and coca fields maintained by CIA-sponsored warlords and US-backed covert paramilitary violence. America's global dominance depends on a continually turning mill of guns, drugs, oil and money. Oil and natural gas - the fuels that make economic growth possible - are subsidized by American military force and foreign lending.

In reality, 9/11 and the resulting "War on Terror" are parts of a massive authoritarian response to an emerging economic crisis of unprecedented scale. Peak Oil - the beginning of the end for our industrial civilization - is driving the elites of American power to implement unthinkably draconian measures of repression, warfare and population control. Crossing the Rubicon is more than a story. It is a map of the perilous terrain through which, together and alone, we are all now making our way.

[bloom]

3. Reading Zinn the other day

It mentioned how Jefferson had a plan to get the Native Americans (after they were moved) to become indebted so that their lands could be taken away. (Our gov't still does this to countries).

On Food Wars on LINK TV - they were talking about people who were forced at gun point to live and work on the industrial farms.

Maybe B**h's utopia is to have us all be slaves to the corporations - more than we are now.

[PA Democrat]

38. Yes, now debtor nations have to agree to provisions set by the World Bank

to keep their economies from collapsing. They are generally forced to privatize all their resources, lower workers' wages, and eliminate government jobs. The only people who benefit are the greedy corporate CEO's and their big shareholders.

[killbotfactory]

5. Because there's money in it for his friends

And they are social darwinists.

[SammyWinstonJack]

7. Survival of the richest?

:shrug:

[killbotfactory]

10. Worthington's law: Richer than = Better than

Royal families must protect their precious bloodlines by weeding out the mongrel poor people.

[Just Me]

6. Because he's radically pro-corporate, pro-rich and anti-American.

He serves the wealthiest few on the backs (with blood and treasure) of the remaining 95% of our people.

While he LOVES and SERVES greed, he hates Americans and has no appreciation of their lives except to the extent they can be capitalized upon.

[SammyWinstonJack]

9. BINGO!

In a nutshell.

[Done]

11. It amazes me that rich banks engage in predatory loans...

...and take the homes of poor people. How much money do they need? :shrug:

[killbotfactory]

17. Haven't you read the gospel of Gordon Gekko?

Greed is good. Greed works.

[durablend]

19. How much money do they need...

As much as they can get, of course!

[SoCalDem]

35. They "need" ALL of it...n/t

:(

[Betsy Ross]

12. We don't have poorhouses anymore.

Guess we'll have to get the faith-based community to build them.

[Cleita]

13. Traveling in third world countries with my parents, I know

first hand about the haves and have nots. Most of these injustices can be fixed for the benefit of every citizen not just a few greedy ones. I don't understand the mentality that permits this let alone the mentality that causes it to happen like the PNACers are hellbent on doing.

[Octafish]

14. The New Feudalism

The one on the far left is really a crazy monkey. We, OTOH, are considered the small figure on the far right.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

15. I hate to sound like a broken record, but...

...let's not forget John Linder's "National Sales Tax" proposal, which will be the NEXT battle to be fought AFTER the Social Security debacle. It will make the SS mess look like a walk in the park and carries a far more deadly payload. As John Kerry said during the election (when Bush DENIED interest in the plan AFTER saying "we should take a serious look at it"), "Every day for the average American will be April 15th. Every trip to the supermarket will be like a trip to H&R Block."

What is Bush after? What are the people who keep him propped up as Boy King...the remnants of Pappy Bush's old administration...after?

I learned a simple principle a long time ago. The rich like being rich, and the rich don't give a rat's ass if the rest of us live or die. In their minds we are here EXCLUSIVELY to "serve" them, and we CAN be replaced...easily (note that Bush is also banging the drum again for his "guest worker program").

Bush's "base" doesn't NEED Social Security. The so-called "investment nest egg" accounts would fluff up Wall Street and create a "war chest" to fund GOP initiatives, so the base wins and everyone else loses.

National Sales Tax? Look at it this way. If the middle-to-upper middle class worker "consumes" $40,000 per year (cost of goods and services which will ALL be taxed, including rent and medical visits) and has $10,000 left over, he / she is MUCH WORSE OFF than a worker who "consumes" $40,000 per year and has $100,000 left.

Bush wants wage slaves to feed his base. Bush wants access to the funds of these slaves to feed his base.

Stephanie, it's ALL about his base. Beyond that, there is NOTHING.

[durablend]

20. Minimum wage laws are next after that...

Definitely what repukes see as one of the worst anti-business laws out there. Simply NO WAY to compete with people making .25 a day in China if you're paying $5.15 an hour here so they're going to be gunning to abolish it.

[Stephanie]

22. Is there a policy paper somewhere that spells this out?

They must have justified it to themselves differently. We know they are lying in their public pronouncements, but in their justifications to each other in policy papers they must have some semi-plausible reason for this. In what way are they trying to shape society with these plans? Their policy papers can't possible say "rob from the poor and give to the rich." So what is it?

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

28. They just present a false premise up front as "justification"

Going back to the tax code example:

Bush proposes a "simpler, more fair" code.

So, to make it simpler and more fair, they do away with the deductions which are at the heart of any breaks received by the middle class.

They propose a "reward" for "saving," but if your "consumption" skyrockets because you are now paying 150-160% of the sticker price on EVERYTHING (as well as services that aren't being taxed right now, like your rent and medical visits), you aren't saving much, so you won't get "rewarded" much.

UNLESS you have a lot left over after you consume, like Bush's "base." THEN you get a reward for "saving," because you actually have money that you CAN "save."

Here's John Linder's Web Site:

http://linder.house.gov/

You can read whatever you'd like about his National Sales Tax proposal there, but it won't say "rob from the poor and give to the rich."

Also remember that his #1 supporter on this proposal is Dennis Hastert, who recently PROMOTED Linder into a position for the sole purpose of giving him greater leverage on this proposal once Social Security is out of the way.

It's like Skull & Bones. It's a secret society, and I don;t mean that in a tinfoil hat kind of way.

SERIOUSLY...are we to believe that Cheney DOESN'T KNOW that the Halliburton money he will collect at the end of Bush's second term came from the spilled blood of American men and women? OF COURSE HE DOES.

But it's much, much easier for Bush's base to dip their fingers in purple ink and hug and cry and yell "wahoo" during the SOTU, because THEN if you oppose them, YOU'RE wrong. YOU'RE UNAMERICAN. You're part of the problem, not part of the solution.

It's evil, plain and simple. Just blind ambition without the roadblock of morals or a conscience.

[atreides1]

16. You Misunderstand His Plan

He and most of his fellow Republicans, and his supporters, don't believe that there should be a middle class, that there should only be two classes of people. The rich and "those people".

As for the elderly, once his plan is put into effect, there will be no poor houses or care homes for them to go to. Because most of them will die off.

I can't wait until I see the first elderly person sitting on a median with a sign that says "Please Help, Bush Wants Me Dead".
(sarcasm)

[Stirk]

18. The wealthy have come up with many rationalizations for it.

Everything from social Darwinism to Ayn Rand's "objectivism"- and alot more. They'll tell you poor people need an incentive to be productive. They've created a kind of pseudo-religion based on the free market, and they say that all things are made right by the free flow of capital.

It's all bullshit, of course. They're motivated by simple greed.

[bloom]

21. The Wall Street Journal's publisher

summed up what you are saying.

Their readers represent "privileged people".

They have a "clear and consistent philosophy" that amounts to "Belief in the virtue of individual liberties, free market, free trade, and even the free movement of people."




Liberties for the privileged.

[earthboundmisfit]

24. This all works in with the Christian Dominionists' view

that if you are having financial difficulty, it is because you are a sinner & therefore "not blessed", and the wealthy are the righteous. And - see various great Yurica Reports on these a**holes - they also advocate a form of indentured servitude (=slavery) for those in debt!

[ComerPerro]

23. He wants us to have absolute dependance on the ruling class

That's why he is trying to destroy public education as well.

He wants to make it so we will be indentured servants. We will have to take those $6/hour jobs eventuall, because there won't be anything else.

[Stephanie]

26. I'm looking for policy papers - this one is from AEI, by N. Gingrich

On Social Security Reform, the Daring Policy Is Best
Print Mail
By Newt Gingrich, Peter Ferrara
Posted: Wednesday, February 2, 2005
ARTICLES The Hill (Washington) Publication Date: February 2, 2005


<snip> Today, bond-market savants are raising similar questions about allowing workers a personal savings account option for Social Security. They argue that the government would have to issue trillions of dollars in transitional debt to cover promised benefits to today’s retirees while workers pay part of their payroll taxes into their personal retirement savings accounts. That debt, they again argue, would cause interest rates to soar, tanking the economy.

What these pessimists ignore is that the personal retirement savings accounts would guarantee huge sums in new investment funds moving into the markets as workers buy bonds and stocks for their accounts.

Consider the Social Security reform bill introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.). The American Shareholders Association estimates that, under the Ryan-Sununu personal retirement savings account plan, if workers invested half their savings in bonds and the other half in stocks $85 billion would flow into the bond markets in the very first year alone. An increase of this size would double current annual investment flows into corporate bonds.

Moreover, the chief actuary of Social Security estimates that, after the first 15 years of personal savings under Ryan-Sununu, workers would have accumulated $7.8 trillion in today’s dollars in their personal retirement savings accounts, which is roughly the same amount invested in the entire mutual-fund industry today.

After the first 25 years of personal savings under Ryan-Sununu, the chief actuary estimates, workers would have accumulated $16.6 trillion in today’s dollars in their accounts. Yet, under the policies specified in Ryan-Sununu, the government would have issued only $1.25 trillion in new federal bonds at that point. Even that would be paid off during the following 15 years by the surpluses that would then be generated by the reform, according to the chief actuary’s official score of the proposal.

http://www.aei.org/news/newsID.21910,filter.all/news_detail.asp

Not quite following but I guess the gist of it is private accts are good for the stockbrokers?

[UdoKier]

29. They are REPUBLICANS. That's what they DO.

It's what they were about in Herbert Hoover's time, and it still is today. This is what happens when they are unleashed with majority status in both houses. NOTHING has changed (except that the democrats have NEVER been this spineless and sold-out.)

[AP]

30. Cheap labor for big business. Also, when people are desperate

they're easier to control.

Bankrupting the middle class is the way to keep the people who are on top today on top forever.

[davhill]

31. They envision some sort of plantation society

Where the rich can build huge mansions and the lower classes are helpless and dependent upon the property owners for everything.

[bobbieinok]

32. isn't there some Grover Norquist statement that they want to eliminate

fed govt doing anything except military......absolutely no govt social programs at all

[Stephanie]

34. Yes - he said on Bill Moyers NOW that they want to shrink the federal govt

until it is small enough to drown in the bathtub.

That doesn't quite explain this stuff, though. This is more than shrinking govt. This is robbery.

[Disturbed]

36. Coming soon: Fascist Police State

The New Right Wing Agenda

"The most important implication of all this is that large segments of the domestic and world population are no longer seen as worth worrying about. On one level, this is just racism and classism. But there’s more than that going on. In the past, capitalism was optimistic and assumed that it would keep expanding, which provided the basis for a “corporate liberalism” that saw everyone in the world as a potential consumer and/or laborer - and therefore having some potential worth. But the new reactionaries see the future as much more of a zero-sum game. Partly, this is an expression of their incredible greed and corruption - their incessant efforts to rip off wealth for themselves and their narrow sets of cronies. In any case, the result is that most of Africa, large swaths of Latin America and Asia, and significant parts of the domestic US population have been simply written off -individuals who may arise from the trodden mass are welcome as junior partners, but there is no concern at all for the general well being of these sectors beyond token PR and the limited need to keep local elites from causing too much anti-American trouble on the world stage.

"The amazing thing is that the right wing fundamentalists have been able to seize power and win a large amount of support - or at least acquiescence -- among the US electorate. The people I talk with point to a number of contextual reasons. First, this country lacks any significant institutionalized alternative.

The Democratic Party is both complicit and fratricidal. The labor movement is the only really powerful potential organized opposition, but they are ideologically scattered, organizationally weak, and under unremitting attack. In addition, the powerful role of money in shaping our electoral outcomes is another key ingredient in the right wings success, as well as in keeping liberal (much less radical) alternatives from gaining influence in the Democratic Party.

The increasing dominance of US media by an incredibly small number of incredibly right wing corporations has a powerful impact. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the lack of any significant “third way,” and the resulting feeling that there is “no viable alternative” has been a very important context for the right wings’ ability to present themselves as inevitable and unstoppable. Finally, the current climate of insecurity, fear, and even paranoia - which the government and media are successfully doing their utmost to deepen and expand - plays an important role in making it hard for opposition to find political space.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0613-02.htm

[Stephanie]

37. Grover Norquist on NPR right now

If every American can look forward to retiring with real wealth and own stocks directly. Growth of conservative movement can be tracked directly from the 80's to today with the number of investors who own shares of stock.

Their theory is that if everyone is a stockholder, everyone will turn Republican

William Kristol: SS is the white whale, Moby Dick, the triumph of the New Deal. Conservatives think that was the moment of Democratic triumph and has to be modified into Republican triumph.

John Podesta: The president has already changed the terms of the debate. Has set the table on his terms. Big ideas, whether they are reckless or not is another matter.