Blast from 2009..CHOMSKY.."Does Obama recycle George W. Bush’s plans?"

[KoKo]

Does Obama recycle George W. Bush’s plans?

Noam Chomsky
Published: 11 May, 2009, 11:31


What are the perspectives of NATO expansion? Is U.S. policy in Afghanistan escalating the war in the region?

To discuss this and much more, RT interviews Professor Noam Chomsky, political activist, philosopher, and author.

RT: Professor Chomsky, thank you very much for joining us today. You said that president Obama is simply recycling Bush’s plans when it comes to bank reform, and not getting to the heart of the problem. What do you mean by that?

Noam Chomsky: The essence of the Obama – Gartner program is not all that different from the Bush – Paulsen programs, and it has been pointed out by plenty of leading specialists.

They point out quite accurately that these programs’ basic principle is to preserve the institutions intact, whereas to deal with the problem you have to modify the institutions. In my view – considerably, but in his view, a conservative revision. So, break up the banks, give up the insurance policy which is called “too big to fail” which is not an insurance policy and permits, in fact encourages, the big banks to take very risky investments and make huge profits. This happens repeatedly. We need real institutional changes, but the principle of the Bush – Paulsen – Obama – Summers plan is to keep the institutions intact without change and try to get them over their current difficulties, and then go on to keep them alive, and then let them maintain their fundamental structure intact.

RT: Doesn't this go against everything that Obama promised about changing and fixing Washington?

N.C.: Elections in the US are essentially run by the public relations industry which manages elections. They sell candidates the way they sell toothpaste on TV. Think of the circumstances during the election, and imagine yourself as an advertising executive. You have a country where about 80% of the population thinks it is going the wrong way, thinks the government does not work for us. It works for a few looking out for themselves. Of course, you are going to make your slogan “Change of hope and unity." And a crucial difference in the campaign was that the financial industries which are the major funders preferred Obama to McCain, so he was far better funded by the financial industries since neo-liberalism has become overwhelmingly important in the US and the world in fact. So yes, they were brought in to fix up the crisis they created. And of course, they are going to fix it up so the institutional structures remain the same.

RT: What you are describing doesn't necessarily sound like a democracy, like a functioning healthy democracy?

N.C.: This is not a functional healthy democracy. In fact there is a very substantial split, a gap actually, between public opinion and public policy on a great many issues. So take for example the leading domestic issue for decades, it's been the healthcare system. And the healthcare system is catastrophic, and that hurts people. When your mother is dying in hospital, and you cannot pay for it.

MUCH MORE AT:
http://rt.com/usa/news/does-obama-recycle-george-w-bush-s-plans/

[yardwork]

1. Chomsky is absolutely right, as usual.