Eschew Obfuscation: April 2005

Bush's Gambling Debts

Jeffrey Sachs looks at Bush's bad bet over at TomPaine.com.

"George W. Bush’s economic policies have been based on an extraordinarily reckless gamble that reflects a political coalition of two major forces: the super-rich and evangelical Christians. As those policies fail, global financial markets are reacting negatively, adding uncertainty to the world economy, and there is little relief in sight, because America is entering a period of prolonged political infighting and stalemate.

The super-rich were motivated to join the Bush coalition by one overriding objective: tax cuts. Evangelicals were brought in because of Bush’s opposition to abortion and gay marriage, and promises of active government support for religious activities.

Bush believed that tax cuts for the rich would one day be balanced by cuts in spending, but never explained this to the public. For four years, he pretended that budget deficits were of little concern. Only after re-election did he begin to explain that large budget deficits require cuts in Social Security, health care spending and other areas. "

Fun With Emoticons

What can I say? Check out this clever use of emoticons at Bounded Rationality which in turn points to Steven Clemons' dynamite material on John Bolton.

Disaster Capitalism

Naomi Klein wiritng in The Nation nails a disturbing modern phenomenon that she labels "Disaster Capitalism."

"Few ideologues can resist the allure of a blank slate--that was colonialism's seductive promise: 'discovering' wide-open new lands where utopia seemed possible. But colonialism is dead, or so we are told; there are no new places to discover, no terra nullius (there never was), no more blank pages on which, as Mao once said, 'the newest and most beautiful words can be written.' There is, however, plenty of destruction--countries smashed to rubble, whether by so-called Acts of God or by Acts of Bush (on orders from God)."

"We used to have vulgar colonialism," says Shalmali Guttal, a Bangalore-based researcher with Focus on the Global South. "Now we have sophisticated colonialism, and they call it 'reconstruction.'"

Plenty O' Cash

Amy Sullivan gets it right at The Washington Monthly: "IT'S OFFICIAL....The House is down, just the Senate to go. House Republicans voted overwhelmingly to permanently repeal the estate tax--at a cost, let's remember, of nearly $300 billion over the next decade.

So, to sum up: Actual prescription drug relief? There's no money. Armor to protect our troops? There's no money. The funds to back up the mandated reforms of No Child Left Behind? There's no money. Doing away with a tax on super rich kids? Plenty o' cash to spare.

But, silly me--I'm forgetting what's at stake here. Remind us, Congressman Cox: '[Supporters of the estate tax] want to pry lots of cash out of the cold, dead fingers of America's deceased entrepreneurs.'' That's your Congress. The demagoguery they just throw in for free."