Bad, or worse?
by Serge Halimi
September 2012
The US financial rot spread, causing a global economic crisis with
catastrophic results: no jobs, millions of property owners bankrupt, waning
social security. That was five years ago. Now it is quite possible that the
next incumbent of the White House may be Willard Mitt Romney, who owes his
immense fortune to financial speculation, delocalisation of jobs and tax
havens in the Cayman Islands.
His selection of Paul Ryan as Republican vice-presidential running mate
offers a glimpse of what the US might look like if voters opt for the
greater of two evils on 6 November. Barack Obama has already accepted a plan
to reduce the budget deficit by cutting spending on welfare without raising
the extraordinarily low level of tax on the highest incomes (
<
http://mondediplo.com/2012/09/01financialrot#nb1> 1), but this Democratic
surrender does not go nearly far enough for Ryan. Under his programme,
supported by Romney and endorsed by the Republican majority in the House of
Representatives, there would be further cuts in the 20% tax rate, the tax
ceiling would be brought down to 25%, the lowest since 1931, and there would
be an increase in defence spending between now and 2017; all this would be
achieved by reducing the ratio of the budget deficit to GDP to 10% of the
present level. How does Ryan expect to do this? By handing most of each
state's civil responsibilities over to the private sector or to charity.
Spending on Medicaid, the state-federal programme for the health of the
poor, would eventually be 78% lower (
<
http://mondediplo.com/2012/09/01financialrot#nb2> 2).
Since early last year, Obama has pursued a policy of austerity which has
been both ineffective and extremely harsh, in the US as elsewhere. He takes
credit for (rare) good news on the economic front, which he attributes to
his presidency; and he ascribes bad news (including the lack of jobs) to
Republican opposition. Insofar as these arguments are unlikely to mobilise
voters for him, Obama is counting on fear of Republican radical rightwing
views to get him elected for a second term. But what would he do with it,
when the promises of his first term are in shreds and the Congress elected
in November seems certain to be more rightwing than the one Obama faced when
he took office?
Once again, with a political system operating for the benefit of two parties
falling over each other to grant favours to the business community, millions
of Americans disenchanted with Obama's weakness will still be forced to vote
for him. So they will resign themselves and make the usual choice offered in
the US, that between bad and worse. But their decision will have wider
repercussions: victory for a Republican Party that is determined to demolish
any last remnant of a welfare state, devoted to a Christian fundamentalist
line and driven by a paranoid hatred of Islam would set an example for the
European right which is already tempted to go the same way.
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Received on Tue Sep 04 2012 - 18:16:29 EDT
