A 'New Deal' Again
William Lucy, Secretary-Treasurer
President Franklin Roosevelt once said, "The test of our progress is . . . not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have too much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."
But the Bush administration, with its "Welfare for the Wealthy" tax cuts and a budget that forgoes direct aid to the states, has failed the test. Bush's wrong-headed policies have set us back 60 years, creating one of the largest gaps between the haves and the have-nots in the world.
THE REAL PROBLEMS. What's real for working families is layoffs: Verizon — 3,500; Kmart — 59,000; Food Lion — 1,500; Eastman Kodak — 2,200. Since Bush was appointed, nearly 2.5 million people no longer bring home a paycheck, no longer have health insurance, no longer can feed and house their families without going into debt — without declaring bankruptcy.
Unemployment hovers at almost 6 percent. There are 2.5 applicants for every opening.
When you lose jobs, you lose health care coverage. Eighty percent of the 41 million uninsured are from working families. Prescription drug costs comprise 40 to 60 percent of retirees' health care costs today.
From Sept. 30, 2001 to Sept. 30, 2002, Americans filed more than 1.5 million bankruptcies — the highest 12-month level in history.
Workers are increasing productivity, yet weekly wages continue to fall. So at the end of the third quarter of 2002, as productivity grew by almost 6 percent, weekly earnings declined by .5 percent.
Meanwhile, vultures have destroyed the nest eggs of working families. There's been a shift away from employer-provided, guaranteed pensions to plans funded by workers and employers or workers alone. This shift has made retirement savings vulnerable to deceitful corporate practices at places like Tyco and Enron, and to the highly combustible market. The Institute for America's Future estimated that Americans lost $175 billion in 401(k) savings in 2001 alone.
Our states have a $75 billion deficit, and that's just a 2003 deficit. It's ironic that only two years ago, states were in top form — the best in decades.
Today we've got a surge in the rolls for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). We've got waiting lists for child care assistance. Not enough money for prisons, for hospitals, for schools, for roads, for home-land security.
Today we've got a war — and a program to rebuild Iraq — that are projected to cost $170 to $550 billion, yet we are cutting veterans' health care to pay for it. President Bush just closed this door to 174,000 vet-erans. Last year, he wanted VA health care kept secret from new veterans. Perhaps he'll cut out this program and VA benefits for those fighting in Iraq.
RESUSCITATING THE AMERICAN DREAM. Bush's answer to every problem is always tax cuts for the very rich, but his tax cuts are killing the American economy.
Since many are saying this is the worst economic situation we've been in since the Great Depression, we might want to look at Franklin Roosevelt's solution — the largest network of federally funded programs ever created.
This was when Social Security was born. We should be shoring this program up, not cutting it down by depleting its Trust Fund. This was when the National Labor Relations Act was born, permitting collective bargaining. Now Bush wants to squash labor rights too.
The Works Progress Administration constructed or repaired schools, hospitals, airfields. The Civil Works Administration built or repaired roads, parks, airports. The Civilian Conservation Corps maintained and restored forests, beaches and parks.
The New Deal rebuilt the infrastructure. It created jobs. It provided funding for federal and state services. It gave the labor movement legitimacy.
Other Presidents have also been innovative. The Interstate Highway System is Dwight D. Eisenhower's legacy. It streamlined transportation and created jobs. LBJ's Great Society aided public education, provided medical care for the elderly and fought poverty.
Let's learn from history and invest in federal aid to states, invest in the infrastructure — invest in our country. America deserves another new deal.
