------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Feb. 6, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
SORRY STATE OF THE UNION: COLD COMFORT FOR WORKERS IN BUSH WAR SPEECH By Leslie Feinberg President George W. Bush used the annual "State of the Union" address on Jan. 28 as a bully pulpit to push closer to the brink of war against the people of Iraq. In doing so, he managed to never once utter the word "oil"--the single word that sums up what millions of people in the United States fear is fueling the Pentagon war machine. Instead, Bush just kept repeating the Big Lie. Mantling his militarism in moralistic oratory, Bush vowed that the United States will never "permit the triumph of violence." School children should know that the Pentagon bristles with more massive weaponry than any martial power on the planet. And millions of people of all ages in this country and around the world have marched and rallied to make this clear demand: "U.S.--hands off Iraq!" Bush pulled out all rhetorical stops to try to sell Wall Street's war. The bogus "weapons of mass destruction" subterfuge has not proved to be a decisively successful weapon of mass distraction. So the Commander in Chief ran up the flagpole the suggestion that Iraq might have some as- yet undisclosed ties to "terrorism" and a murky connection to the 9/11 attacks. There's no smoking gun to back up either of those allegations--either of which could have been used by politicians in both parties in the War Congress to sell their plan to re-colonize the oil-rich Middle East. Instead, Bush alluded to "information" and "intelligence"--not proof-- that he says Secretary of State Colin Powell will present to the Security Council on Feb. 5. Arrogantly referring to imperial allies who are dragging their feet on this U.S. war of conquest, Bush stated unequivocally that he is ready to order the Pentagon offensive unilaterally. Again and again Bush couched this war as pre-emptive. War is peace. Democrats--including presidential hopefuls--bolted the congressional chamber before Bush was even finished talking, in order to rebut his speech. Yet the jockeying over who was the most patriotic, who had the most effective military course of action, and who could best administer the capitalist economy in a time of deep recession without any substantive solutions offered, was a sorry spectacle indeed for anyone who still held a glimmer of hope that the Democrats would lead the country out of its social, economic and military morass. 'BEAT PLOWSHARES INTO SWORDS!' By the time the first notes of "Hail to the Chief" echoed in the rotunda, Bush's speech was already crafted to a fare-thee-well. Cabinet members and corporate interests had all weighed in. Last year Bush strode to the dais to deliver his infamous "axis of evil" speech, harbinger of his intent to wage endless war. This year, the chief speech writer for Bush's State of the Union address was Michael Gerson, described by the Jan. 28 International Herald Tribune as "the pencil-chewing evangelical Christian who put the evil in the 'axis of evil.' " The Jan. 28 event was choreographed, too. The atmosphere of war was in the air in D.C. on Jan. 28, literally. The militarization of the Capitol was "unprecedented," according to the FBI. The Federal Aviation Administration doubled Washington's no-fly zone. Fighter jets streaked across the skies overhead. Blackhawk helicopters chopped the air near the Capitol dome. Thirteen police agencies put their forces on the Capitol grounds, including 250 FBI agents and 1,500 U.S. Capitol cops. Yet according to U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer, there had been no specific threats. Bush hammered away at what he said was the Iraqi government's violations of civil rights and use of torture. This diverts attention from reports of U.S. torture of prisoners held illegally at Guantanamo, the racist mass disappearings of Arab, Muslim, and South Asian people in this country, and the concomitant trampling of hard-won civil liberties. Bush didn't mention, and neither did any of the Democrats, that the prison-industrial complex seems to be the only workplace in which "affirmative action" is allowed to thrive, or that the United States use of the death penalty as a racist weapon of terror against the impoverished and disenfranchised is rightly seen as barbaric around the world. In his 2002 State of the Union address, Bush had sworn, "My economic security plan can be summed up in one word: jobs." Since then, the private sector has lost at least 181,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment is nearing its highest levels in more than 50 years. The states are facing massive budget deficits. Health care is priced out of reach for tens of millions. Social services are drying up while dammed- up wealth is being channeled into the military-industrial complex and Wall Street. And what does the Bush administration offer as a solution? Speeding up the gigantic tax cuts for the already affluent. Billions to beef up police powers. And an endless budget to wage endless war. Bush claimed that his Robin-Hood-in-reverse economic package would create full employment for anyone seeking a job. All it will take, he opined, was for more small businesses to hang out "help wanted" shingles. But Mom-and-Pop small businesses are going under. Corporations won't hang up "Help wanted" signs at a time when the dizzying race for profits has resulted in capitalist overproduction and a sluggish economy. The tax cuts will be pocketed by the richest individuals, but they won't invest capital in a bogged-down market. THE 'STUFF' THAT CAN'T BE DEODORIZED Before Bush delivered his State of the Union speech, Ken Khachigan-- former presidential speechwriter for Nixon and Reagan--commiserated with the Commander in Chiefef's task: balancing domestic and international issues would be like forcing "10 pounds of stuff into a five-pound bag." But the euphemism "stuff" didn't explain why the content of the bag was so malodorous. The president sounded like an impassioned environmentalist at the podium last night talking about protecting the air and the forests. This from an oil baron who has Mother Nature in his crosshairs. Bush is architect of the plan to open up protected lands in the Arctic for oil exploration. And he wants to give away the trees to the logging interests--supposedly to protect the vegetation from burning up in forest fires. His program to develop hydrogen-powered cars is a subsidy to the automobile monopoly. If the U.S. doesn't corner the market on these cars, other countries will. Bush announced $600 million next fiscal year in vouchers for people seeking treatment for drug addiction--triple the amount he was expected to call for. Who could quarrel with the great need for such programs? Yet in reality, this is a hefty handout that augments his already generous "faith-based initiative" give-away. The tip off was Bush's homily about an addict who found recovery in a religious "treatment" center. The new vouchers can be used in church-run drug programs that evangelize, convert patients to religious ideology and rely solely on bibles and prayers. They offer no medical, or other secular, approaches. Plus their staffs are not licensed for this work. (AP, Jan. 28) Bush lightly touched on his aspiration to shunt Social Security payroll taxes into stocks and bonds--not a popular goal in the midst of a three- year bear market. Characterizing Medicare as a "binding commitment of a caring society," Bush asked Congress to fork over $400 billion over the next decade to reform the hard-won, 38-year-old health program. Older people would do well to clutch their wallets and pocketbooks tight when Republicans or Democrats talk about Medicare "reform." The plan is to lure seniors away from the relative security of Medicare into the free fall of health care delivered in the capitalist marketplace. Bush is offering prescription coverage as the carrot; Medicare does not cover any outpatient costs for drugs for the 40 million people enrolled. But when these seniors get hit with the stick, they'll discover that they can no longer see a doctor of their choice. Instead, they'd be relegated to government-subsidized, privately owned HMOs that have submitted bids for the lucrative Medicare contracts and then offer the cheapest health care delivery possible. The capitalist drive to "control costs" to hike health care profits already created a debacle for seniors, called Medicare+ Choice. Initiated by Democrats and Republicans in Congress in 1997, it resulted in skyrocketing overall health care costs. (Boston Globe online, Jan. 28) Elders still enrolled are now paying more for less care. A third, or about 33 percent, "pay $50 or more in monthly premiums," the Kaiser Family Foundation found, "up from 3 percent in 1999. And about 70 percent have $750 caps on prescription drugs, less than the average drug costs for seniors. Half of Medicare+ Choice enrollees must use generic drugs." Speaking of drugs, the pharmaceutical industry will get massive government "welfare" from Bush's new Medicare plan. And they stand to get the lion's share of Bush's African AIDS initiative that proposes $15 billion over five years. The money won't be going to the people of Africa and the Caribbean to design their own effective approaches to deal with the emergency epidemic. Why is medical care such a high-priced ticket item? Isn't it because of the high profits of the insurance companies, pharmaceutical giants and hospital dynasties--like the one Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was born into? No, according to Bush the problem is medical malpractice awards. While one might ask whether the race for profits doesn't lead to patients suffering as a result of malpractice, Bush wants a federal cap on damages. "No one has ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit," he quipped, trivializing patient pain and injury. The president added that the problems in the health care industry, including the estimated 40 million people in this country who have no health insurance coverage, "will not be solved with a nationalized health care system that dictates coverage and rations care." More double speak. HMOs--which Bush is proposing steering tens of millions of seniors into--dictate coverage and ration care. Bush traveled to Grand Rapids, Mich., for the tradition "morning after" the State of the Union. There, he reportedly met behind closed doors at a hospital--Spectrum Health--with business owners, medical professionals and one patient. (ABCNews.com, Jan. 29) Outside, hundreds of anti-war activists protested. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe wwnews- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. 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