|
January
24, 2002
Alexander
Cockburn
This
is Terrorism?
David
Vest
Idiot
Wind
January
23, 2002
Terry
Waite
Guantanamo
Prisoners:
Justice or Revenge?
Molly
Secours
The
Case of Abu-Ali:
Racism and the Death Penalty
Robert
Jensen
Speak
Out, Get Slimed
January
22, 2002
Brendan
Cooney
Moby-Dick
and the Hunt
for Osama bin Laden
Rick Giombetti
Progressive
Pols for Enron?
Judith
Resnik
Invading
the Courts?
Kevin
Alexander Gray
The
Crisis in Black Leadership
January
21, 2002
Marjorie
Cohn
Will
Walker's Words
Be Used Against Him?
Ahmad
Faruqui
MLK
Jr. and the Palestinians
January
19. 2002
Jordan
Green
Enron
Stole Our Future
January
18, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
The
Enron Model
Walt Brasch
Enron
at the White House
CounterPunch
Wire
Human
Rights Groups Says Guantanamo Prisoners Must
Be Treated as POWs
January
17, 2002
Gideon
Levy
Bulldozing
Rafah
Uri Avnery
That
Weapons Shipment
January
16, 2002
John Chuckman
The
Angel and the Pretzel
Lawrence
McGuire
Subverting
the
Geneva Convention
Kathy
Kelly
An
Open Letter to
Richard Perle on Iraq
January
15, 2002
George
Monbiot
Greenpeace,
Lord Melchett
and the Business of Betrayal
Jack McCarthy
Follow
the Pretzel
William
Blum
Atta
and the Times:
Follow the Changing Story
Edward
Said
Emerging
Alternatives
in Palestine
January
14, 2002
David
Vest
Open
Bag. Eat Pretzels.
Patrick
Cockburn
Collapse
of Georgia
Ignored by the World
Mokhiber/Weissman
Enron's
Accountants:
When In Doubt, Shred It
January
13, 2002
C.G. Estabrook
Why
We Kill People
January
12, 2002
Cockburn/St.
Clair
Forbidden
Truths
January
11, 2002
Lee Balllinger/Dave
Marsh
Neil
Young's Duet with Ashcroft
January
10, 2002
Tom Turnipseed
Bush,
Enron, UNOCAL
and the Taliban
St. Clair/Cockburn
Greenpeace
to Greenwash?
Hans von
Sponek
Iraq:
Is There an Alternative
to Military Action?
Jim Lobe
Israeli
Human Rights Group Assails Army
Marina Mayakova
Russia's
Top Military Astrologer Predicts More Attacks from OBL
January
9, 2002
David
Vest
The
Super-Burqa
and the Big Tent
ND Jayaprakash
Winnable
Nuclear War?
Rafiq
Kathwari
Kashmir
Will Make Ground Zero Look Like a Bonfire
January
8, 2002
Prudence
Crowther
Sting
Like a B-52
Nelson
Valdés
Al-Qaeda
at Guantanamo Bay
John Chuckman
Dark
Tales from the
Ministry of Truth
Richard
Corn-Revere
Do
We Fear Freedom?
Joan Hoff
The
Nixon You Haven't Heard
January
7, 2002
Lawrence
McGuire
Confusing
Economic Tales About Argentina
Wael Masri
They
Are Taking
Our Rights Away
Philip
Farruggio
Better
Medicine
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
INSIDE
EXCLUSIVE
TO
COUNTERPUNCH
SUBSCRIBERS
Published Oct. 15, 2001
8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
Search
CounterPunch
Read Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
Buy
This Explosive
New Book at an
Amazing Discount!
Reviews of Gore:
a User's Manual
|
January
24, 2002
Lying On Top
By Dean Baker
"The
third quarter is going to be great."
That's what Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay said last
September to a room full of workers who had come to hear about
the company's prospects after a recent wave of bad news had sent
the stock price plummeting. These were workers who had devoted
their careers to building up Enron into one of the nation's biggest
companies. Most of them were counting on Enron stock to provide
the bulk of their income in retirement. Not only did Mr. Lay
lie to these workers about the state of the company, he went
on to encourage them to persuade their family and friends to
invest in Enron as well.
As despicable as Mr. Lay's behavior was,
he actually performed a valuable service for the nation. He showed
the incredible contempt with which the nation's elite--the ones
with million dollar houses, yachts, and servants--view the people
who have to work for a living. Unfortunately, Mr. Lay's conduct
is not unusual among the rich and powerful. He just happened
to get caught.
While the corporate world is filled with
Kenneth Lays, as millions of workers and shareholders are coming
to realize, the ones that are most visible to the public are
the nation's political leaders. If you want lies from on high,
a good place to start is the Republican attacks against people
who want to rollback part of their tax cut. The Republicans are
trying to convince the public that there is a conspiracy afoot
to raise their taxes.
Of course none of us want to pay higher
taxes--but the Republicans recognize that the taxes for the vast
majority of the public will not be affected by the tax proposals
on the table. Some members of Congress are pushing to limit the
portion of the tax break that would go to the richest 2 percent
of the population. For most of the nation the tax rate paid by
this group has as much relevance as the tax rate in Portugal--we
might end up paying those taxes one day, but it's not very likely.
Given the choice between cutting Bill
Gates' taxes or extending health care coverage to the growing
number of uninsured people and making prescription drugs affordable
to seniors, most people would probably opt to have Bill Gates
pay more taxes. But, if a little bit if lying can convince the
people that it is their tax dollars at stake--well you've got
the Republican party platform.
Lying to the public is one of the few
areas of bipartisan agreement. The press recently reported that
the Democrats will attack the Republican tax cuts--not by saying
that they unfairly benefited the wealthy, or by pointing out
that this money could have been used for important public needs--but
rather by claiming that these tax cuts jeopardize Social Security
and Medicare. According to the insiders, this argument scores
better in the focus groups.
News Flash: the tax cuts have no effect
whatsoever on Social Security and Medicare. Social Security and
Medicare have accounts that are separate from the overall budget.
When the programs are running surpluses--as they are now--this
money is used to buy government bonds. The programs will hold
exactly the same amount of government bonds regardless of whether
this money is saved or spent. Therefore Social Security and Medicare
cannot be affected at all by the tax cut, unless Congress were
to default on the nation's debt, a policy that no politician
in Washington would advocate.
Everyone in Washington knows this to
be true--the Social Security and Medicare trust fund are described
in numerous public documents. However, instead of addressing
real issues, the Democrats believe that their best political
strategy is to scare people about the future of these vital programs.
In short, the country is filled with
Kenneth Lays, people who have made it to the top by lying and
stealing, and who have nothing but contempt for ordinary people.
The effort to retake the nation is a long and difficult battle.
But the first step has to be restoring honesty to political debates.
The next time you hear a politician complain about tax increases,
or threats to Social Security and Medicare, just remember: "the
third quarter is going to be great."
Dean Baker is
currently Co-Director of the Center
for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.
He is co-author (with Mark Weisbrot) of Social
Security: The Phony Crisis (University of Chicago Press)
and writes the Economic Reporting Review, a weekly analysis of
media economic coverage.
|