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CounterPunch
January
29, 2003
The Elephant
in the Room
The Other State
of the Union
by KATHRYN CASA
This country today is poised on the precipice
of a war that could alter the world as we know it -- a conflict
that could fundamentally change who we are as a nation, the rights
we enjoy and the way the rest of the world relates to us.
War's curtain call shrouds pressing domestic
priorities including jobs creation, environmental protection,
health insurance and education.
In his State of the Union speech, George
W. Bush promoted his new economic stimulus package. We also heard
more arguments in favor of the push for war with Iraq, and rhetoric
dismissive of the European position against such action.
What we didn't hear about is the other
state of the union -- the one that a war with Iraq would so helpfully
obscure.
Statistics compiled recently by the minority
staff of the House Appropriations Committee reflect the precarious
nature of our situation. They hold a mirror to the country George
Bush does not want us to see.
For example, here is what we didn't hear
the president say about the economy:
* 1.7 million jobs have been lost since
January 2001, and 8.6 million Americans are actively looking
for work.
* Between Dec. 29, 2000, and the end
of the third quarter 2002, the total market value of all U.S.
equities dropped by 38 percent, or $6.65 trillion.
* 1.3 million Americans slipped below
the official poverty line in 2001, the first increase since 1993.
* In two years, the United States had
the highest rate of bankruptcy cases in history, up 23 percent
since 2000.
* Requests for emergency shelters increased
some 19 percent in 2002, the largest annual increase since 1990.
More news from the domestic front that
went unspoken:
* A budget surplus of $236 billion in
2002 has turned into a $157 billion deficit for 2002, and forecasters
predict the Bush '04 deficit at between $300-350 billion -- a
half-trillion-dollar negative change.
* Bush has cut programs within the "No
Child Left Behind" Act by $90 million, and the '04 budget
for Title I, the main program targeting aid to disadvantaged
children, is expected to fall more than $6 billion short of what
was promised in the new education law.
* Nearly 40 percent of Bush's first tax
cut went to the richest 1 percent of the country, or those earning
more than $373,000 a year. Under the second tax cut proposal,
the same segments of the population would receive an average
tax cut of $30,127, while the average working family would get
about $289.
* The number of Americans without health
insurance rose by 1.4 million in 2001, after dropping in 1999
and 2000.
* Monthly premiums for employer-sponsored
health insurance went up by 12.7 percent between spring 2001
and spring 2002, the largest increase since 1990.
* Bush unilaterally withdrew the United
States from the Kyoto Treaty, despite an EPA warning to the United
Nations of significant environmental effects from climate change
with, according to Associated Press reports, "changes over
the next decades expected to put southeastern coast communities
at greater risk of storm surges, prompt more uncomfortable heat
waves in cities and reduce snowpack and water supplies in the
West." The president has suggested "voluntary action"
by industry is enough to deal with greenhouse-gas pollution.
* The Bush administration in 2002 designated
fewer toxic sites for restoration, and shifted the bulk of the
cleanup costs from industry to the taxpayers. Bush's EPA also
denied requests from its own regional offices to continue cleanup
actions at 33 sites in 19 states.
* In the first increase in serious crime
in a decade, the FBI reports robberies were up 3.7 percent between
2000 and 2001, and murders increased 2.5 percent.
* Yet despite a focus on the "war
on terrorism," we are not likely to hear the president reveal
that we are no safer now than we were on Sept. 11, 2001. That's
because:
* In August 2002 -- just four months
before he was to propose another tax giveaway to the rich --
Bush vetoed a bipartisan package for port security, cockpit doors,
border patrol, customs information systems, local first responder
equipment, chemical weapons safety and other security concerns.
Bush said the nation could not afford the additional homeland
security expense.
* The Washington Post reported in December
that the "threat of 'Islamic terrorism' toward Western countries
was growing, as Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida successfully
recruit young men for a "holy war" against the United
States.
* U.S prestige in Europe, the Middle
East and Asia is at perhaps an all-time low due to our perceived
arrogance and belligerence.
Mr. Bush read his lines from his teleprompter;
the Democrats issued their response; the pundits analyzed the
words. The rest of us should buckle our seatbelts. We are aboard
the runaway train called America.
Kathryn Casa is managing editor of the
Brattleboro Reformer, where this article originally appeared.
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