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CounterPunch
November
1, 2002
US Central Government is Bankrupting
America
Should States
Consider Secession?
by JOHN STANTON
Homelessness and unemployment have reached levels
in the US unseen in a decade. Consumer confidence, having been
shattered by corporate malfeasance and the hyper-greed of the
Bush regime, recently hit rock bottom. According to the National
Governor's Association, the 50 States that make up the collective
known as the United States of America experienced the worst revenue
shortfall since World War II. The Economic Policy Institute
reports that American families are working longer and harder
on the average of "20 more weeks a yearthe equivalent of
five months." It's not the nation's central government that
is the socioeconomic caregiver for the bulk of these illnesses;
rather, it is the American States who are left to cope with the
casualties resulting from the ignominious policies and programs
of the Bush central government in Washington, DC. Of course,
the Jellyfish Party (sometimes referred to as the Democratic
Party) in the central government's rubber-stamping body, the
US Congress, shares a hefty helping of the blame for the wretched
state of the States and their localities in America.
According to the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities the "states have cut services for those
most in need of assistance during an economic downturn. Eligibility
has been restricted for health insurance, childcare, and income
support services that benefit low-income families. Medicaid
benefits have been reduced, job training programs for people
trying to move from welfare to work have been cut, and the cost
of child care for low-and moderate-income families has been significantly
increased. Cuts in funding for public universities have resulted
in higher college tuition, shifting the cost of balancing state
budgets to students and their parents. Reductions in state
aid for public schools and local governments have resulted in
school program cutbacks and have to some degree shifted a greater
share of the burden of funding schools to local property tax
payers. Other reductions in funding have been implemented for
state parks, museums, libraries, public health, and public safety."
Rubber Chickens
and Chicken Hawks
War propagandists and central government
apologists at CNN, FOX, CBS, ABC and NBC--and the genteel opportunists
at the New York Times and Washington Post--gloss over the fact
that the American States are footing the bill and carrying the
load for the bulk of the central government's programs, to include
Homeland Security initiatives, contrary to what Bush and other
con-men/women in the central government proclaim over the airwaves
and in print. According to the National Governor's Association,
State budget problems are exacerbated by the "billions of
dollars in homeland security costs, predominantly borne by state
and local governments." So while the States and their localities
approach the black hole of debt and collapsing infrastructures,
all that the Bush central government can offer as corrective
action, or rather as a temporary distraction, is a trumped up
war against a tin-pan dictator in Iraq.
Wealth that otherwise should be targeted
to the States and localities, is literally being stolen from
the money supply to pay for the many ludicrous schemes of the
Bush central government ranging from National Missile Defense
to the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001
(tax cut), a program that is destined to benefit the one percent
of Americans who own over 50 percent of the wealth in the United
States. The Bush central government, along with the Democratic
Rubber-Chickens in Congress--as opposed to the Republican Chicken
Hawks--have anted up close to a trillion dollars to play the
Great Game in Central Asia--the purpose of which is, first and
foremost, to dominate that region's resources and, secondly,
to create markets for the business interests that the Bush central
government represents.
And so it has become the business of
the central governing body known as the US Congress to take care
of corporate business interests and beg for photo opportunities
with a non-elected president. Only a handful of "representatives"
in that central government apparatus like Robert Byrd of West
Virginia and Bernie Sanders of Vermont have the will to consistently
challenge the intellectual sewage gushing from the minds of the
Bushites and militarists in and out of the central government.
The US Congress is now little more than a shopping mall for corporate
interests. The "representatives" wait behind the counter
to dicker with the lobbyists and the generals.
Perhaps it is better that the veil of
democracy has been torn asunder exposing the lurid nature of
the entire American central governing process. The vast number
of the central government's politicians and bureaucrats are groveling
con-artists of low intellect engaged with corporate interests
in an orgy of self interest. The orgasm for these folks comes
in the form of profit pocketed and domination over those who
are working those extra five months a year to pay for food and
shelter. It's a battle just to raise the minimum wage one US
dollar. Conversely, politicians and bureaucrats from the central
government never leave office poorer than when they were elected
or appointed.
Distant Lands
Far removed from the rich and powerful
in the central government, in the jungles of South America and
the arid lands of Central Asia, young American soldiers hailing
from the States and their localities in the American union, whether
Special Forces or regular "GI's", find themselves guarding
oil company pipelines and, in the case of Afghanistan, serving
as little more than bar-room bouncers for the likes of Hameed
Karazai, a former oil man for Unocal. These dedicated teen-and
twenty-something's chase the phantasms of the psychotic Bushites
and their elderly generals and admirals. Already, a new "Axis
of Evil" is being created by the mouthpiece of the Republican
Party, that being Reverend Moon's Washington Times. The Times
has warned its readers that Brazil and Venezuela are part of
the South American Axis of Evil. Popularly elected officials
are not part of the Bush "in" crowd.
And far removed from the lofty heights
occupied by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell--and "elites"
both Republican and Democrat--in the distant lands of New York
City, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Southeast Washington,
DC, men, women and children go hungry, homeless, uninsured, unemployed.
Nurses, doctors, policemen and women, firemen and women and rescue
workers don't have the funds they need to get the tools to do
the most basic public safety functions. Schools are overcrowded.
Prisons are overcrowded. Urban sprawl and traffic congestion
blights the land. Pollution fills the air on warm summer evenings.
Prices are on the rise. Unions are being busted. Illicit drugs
are easily obtainable. Corporations pay no taxes.
And the central government's solution
to all this? Use "terror" to create profit-making opportunities
for corporations. Then create a central governing department
that those corporations can lobby for business. "Terror
is nought but prompt, severe, inflexible justice; it is therefore
an emanation of virtue; it is less a particular principle than
a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to
the most pressing needs of the fatherland." So said Rumsfeld's
idol, France's Robespierre in 1794. Here it is 2002 and his rumination
is as relevant now as it was over 200 years ago. And the similarities
between the 1789 and 2002 are a wee bit unsettling.
Storm the Bastille?
Interesting how history rewinds throughout
time. In 1789, Louis XVI of France was presiding over an impending
disaster. Draconian policies and programs by his decree in combination
with penalties that stifled dissent, outmoded feudal practices--and
the shining example of the American Revolution--converged to
ignite the French Revolution of 1789. Universities and the intellectual
elite were fed up with censorship. The rich stayed very rich
and comfortable while the emerging middle class bourgeois, urban
workers and farmers-peasants were being crushed by high taxes,
inflating prices and stagnant wages. Protests and demonstrations
began. Violence and mayhem ensued.
So it would seem that the central government
of Bush II of America, in conjunction with the US Congress, has
placed the States and localities--the people--in a mood to contemplate
alternatives. Already, massive protests against Globalization,
US policy in Israel-Palestine, and the impending War in Iraq
have taken place echoing Robert Bryd's sentiment that only the
American people can stop the madness of Bush II and the excite
the US Congress to action. And if the Rubber Chicken Democrats
take control of the US Congress, will not big business, big defense
still rule the roost? Will not the US continue its romp around
the world in search of terrorists and oil? Is it worth opting
for the status quo with a sprinkle of change?
With the central government clearly out-of-sync
with many States and localities, perhaps its time for "the
people" that occupy them to think about building a different
united States, one that excludes the federal government. Such
a transition need not be violent. One of the models to follow
is the relatively peaceful process of breakup used by the former
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics--the Soviet Union.
Currently, all the governor's of the
current States travel to foreign countries to lobby for business.
For example, Minnesota's governor Jesse Ventura was in Cuba pushing
Minnesota products and know how. In short, the reliance on the
US central government for many economic activities is not as
great as publicized. New nations forming from the remnants of
the USA, like North Korea or Pakistan, could raise defense forces,
and, with relative ease, build nuclear arsenals.
Stay out of
RUSA
First to secede would be California,
Oregon, Washington State and Hawaii to form Pacific Maritime
America. This group would engage in mutual defense treaties with
Asia and Canada and provide economic goods from Asian countries,
as they do now, to the new countries of the East that once made
up the USA.
New England, New York, Pennsylvania,
West Virginia, Northern Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey,
Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, New Columbia (formerly Washington,
DC) and New Hampshire would follow in secession to form Atlantic
Maritime America and, ultimately, become a member of the European
Union from whence they originally came.
Montana, North and South Dakota, Minnesota,
Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Alaska would
follow in secession and incorporate with Canada. The transborder
economies of these States and Canada are already well established
and merging with Canada would be far less painful than the merger
of East and West Germany in the 20th Century.
Florida would secede and, in swift fashion,
immediately invade Cuba and the Bahamas. It would be known as
the Florida Nation.
Texas, New Mexico and Arizona would form
New Texas. They would immediately make overtures to the Central
and South American countries for expanded trade while enforcing
brutal immigration laws.
The remaining States of America, such
as Alabama and Mississippi in the East to Utah and Nevada in
the West, would secede and create the Reformed United States
of America (RUSA). RUSA does not have a Bill of Rights like the
other new nations and travel there is risky.
John Stanton
is a Virginia-based writer specializing in national security
matters. He can be reached at: cioran123@yahoo.com
Yesterday's
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October 26
/ 27, 2002
Michael Wolff
A Place
of Tears
Ilija Trojanow
Bali Mon Amour
Ben Tripp
Crocodile Tears
Hope Shand and Silvia Ribeiro
The Great Containment:
GM Fallout from Mexico to Zambia
M. Junaid
Alam
The Wolf Who Cried Wolf:
Charging Anti-Semitism & Extending the Iron Wall
Gavin Keeney
The Fusion Thing:
Landscape + Architecture
Adam Engel
A Good Man is Hard to Misfit
Anis Shivani
Is America Becoming Fascist?
Jason Leopold
Is Thomas White Fit to Lead the Army?
Philip Farruggio
Let Them Eat (Crumb) Cake
Josh Frank
The Grassroots of Hope
Anthony Gancarski
Concerned Citizen: episode 5
Night School
M. Shahid
Alam
The Civilizing Mission
October 25, 2002
Wayne Madsen
Pappy
Bush on Wellstone:
"Who Is This Chickenshit?"
Stuart Timmons
Harry
Hay Dead at 90:
He Paved the Way for Modern Gay Activism
Vanessa Jones
Australia
Votes Green:
Historic No Vote to US War Plans
Ben Terrall
Rep.
Tom Lantos' Big Lie
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Behind
the Drive for War:
The Escalating Bush Military Budget
Will Youmans
Israel's and Divestment
Norman Madarasz
Lula
on the Verge
October 24,
2002
Jo Freeman
How the
Christian Coalition Boosts Israel
Ben Tripp
George
W.: Caught Between Iraq and a Hard Place
Harry Browne
Ireland's Dreary Yes to Nice
Anis Shivani
A Guide
for the Perplexed:
the Major Countries of the World as Defined by the Office of
Strategic Influence
T.W. Croft
America's
New Improved War
William Hughes
A Free
Press, But for Whom?
Alan Farago
Jeb Bush and the Environment
October 23,
2002
Daniel Wolff
Pataki,
Witt and the Indian Point Nuke
Wayne Madsen
A Saudiless
Arabia
Sam Bahour
and Paul de Rooij
Abritrary
Imprisonment
Chris White
Why I Oppose
the US War on Terror:
an ex-Marine Sergeant Speaks Out
Anthony Gancarski
Back to Bali
Adam Engel
Twilight
(of the Idols) Zone
Robert Fisk
How to Shut Up Your Critics
October 22,
2002
Jack McCarthy
A Letter
to C. Hitchens
Carol Norris
This Message
Brought to You by Breast Cancer, Inc.
Joanne Mariner
Just
Say "Not Until We're Married":
Legislating Morality and Understanding HIV/AIDS Prevention
Kathleen Christison
Excuse Me?
How Israel Justifies Killing Palestinians
Linda Heard
Iraq War
Mongering:
A Game of Chess with Lives at Stake
Roger Peacock
Marketing the War on Iraq
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