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October 22, 2001
Hani
Shukrallah
Capital
Strikes Back
October 21, 2001
Donald
Rumsfeld
The
al-Jazeera Interview
Mark
Scaramella
Nuclear
Anxiety
October 19, 2001
Mohammed
Sid-Ahmed
Bush's
Palestinian State
Michael
Colby
A
Mailroom Manifesto
October 18, 2001
Mahajan
and Jensen
Avoiding
a New Cold War
Patrick
Cockburn
US
Planes Pound Taliban
Jamey Hecht
Gerald Ford
and the CIA
Mokhiber
and Weisman
3
Arguments
Against This War
October 17, 2001
Ballinger
and Marsh
Music
and War Resistance
Steve
Perry
The
Anthrax Chronicles
Chris
Kromm
Operation
Infinite Disaster
Susan
Block
Sex
Not Bombs
David Vest
Osama Speaks
October 16, 2001
Steve
Perry
War
Without Frontiers
Douglas
Valentine
The
CIA and Anthrax
Patrick
Cockburn
The
Battle of Mazar-i-Sharif
John
Troyer
Return
to Normal?
Moji Agha
A
Jihad Against Ignorance
October
15, 2001
Tariq
Ali
Alternatives
to War
John
Pilger
War
American Style
Umberto
Eco
The
Roots of Conflict
Marwan
Bishara
Clash
of Civilizations? Hardly
Resources:
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Ashcroft's Onslaught
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Civil Liberties
Ridge Long Groomed
for
Cheney's Job
Those CIA Killing
Bids
Never Stopped
The Not-So-Great
Mayor Giuliani
Crop Duster
Ban
Will Save Lives
Madeleine Albright's
Deadly Legacy
How the Bin
Laden Women
Fled Bel Air
Tom Ridge's
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A CounterPunch
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A Word About
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Whiteout:
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Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James
Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
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by Douglas
Valentine
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October 22, 2001
War on the Poor
By Tom Turnipseed
This week the U.S. House of Representatives
will take up an economic stimulus package that indicates just
how much the House has sold out to the big corporate and wealthy
interests at the expense of poor and working class people. It
is class warfare. According to a New York Times editorial on
October 20, the bill has $54 billion in accelerated tax cuts
with every penny going to the top 30% of taxpayers and half going
to the top 5%. 80% of the benefits from the capital gains tax
cuts would go to the top 2% of households, and, according to
the Congressional Budget Office, only $2.3 billion of the $100
billion stimulus for 2002 would be spent on benefits for unemployed
workers who would be the most likely to spend it to stimulate
the economy.
It is also poor economics because
it would lower rates on capital gains held more-than-one but
less-than-five years and if investors took advantage of the lower
rates to raise cash, share prices would drop. Elimination of
the corporate alternative minimum tax would cost $25 billion
in 2002 and would not guarantee any new investment, but would
give a windfall to companies that usually find a way to elude
taxes anyway. Such corporate tax breaks would reduce their taxes
on the state level and force states to reduce spending, hindering
economic recovery.
Unemployment in South Carolina
climbed from 4.2% in August, 2000 to 5.4% in August, 2001, with
28 of our 46 counties having more than 6% and 9 counties over
10%. Since the August unemployment figures were reported, several
other big layoffs have been announced. On October 19, the South
Carolina Board of Economic Advisors, who are our state's official
economic forecasters, predicted a $310 million reduction in budget
estimates for the current budget year. The reduction is the largest
dollar amount in history and will result in 4.2% state budget
cuts across-the-board.
For the past decade or so,
the increasing income disparity between the wealthy and the poor
and working class has been unprecedented in U.S. history. If
the average pay for production workers had risen at the level
as CEO pay, the annual workers salary would be $120,491.00 -
not $24,668.00. The wealthiest 1% of Americans control about
38% of America's wealth. The bottom 80% control 17% of America's
wealth. The top 1% of stock owners have 48% of stock holdings.
Congress already delivered
a bonanza to the wealthy earlier this year when they passed the
Bush tax cut plan that gave about 25% of the largesse to the
richest 1% and well over 50% to those with incomes over $100,000.00.
Congress should subsidize an increase in unemployment benefits
that will give money to the poor and working class whose safety
net was diminished by "welfare reform." They will
spend their money at the grass-roots level that will really stimulate
the economy. Congress should increase spending for better public
education, health care, housing, and transportation to benefit
everyday people --- the poor and working class.
Rather than declaring war on
the poor and working class, Congress needs to declare war on
our fossil fuel and nuclear energy dependency which has a lot
do with the "War on Terrorism." Saudi Arabia has
been our biggest oil and military buddy in the Arab world for
70 years. 10 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudis and
Saudi Arabia has also been identified as the major financier
for the most radical, terroristic networks of Islamic fundamentalists,
including Osama bin Laden's Al Queda organization. To further
substantiate how oil policy dominates our foreign policy, Chris
Mondics reported for Knight Ridder Newspapers on October 21 that
the U.S. government "actively supported a proposal by Houston-based
energy developer Unocal to build a 1,000 mile pipeline through
Afghanistan to link gas fields in Turkmenistan" and worked
with the Taliban until 1998 to cut such a deal even though the
U.S. knew of bin Laden's terrorist activities.
Our only long-term solution
is to develop renewable energy sources like the wind and the
sun and encourage conservation, but the politicians who run our
government are subservient to the giant energy cartels who control
fossil fuel and nuclear power. They spend enormous sums to
fight wars for oil and gas and subsidize about anything big energy
asks for but they see no big campaign contributions in helping
develop alternative sources of energy. For example, South Carolina's
U.S. Rep. Lindsey Graham, who is running to replace the retiring
U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, voted against a $30 million increase
in renewable energy programs in 1995, and against a $45 million
dollar solar energy research and development bill in l996.
Hopefully, the South Carolina
Congressional Delegation and the entire Congress will address
the needs of the poor and working class in the stimulus bill
debate this week and will also take a stand for conservation
and renewable energy. CP
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