IMF-STYLE AUSTERITY MEASURES COME TO AMERICA: WHAT “FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY” MEANS TO YOU
Ellen Brown
In addition to mandatory private health insurance premiums, we may soon be hit with a “mandatory savings” tax and other belt-tightening measures urged by the President’s new budget task force. These radical austerity measures are not only unnecessary but will actually make matters worse. The push for “fiscal responsibility” is based on bad economics.
When billionaires pledge a billion dollars to educate people to the evils of something, it is always good to peer closely at what they are up to. Hedge fund magnate Peter G. Peterson was formerly Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations and head of the New York Federal Reserve. He is now senior chairman of Blackstone Group, which is in charge of disbursing government funds in the controversial AIG bailout, widely criticized as a government giveaway to banks. Peterson is also founder of the Peter Peterson Foundation, which has adopted the cause of imposing “fiscal responsibility” on Congress. He hired David M. Walker, former head of the Government Accounting Office, to spearhead a massive campaign to reduce the runaway federal debt, which the Peterson/Walker team blames on reckless government and consumer spending. The Foundation funded the movie “I.O.U.S.A.” to amass popular support for their cause, which largely revolves around dismantling Social Security and Medicare benefits as a way to cut costs and return to “fiscal responsibility.”
PermalinkBOWING TO JEWISH PRESSURE
BY GILAD ATZMON
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced plans today to stop the issue of arrest warrants for foreign officials such as Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak and other Israeli war criminals who were forced to cancel planned trips to London after arrest warrants were issued against them. Under Brown’s proposals, the Crown Prosecution Service will take over responsibility for prosecuting war crimes and other violations of international law. Currently magistrates have to consider the case for an arrest warrant to be issued.
A warrant for the arrest of Ms Livni was issued by a UK court in December last year following Israel's massacre in Gaza over a year ago. She consequently cancelled a planned visit.
Obama urges swift passage of his cost-cutting health care plan
President Obama spoke Wednesday to press for passage of his health care proposals. His remarks at the White House came less than a week after he hosted a bipartisan health care summit, which ended with no agreement from Republicans to back his plan.
Media commentary leading up to Obama’s remarks Wednesday focused on whether or not he would speak the word “reconciliation,” which refers to a procedure whereby congressional Democrats could approve the health care legislation with a simple majority vote. With the loss of a Senate seat to the Republicans in the recent special election in Massachusetts, the Democrats no longer have the 60 votes to end a Republican filibuster.
Although Obama did not refer to reconciliation by name, his remarks made clear that he will push for passage of the health care legislation through this process, hoping for a bill to sign before the Congress recesses for the Easter break beginning March 29.
What was truly remarkable about the speech, however, was the reactionary scope of the proposals Obama is seeking to implement. Nearly a year after beginning the push for an overhaul of the health care system, his administration has crafted—with input from congressional Democrats—a plan that unabashedly defends the profits of the insurance and drug companies while reducing and rationing health care for ordinary Americans.
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