President Bush said Social Security reform, a key component of his successful presidential campaign agenda, would be a priority in his second term.
A “key component” of his campaign? Hardly. Bush barely mentioned it until the day after the election. It was only then he announced that privatizing Social Security would be a primary goal of his administration. Oh yes, they’re trying to fog the issue by calling it “reform”, but what they want is privatization.
You bet Wall Street wants to get their greedy hands on those trillions of dollars of Social Security funds. Considering the numbers of Wall Streeters who’ve been indicted lately, I’m guessing that letting them handle this money would be a disaster, and a corrupt one at that. What would they do with that money, besides trying to steal some of it or extort it with “fees”? They’d no doubt invest some of it overseas where labor is cheap, thus causing more jobs to vanish from the US, in their endless quest for more profits regardless of the human cost.
The Bushies want to undo all of social reforms begun during the New Deal. That is their far right agenda. Privatizing Social Security is just the first move. Expect attacks on Roe v. Wade, civil rights, the Bill of Rights, health care, and unions. Social Security and public schools are deliberately underfunded. That way the right can throw up their hands and say we can’t afford these things so we must privatize them. The Left needs to come together now under a unified front and get into the streets to fight the right.
Forget the Democrats. They will be little help. They either agree with Bush or are too cowed to fight. Remember, virtually all major social change in the country came by people getting in the streets. The vote for women, the 40 hour work week, civil rights in the 60’s, the ending of the Vietnam war, LGBT rights – all of these struggles began and were spurred by people getting into the streets.
Let’s do the same now.