The Politics of Greed

I just heard Paul Krugman's interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air.  You can listen to it here on Fresh Air

Krugman is followed by Bruce Bartlett, who is a senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis. He attempts to defend the Bushies latest Tax Cut Scheme, but even he can't come out and say that Bush is being straight about it, but that, regardless of how the Bushies describe it, its a good idea.

The pros and cons of economic policy can certainly be debated, and if we had a "normal" presidential administration and a "normal" congress - even one as partisan as existed in the Clinton era - the debate could take place on something resembling a level playing field.

But as Krugman points out, the Bushies are not playing by any accepted rules of political discourse but are using lies, distortions, and bait-and-switch tactics to push their agenda to decontruct Roosevelt's New Deal and its programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.

Krugman calls it Class Warfare.  I call it the Politics of Greed.  Because the Bushies have been very clever in how they appeal to people's greed to achieve popular support for programs that will ultimately undercut the very people who support their policies.  The Bushies are in effect saying " its ok to ignore the common weal and just look out for number one - greed is good." 

Did you know that Americans earning between $20,000 and $300,000 year consider themselves as being part of the middle class?  Everyone wants to believe that someday they can be rich too.  So support the Republican Party, the Party that has been "hijacked by corporate crooks":

BTW, Americans may be fooled, but the rest of the world isn't.  There was a fascinating story in Monday's San Jose Mercury News about reports coming in from all over the world that the majority of people overseas believe Bush to be the biggest threat to world peace, not Saddam Hussein.  Imagine that!

Many see Bush as villain, U.S. embassies report

3:11:00 PM    

And of course you'd expect Mother Jones to rail against Bush and American policies in general - but that doesn't mean they are wrong, right?  Check this out:

The Thirty Year Itch

Also, a helpful link from Slate with a summary of major magazine coverage of the Iraqui situation, both pro and con:

Saddam-ed Again?

1:26:13 PM    

What I don't get is how so many people in the good ole USA still support Bush in his mad scheme for first strikes, "winnable" nuclear war, and free Iraqui oil for the good ole' boys in Texas to whom he is beholden.  Here's Joe Conason's Journal from today's Salon.

1:15:52 PM    

A great column in Slate today by Michael Kinsley:

Bush's Ulterior Motive Could it be oil? Maybe, but what about oil? By Michael Kinsley

Also check out this column, which is the most damning and frightening indictment of Bush's mismnagement of the war - his supposed strong suit- I've  yet seen in print:

Bully Bush The president is botching the Iraq crisis with his clumsy, naive unilateralism. By Fred Kaplan

12:06:22 PM