Since coming to office, Republicans have passed a bill making it easier for credit card companies and other creditors to collect from families forced into bankruptcy – the vast majority that end up in distress because of a major illness or the loss of a job. They have passed a bill making it harder for consumers to hold corporations accountable for the damages caused by their negligence.
They threatened to blow up the Senate by rewriting the rules – the “nuclear option” – to force through Bush’s most extreme judicial appointees, despite the fact that the Senate had already approved 208 of 218 nominees.
They gutted the House Ethics Committee to protect the misdeeds of House leader Rep. Tom DeLay. They’re in the process of throwing another $80 Billion into the mess in Iraq, without demanding any plan for getting U.S. troops home. The House passed an energy bill which lavishes billions in subsidies to the big oil companies that are already pocketing record profits from high gas prices.
And the president has spent the last two months stumping for his plan to phase out Social Security, which promises only increased risk and poverty for seniors and increased debt for the nation.
Pensions are at risk; the administration tries to dismantle Social Security. Health care costs are out of control; the Republican Congress prohibits Medicare from negotiating a better price from the drug companies. Wages are stagnant; the Republican House leadership refuses even to allow a vote on increasing the minimum wage, or providing workers with the right to organize. College costs are soaring; the president breaks his promise on increasing Pell grants. Schools are overcrowded; the president breaks his promise to fund his own reforms. The nation’s election system is in need of wholesale reform. The Voting Rights Act needs to be renewed and enforced. The president says he knows nothing about the Voting Rights Act, and does nothing about electoral reform.
This kind of pressure too often contributes to the break-up of families. Job loss leads to divorce, depression, and in some cases suicide. The administration responds by spending over a billion a year in promoting marriage, while campaigning against gay marriage. Health care costs are consuming state budgets, burdening corporations, and breaking families. The administration responds by focusing on Social Security which is in surplus, not health care which is in crisis.
The agenda of one-party rule in Washington fits that of the corporate lobbies, the special interests – but it doesn’t meet the needs of the vast majority of working families. We’re not headed where we need to go. And it will take an independent movement to change this country around.