Will Democrats Embrace "Austerity American Style"?

    Crash This Party and Find Out

By Richard (RJ) Eskow
Campaign for America's Future
May 11, 2012

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2012051910/will-democrats-embrace-austerity-american-style-crash-party-and-find-out

Heard about the meeting that's being held to decide
your economic future? If the answer's "no," don't feel
bad: That's because you weren't invited. But Tim
Geithner was. So was Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican
member of Congress whose radical right-wing plans for
cutting Medicare have made him the subject of a Mitt
Romney "bromance." So was Bill Clinton, who showed up
last year and uttered the usual Beltway insider's
falsehoods about what's really wrong with Social
Security.

Hey, maybe your invitation to billionaire Pete
Peterson's "Fiscal Summit" got lost in the mail. Or
maybe they really, really didn't want you there. Who
cares? That's no reason not to go anyway.

Hey, Sen. Bernie Sanders wasn't invited, and his
proposal for Social Security was much more popular with
the American people than anything that's likely to be
discussed at this little get-together.

It's Your Party

    That's right: There's a "summit," and nobody
    invited the American people. They didn't even
    invite the guy who proposed the fiscal plan
    that most Americans - including most
    Republicans - wanted, according to the polling
    data. But he's going anyway.

May 15, 2012 at 1 p.m. In Front Of the Peter G.
Peterson Foundation Fiscal Summit 1301 Constitution
Avenue NW Washington, D.C.

That's Bernie for ya.

In fact, there will be a rally outside and Bernie will
be speaking there. The rally's on Monday, May 15, at 1
p.m. outside 1301 Constitution Avenue NW. Call it the
"people's summit," the "sidewalk summit," or - in honor
of MCA - a "fight for your right to crash their party."
Whatever you call it, it's on. Some of my CAF
colleagues will be there, along with some other good
folks.

I'd go myself, but I burned through my travel hours
this month by coming to Charlotte for the Bank of
America shareholder's meeting and Occupy protests. That
was another party where the public wasn't very welcome.
(I'm on the plane back home right now, as a matter of
fact. Inflight wireless: it's both a blessing and a
curse.)

Party Favors

Peterson, who served in President Nixon's cabinet, has
funded a lot of events and "educational" materials to
promote the misguided and destructive ideas about
government spending that dominate the discourse inside
the Beltway. They're the same austerity ideas that have
broken Europe's economy - and are now breaking down its
social and political order.

These ideas that were most recently packaged as the
"Simpson/Bowles" plan, which was put forward by those
two individuals when they failed to lead their
Presidential Deficit Commission to a successful
conclusion. (These personal opinions are often
misrepresented in the press as the "Deficit Commission
proposal"; actually the Commission failed to agree on a
proposal.)

The Simpson/Bowles plan will be the main course on this
party's menu. It is a far-right proposal that leaves
Bush tax cuts in place for the super-wealthy. It would
even lower their overall tax rate, while providing
cover for this radical wealth shift with the
elimination of tax breaks that the middle class depends
on. (They don't say which ones, but employer health
insurance, child tax credits, and the home mortgage
interest deductions are the main targets.)

The Simpson/Bowles plan would trigger across-the-board
cuts to government spending, including programs that
serve middle-class and lower income people. Corporate
tax rates would be cut, too, while the middle class
would be forced to contend with gasoline taxes and cuts
to both Social Security and Medicare.

Its mix of spending cuts to tax increases confirms the
fact that it's a far-right plan. Three quarters of
Simpson/Bowles' deficit reductions would come from
spending cuts, while only one quarter would come from
tax hikes. (And those would be directed at everybody
but the rich.)

Simpson/Bowles: It's Austerity, American-Style.

The Guest List

No wonder the public hasn't given the chance to have
its say at Peterson's Summit. The public hated the
Simpson/Bowles plan when it was announced, with 70
percent of those polled saying they were either
"somewhat" or "very uncomfortable" with it. And if
they're uncomfortable now, imagine how they'd feel
after they retired.

But the political and economic lemmings who are pushing
these ideas want us to jump off the cliff with them
anyway.

Alan Simpson, the Republican co-author of
Simpson/Bowles, is an intemperate motormouth whose rude
and vulgar comments toward women and his fellow senior
citizens earned him the justified disapproval of most
Americans . except billionaire Peterson, who invited
him to attend this year's summit again, and the
undemocratically "bipartisan" Democratic pals who will
join him once on the Peterson dais next Monday.

As far as I can tell, the only attendee at next
Monday's Summit who isn't a return invitee from the
"Austerity American Style" crowd is Chris Van Hollen, a
Democratic House member who's closely allied with
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. His remarks should be
interesting, especially after Pelosi's shocking
statement that she would have voted for Simpson/Bowles
if it had come to the House floor - a comment she later
affirmed.

Get Your Party On

Van Hollen has an opportunity to walk back those
disastrous remarks on behalf of the House Democratic
leadership. if he doesn't, the Dems are setting
themselves up for another drubbing like the one they
got in 2010. That's the year the White House's
Simpson/Bowles-style "Grand Bargain" trial balloons
gave the Republicans a chance to run against Dems on
these popular programs . from the Left.

The GOP called its leftist-style rhetorical assault on
Democrats the "Senior Citizens' Bill of Rights." It was
baloney, of course, but the Democrats gave them the
cutting board and the knife that let them cut it up and
serve it. Something like that could happen again this
year.

When it comes to Democrats these days, you've got to
fight for their party against its right.

That's one more reason to show up on Monday: To let
Chris Van Hollen and other Democrats know they have
only one choice. They can fight against cuts to Social
Security and Medicare, or they can lose support - and
seats - in November.

If you don't want that to happen (and who does?) - and
if you want to protect Medicare, Social Security, and
other vital government programs - why not show up and
let them know how you feel? You'll be the life of the
party crashers' party.

___________________________________________

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