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NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Monday 4 March 2013
The nation is once again polarized, but I don’t hear our politicians talking about social justice or the public good; they’re talking instead about the budget deficit and sequestration.
Sequestration Nation and Remembering Robert Kennedy
With the sequester now beginning, I find myself thinking about Robert F. Kennedy — and 46 years ago when I was an intern in his Senate office.
In 1967, it was a difficult time for the nation. America was deeply split over civil rights and the Vietnam War. Many of our cities were burning. The war was escalating.
But RFK was upbeat. He was also busy and intense — drafting legislation, lining up votes, speaking to the poor, inspiring the young. I was awed by his energy and optimism, and his overriding passion for social justice and the public good. (Within a few months he’d declare his intention to run for president. Within a year he’d be dead.)
The nation is once again polarized, but I don’t hear our politicians talking about social justice or the public good. They’re talking instead about the budget deficit and sequestration.
At bottom, though, the issue is still social justice.
The austerity economics on which we’ve embarked is a cruel hoax — cruel because it hurts those who are already hurt the most; a hoax because it doesn’t work.
The trickle-down-economics, on which Republicans base their refusal even discuss closing tax loopholes for the wealthy, is a proven failure — proven because it’s been tried before, by Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush; a failure because nothing has trickled down. Taxes have been cut on the wealthy, but the real median wage keeps dropping and the rate of poverty keeps rising. Now, 22 percent of American children are in poverty.
Yet in the months (or years) ahead, federal money will be reduced for poor schools, child nutrition, preschools, and mental-health services.
Some 3.8 million who have been unemployed for more than six months will see their jobless benefits cut.
Some 600,000 low-income women and children will no longer benefit from the federal nutrition program for women and toddlers.
Lower-income Americans are already suffering disproportionately from high unemployment. But they will bear even more of the burden of joblessness as the economy slows because of the sequester.
Meanwhile, America has become far more unequal than it was in 1967. Then, the richest 1 percent got 9 percent of the nation’s total income and paid a top marginal tax of 78 percent (and an effective rate, after deductions and credits, of 54 percent).
Now the richest 1 percent get over 20 percent of the nation’s income and pay a marginal tax of 39 percent (and an effective rate of 23 percent — or, if you’re in Mitt Romney’s league, less than 19 percent). The richest 400 Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million combined.
If Robert Kennedy were alive today he’d condemn the Tea Party Republicans (and the Koch Brother billionaires who fund them) for violating the basic ideal of social justice that’s the moral foundation of this nation.
This article was originally posted on Robert Reich's blog.
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ABOUT Robert Reich
ROBERT B. REICH, one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including his latest best-seller, “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future;” “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages; and his newest, an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.” His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.
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15 comments on "Sequestration Nation and Remembering Robert Kennedy"
March 04, 2013 9:21pm
When you remove discretionary income, those from which it was removed, they have none, so they stop buying goods and services and then then those from which they bought those goods and services also go under. However, keep in mind sir, that the Republicans alone are not to blame, Obama thinks, as did Cheney that All Americans have the IQ of an avocado, and he has been slipping it to us right along, lying, promising to veto this or that and then not doing so (Like the NDAA, The Patriot Act, etc.)
He too is a depopulationist, a Rockefeller, Soros, Rothschild, (quality, a rise to royalty, dynastic wealth by stealing the Treasury blind and printing money unsupported by Gold, driving the middle class into the people reduction dark secret of people reduction) .
Bush began robbing the treasury through Bernanke and others and Bernanke/Obama have distorted the QE of Milton Friedman. Freedman, as have I, said that QE is "...dropping money to the people from helicopters, NOT the banks..." Allowing gas prices to go out of sight (Unlike Jimmy Carter whom leaped all over Big Oil when they tried what they have done now, but failed).
There was a reason FDR froze prices in time of war, to not dissolve the value of the Dollar, and allow the middle classes which HE created, to accumulate savings and also have discretionary incomes.
Obama is as bad or worse than Bush continuing his murderous route of chopping up nations, ruining millions of lives, and all for what? I think he is a psychotic, sociopath, while Bush was just stupid and sans conscience, and was lead by Crazy Cheney, the master villain, a truly satanic being,
March 04, 2013 7:00pm
As William Blum stated, “The ‘trickle-down’ theory is the principle that the poor, who must subsist on table scraps dropped by the rich, can best be served by giving the rich bigger meals.”
March 04, 2013 4:23pm
Q. How is Social justice different than economic justice?
A. Trick question. They're the same thing.
March 04, 2013 4:47pm
So what's next?
This is not a trick question.
March 04, 2013 4:06pm
"I think your comment about a lack of (truly progressive) leaders is essentially true". "I wish N of C would publish more radical thinkers, particularly those who recognize that the duopoly of greater-evil Repubs and lesser-evil Dems are an evil blend." It is excellent to point out these truthful comments but we need new ideas to be put forth.
Governing bodies in USA need to be radically overhauled. Pay cannot be an incentive, lobbying must be made illegal and punish-able by fines and loss of position.
The Public Good must clearly be defined and put into terms and action that can be overseen /managed fairly by a rotating public trust of representatives. Representatives are not elected but evaluated by the general public thru online, book, news reviews , etc.. and based on experience that person brings to administer some portion of the general Public Good. Wages are not directly related to your status, position, or professional stand. Every able body must volunteer part of their year assisting in some aspect of the general Public Good-welfare.
We need folks to step up, put forth new visions and just not repeating the same old same old. We are all in agreement that our governmental system cannot be fixed without a major correction(maybe a complete dismantling). I believe that it is time for us- the people to redefine .. What is a sustainable quality of life on earth look like for us humans? and what does the general welfare/public good need to provide to all of us in order to be quality for the many not the few.
March 04, 2013 5:05pm
ClimateOfChange, fair enough. I'd start with healthcare, ie single-payor aka public option aka Medicare For All. As to the larger question of sustainable quality of life, I like the matriarchicalism or ecofeminism championed by Riane Eisler as the first paradigm shift. Also google "utopian economic models".
March 04, 2013 2:52pm
Reich conveniently fails to mention that 47% of the sequestration cuts are in the Defense budget, about which I could not be happier. And if that cut was addressed by executing an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan, I'd be happier still.
March 04, 2013 4:16pm
Greg.... could hardly agree more that the MIC is in dire need of cuts. And I look forward to the day when we are gone from Afghanistan. Problem with the DoD cuts is that it will, at least initially, be absorbed by civilians workers. I've no doubt that multi-billion dollar dogs like the JSF or the F22, (and I'm sure the Navy could tell you about THEIR dubious projects and indefensible waste), will see their funding continue unabated. I've no doubt that the "plus" part of those cost-plus contracts will continue without interruption. But the American people.... screwed yet again.
March 04, 2013 4:41pm
Riconui, yes, that's why I appended to my comment re the DoD cut that I'd like to see it effected by immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan, ie so that the consequence of the cut would be born by workers.
March 04, 2013 1:38pm
Rather than trying to divide us, politics are not only, unable to work themselves or get the country on an attitude that looks to the future. It has to be a future that embraces EQUALITY, not self centerest.
Look back to the days of aparthied in South Africa, and the race riots here is the U.S. We can only make progress when we do it TOGETHER. Remember WW II, The axis would have beaten us , had we not worked together.
Now let's work together to eliminate WAR, it's destruction, of infrastructure, lives and national resources. work for a world free of uncertainty, think about the future, and how money spent will be for progress, rather than destruction. Only then will we begin to see real progress, in health, liberty and equality that our forefathers hoped for>
March 04, 2013 1:03pm
well that's partially the reason they were eliminated
March 04, 2013 11:54am
If anyone one from the 99% think the government cares about their welfare or represent them, they must be delusional. Our capitalism and democracy has been hijacked a long time ago but the iron fist got out of the velvet glove with W's assertion "You are with us or with the enemy" and that fist is raised to strike anytime internally as it fails over there (Iraq, Afghanistan, next Syria and Iran). However, the higher the fist goes, the harder it strikes and the more it shatters its own body that keeps it attached to the 1%. Hope anyone in the circle of the 1% understands how social anger works. I see a war of all against all when the fist strikes. I wonder why the 1% do not listen to their own kind (Bill Gates and Warren Buffett)?
March 04, 2013 11:25am
Dammitall Reich, you nest-feathering psuedo. RFK, and for that matter JFK and FDR, would have strongly condemned Obama for his many acts of omission and commission furthering the transfer of wealth from the many to the few.
March 04, 2013 11:13am
Sequestration...or rather the "castration" of this now anemic nation. What a farce of an excuse for a nation. We have allowed ourselves to become a joke that, well, just isn't even remotely funny. Just ask the 150 million people at the bottom how "trickle down" has worked for them. Today we have no true leaders...not ONE...only political grovelers at the National trough.
March 04, 2013 2:29pm
UNCONDITIONAL, I think your comment about a lack of (truly progressive) leaders is essentially true, even though some of us might cite a few exceptions. On the national scene, all we have are a few pseudos like Reich and the several MSNBC talking heads making millions bashing those evil Repubs and crowing for Obama as the champion of the 99%, which he provably is not. He's an elite con-artist, and unfortunately he's as good at it as Clinton was. Reich grovels to the left of Obama, but groveling is groveling. I wish N of C would publish more radical thinkers, particularly those who recognize that the duopoly of greater-evil Repubs and lesser-evil Dems are an evil blend.