18/10/13

Austerity will win again | SocialistWorker.org

EDITORIALS [1]

http://socialistworker.org/2013/10/16/austerity-will-win-again

Austerity will win again

Whatever bill finally wins congressional approval for funding the government and
raising the debt ceiling will contain further devastating cuts in government spending.
October 16, 2013
ROY "WRONG WAY" RIEGELS went down in football history for his memorable
dash toward the end zone in the 1929 Rose Bowl. Midway through the second
quarter, Riegels, who played the equivalent of middle linebacker for the
University of California Berkeley team, picked up a fumbled football and started
out for the goal line, nearly 70 yards away.
Only it was the other team's goal line. His teammates dragged him down on the
one-yard line, setting up a 2-point safety that lost the game and the national
championship for the Golden Bears.
Barack Obama and the Democratic Party have something in common with Wrong
Way Riegels.
With Washington lumbering toward a deal to end the government shutdown and
the threat of a default, the Democrats may win a political victory over the
fumbling House Republicans, who have had to give up most of what they were
demanding before they would vote to fund the government and raise the debt
ceiling.
But it's happening in the Republican end zone. The media are largely ignoring it,
but the spending plan both sides agree on was first put forward by the GOP.
Whatever happens with the issues still in dispute, the deal, when it happens, will
lock in government funding levels that are drastically lower than what the Obama
White House put forward, and much closer to the proposals of the Tea Partiers.
---------------THE GOVERNMENT shutdown began at the start of the month [2] when House
Republicans, driven by the fervor of their most conservative members, refused to
pass a "continuing resolution" to finance government operations unless there was
a provision that delayed or defunded the Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama's
health care law.
The frontal assault on "Obamacare" is off the table now. Senate Democrats and
House Republicans still had differences between them early in the week, but these
were mainly about how far to kick the can down the road before more
Congressional votes will be required to fund the government and raise the debt
ceiling. The changes in the health care law being proposed now are fairly minor.
Congress could still stumble into a debt default if the House Republican leadership
can't round up enough votes by Thursday--the day that the government's money
socialistworker.org/print/2013/10/16/austerity-will-win-again

1/4

18/10/13

Austerity will win again | SocialistWorker.org

to pay its debts supposedly runs out--for one or another compromise. But at this
point, the Republicans have had to admit defeat on their latest attempt to destroy
the health care law.
Yet passing unnoticed, outside the glare of the media spotlight on the partisan
battles, is the consensus between Democrats and Republicans on deep cuts in
funding levels for the federal government.
As the liberal Center for American Progress showed at the end of September [3]-in an article meant to prove how reasonable the Democrats have been--the
Senate Democrats' original "continuing resolution" set a funding level for
discretionary spending in fiscal year 2014 of $986 billion when spread out over
the full year. That's a further 7 percent cut from the Senate's budget plan passed
only six months ago.
Compared to budget proposals from previous years, this spending reduction,
when it passes, looks even deeper.
When Obama took office in 2009, for example, his first-year budget proposed a
total of $1.203 trillion in discretionary spending in 2014--the Senate's continuing
resolution proposal is a nearly 18 percent cut.
When Republicans swept into the House majority in the 2010 elections, incoming
House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan came up with a GOP budget plan that
was denounced by Democrats for its destructive cuts. Ryan set discretionary
spending at $1.095 trillion in 2014--about 10 percent more than the Senate
Democrats proposed to stop the government from shutting down.
Most telling of all: The funding levels in the deal to raise the debt ceiling and
restart the government are much closer to Ryan's latest budget proposal, put
forward earlier this year, than the Senate's budget plan.
A lot of people--not just liberal organizations like the Center for American
Progress that align their politics with the Democrats, but ordinary people who
hate the Republicans and their Tea Party-fueled fanaticism--will celebrate the
end of the shutdown as a victory over the Republican maniacs.
But it's not a victory at all--not for our side. The eventual agreement is certain to
represent another long stride down the road of austerity--and a further blow to
working class living standards.
---------------IT'S WORTH noting that it took the threat of a default on the national debt--with
unknown but likely catastrophic consequences for the world financial system--to
start untangling the stalemate at the top of the "the world's greatest democracy."
And even that may not be enough to get a resolution by the Thursday deadline.
Still, Republicans were perfectly willing to leave the government closed
indefinitely, in defiance of the wishes of the vast majority of the public that they,
too supposedly represent. Only when the alarm was raised about the federal
government welshing on its debts--and raised with particular urgency by Wall
Street and Corporate America--did the House Republicans back away from their
obsession with the health care law.
socialistworker.org/print/2013/10/16/austerity-will-win-again

2/4

18/10/13

Austerity will win again | SocialistWorker.org

Republicans are getting the blame for the shutdown and the debt ceiling debacle-74 percent of people disapprove of how the GOP has handled the crisis, according
to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll [4], meaning that a significant part
of the Republicans' own base is fed up with them.
But congressional Republicans are used to rock-bottom approval ratings among
the general public. More concerning for any but the most diehard ideologues is the
growing anger of the ruling class, whose interests the GOP exists to serve. The
New York Times reported last week [5] that "several trade association officials
warned...they were considering helping wage primary campaigns against
Republican lawmakers who had worked to engineer the political standoff in
Washington."
That may still be more of a threat than an actual plan for the 2014 elections, but it
certainly exemplifies the exasperation of Corporate America toward its favorite
political party.
Still, as discredited as they have become, even in the eyes of big business, the
Republicans, including their Tea Partying right wing, have played an undeniably
important role in carrying through the public-sector austerity component of the
wider ruling class offensive.
With every frenzied proposal to slash the federal budget by half or cut more taxes
or close down the Department of Education or repeal the Obama health care law,
the Republican right yanks mainstream politics further in its direction. Not only is
the GOP's right-wing base energized, but the supposedly "moderate" wing of the
party is silenced--while the Democrats pose as the "responsible" compromisers
and ultimately embrace policies and political positions that are closer to where the
right-wingers started out.
At a time of partisan warfare like now, it seems like the Democrats and
Republicans couldn't be more different. But in reality, they share a common
commitment to the same agenda--of defending and promoting the interests of
Corporate America and Wall Street, while demanding harsher and harsher
sacrifices from the rest of us.
What can break this cycle? At different points, many people have hoped the
Democrats might slow the attacks if only they would show some spine and take on
the Republicans. In the case of the shutdown, however, the Democratic leadership
has mostly stood its ground, refusing to cave to GOP blackmail, as they have so
often in the past. But the ground they stood is a further drastic cut in programs
that working people rely on.
Later in his life, Wrong Way Riegels was able to laugh about his Rose Bowl
blunder. "If I had to do it again," he'd say, "I'd still run in the same direction, for I
surely thought I was going the right way."
That's the Wrong Way Democrats' attitude, too, but it's no joke. When they do
battle with the Republicans again over the federal budget, they'll run in the same
direction, because they think they're going the right way.
But it's the wrong way for working people. They need to be tackled before they
score more points for the other side.
----------------socialistworker.org/print/2013/10/16/austerity-will-win-again

3/4

18/10/13

Austerity will win again | SocialistWorker.org

Published by the International Socialist Organization.

Material on this Web site is licensed by SocialistWorker.org, under a Creative Commons (by-nc-nd 3.0) [6]
license, except for articles that are republished with permission. Readers are welcome to share and use
material belonging to this site for non-commercial purposes, as long as they are attributed to the author and
SocialistWorker.org.
[1] http://socialistworker.org/department/Opinion/Editorials
[2] http://socialistworker.org/2013/10/01/washingtons-warring-brothers
[3] http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/budget/news/2013/09/30/76026/the-senate-continuingresolution-is-already-a-compromise/
[4] http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/10/disapproval-of-gop-peaks-in-blame-for-the-budget-crisis/
[5] http://socialistworker.org//www.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/us/business-groups-see-loss-of-sway-overhouse-gop.html
[6] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0

socialistworker.org/print/2013/10/16/austerity-will-win-again

4/4