Reality Check

by Keith Cooper

From Broader View Weekly, March 17, 2011

It seems my brother Gordon and I find ourselves agreeing on at least one point. It is important to face reality with clear recognition. However, President Obama isn’t the only one facing harsh truths.

Last week, several thousand public employees in Wisconsin were blindsided with stark reality when the state’s legislature circumvented procedural rules in order to deny the workers’ rights. A second blow came when Wisconsin State Senate Leader Scott Fitzgerald admitted in a Fox News interview that the union-busting bill (all budget-related provisions were stripped to allow Republicans to pass it) was merely political. Senator Fitzgerald told Fox’s Megyn Kelly that the underhanded deal (which impacts the lives and livelihoods of not only current public employees and teachers but permanently revokes union rights) was about protecting Republican power. “If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin.” Eight of Fitzgerald’s GOP colleagues facing recall elections this summer may feel the sharp sting of the fact that political football is unpopular when it harms the working class. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is already facing the stark reality of plunging approval ratings (he’ll have to serve a year before a recall threatens his temp job). So much for a mandate.

House Speaker John Boehner may or may not be bothered by the potential job losses the Republicans’ proposed spending cuts would cause. He publicly dismissed the losses out of hand, saying, “so be it”. It seems he is more likely to cry over his tavern-owner’s-son roots or his own personal American dream that lifted him to the third highest office in the land. Of course the hundreds of thousands who would be out of work will face the harsh reality of economic uncertainty.

Indeed, this proposal smacks of political agenda, as well. Why would the Republicans endanger the livelihoods of thousands in the guise of cutting spending? From reading his column, it’s plain to see that my brother’s answer would be “to honor the wishes of the Tea Party Movement. Remember the shellacking?” Well, there’s another theory to consider.

Republicans see the country beginning to rebound from a severe recession and the unemployment rate beginning to dip to acceptable levels. This “spending” bill is an opportunity to keep unemployment high. In 2012, you will see every GOP candidate run on a platform promising jobs, budget be damned. The ploy is not rocket science. If this victory comes on the back of displaced workers, “so be it”.

The harsh reality that the Republican cuts won’t address the deficit in a meaningful way is beside the point.

Public education is facing the harsh reality that district budgets are slashed before almost any other spending consideration. Correctional and penal costs are a large chunk of every state’s budget: 20 to 25 percent in some cases. Restructuring prison systems to make them more efficient, cutting waste, while taking advantage of revenue sources would help reduce the costs. Approaching drug abuse from a treatment angle as opposed to a law-enforcement angle would be another way to curb the growing cost of corrections and facilitate the prison closings already planned in some states.

Instead politicians from both parties are turning their daggers on education, which can ill afford the cuts. Both Democrats and Republicans have begun to vilify school district superintendents and their salaries. It has been amazing for me to watch those who were critical of a designation of $250,000 as a wealth cut-off point be politically reborn into a faith in salary caps as they demonize superintendents earning $150,000 a year.

Then there are those who have avoided the constraints of reality. Wall Street has been untouched by the nation’s financial collapse, as 2010 was a banner year for earners. They’ve had record incomes, even if the healthy bonuses of the past had to be offset by shifting into higher salaries. Good to see that some are escaping the perils of a floundering economy. Pity that those same people caused much of the financial woe.

The Tea Party’s outcry for lower taxes and lower deficit is self-contradictory. Simple economics tells you that spending cuts have to be steep and painful in order to reduce revenue and still pay down debt. Again, the wealthiest among us have averted this reality. The Bush era tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of Americans remain intact despite all the deficit hawkishness in Washington. I guess shared sacrifice applies only to those already sacrificing in limited jobs and incomes.

Military contractors have been spared the unfortunate truth of budgetary restraint. War profiteers remain unscathed as legislators and even the president refuse to make meaningful cuts to military spending, though it looms large as a portion of the federal budget.

Gordon and I could go on all day about the realities of federal and state budgets, had we the column inches. However, when we discuss the deficit, taxes, and spending, we need to consider the impact of reality upon real lives. Cold numbers fall short of telling the whole story.