FOR THE first time in recorded history, U.S. household incomes did not rise for the fifth year in a row, according to the New York Times. Meanwhile, the poverty rate increased for the fourth straight year, to 12.7 percent. Median household income is at its lowest level, adjusted for inflation, since 1997. In the past year, median full-time wages fell two percent for males and one percent for females. Total income would have fallen except that cash-strapped workers compensated for falling wages by working more hours. Sensing the enemy's moment of weakness, the Republican junta now declares war on the American working classes.
Last week Jeb Bush's administration approved spending limits on Medicaid in Florida. Supported by Gov. Bush, the proposal eliminates "defined benefits" and sets a maximum spending ceiling for Medicaid recipients. It also grants private health care providers greater authority to deny benefits without public oversight. In an interview, Joe Szakos of the Virginia Organizing Project noted that Medicaid pays for not only health care for the poor but also mental health, mental retardation, and substance abuse treatment services. Gov. Bush's attack on the poor, Szakos said, "is not only about keeping wages low, preventing the poor from receiving healthcare, and limiting access to affordable housing," but also about hurting the most vulnerable members of society. President Bush said the federal and state governments cannot afford to pay for Medicaid in its present structure. He is absolutely right. It would be impossible to give Halliburton no-bid contracts in Louisiana or Iraq if the administration wasted money on the health of American citizens.
The Republicans in Congress have predicated hurricane aid on cuts in national social services. Less than two weeks ago Congress ended funding for some Medicare premiums. As a result, 192,000 Americans face "a steep increase in costs" of health care, according to the New York Times.
Congress also took bold action to trim the federal budget by suspending affirmative action hiring procedures for federal contractors in the Gulf Coast region. Civil rights programs join Medicare and Medicaid as programs that are not affordable. Wait -- how does suspending affirmative action programs of private firms save the government money? Never mind: Apparently private contractors are facing budget problems that resemble those of the federal government. In order to give Halliburton and others some breathing room, Congress suspended the Davis-Bacon Act for federal contractors in the Gulf. Since 1931 the act has required that federal contractors pay the regional "prevailing wage," generally based on the union wage. Now the folks who lost their homes can work for Wal Mart wages, which is great for the cutting the deficit, because I'm sure that Halliburton is returning all that money it saves directly to federal coffers.
Who among us can fail to appreciate the Republicans' hard nosed, honest approach to cutting government spending and attacking the deficit? If the government cannot afford to fund given programs, the politicians should have the courage to say so.
The Republicans also demonstrated unparalleled courage in standing up for those Americans who we so often forget, whose tribulations are invisible to us in the course of our daily lives. I refer, of course, to the obscenely rich. The House Republicans, led by Indiana Rep. Mike Pence, propose cutting taxes for them. They need it: those private guards to protect their mansions in the hurricane's aftermath were incredibly expensive.
Referring to "deep, persistent poverty in this region [Gulf Coast]," President Bush pledged to "overcome" apparently intractable difficulties. He was referring to the crisis of recognition by the media that American poverty is pervasive and acute. To avoid translating this crisis of understanding into concrete government action to alleviate poverty required "overcoming" certain superstitious beliefs, like the idea people need decent paying jobs if they're going to rebuild their communities. Liberals posed another challenge to the GOP cabal by suggesting that hurricane victims need healthcare. Republican senators, in accordance with administration requests, blocked Medicaid that would have gone to low-income hurricane victims. The relief bill, which had the support of the American Red Cross, Catholic Charities and the National Governors Association, would have "expand[ed] the pool of traditional Medicaid recipients to include pregnant women, children and the disabled," according to the New York Times. Following his Senate allies' lead, President Bush blocked housing vouchers that would have gone to hurricane victims. Instead, he diverted the money into building trailer park refugee camps, often located far from available employment. If public housing projects are any indication, in five years these refugee camps with be hotbeds of crime, and the Heritage Foundation propagandists can cite them as yet another example of counter-productive government intervention on behalf of the needy. That is overcoming a challenge: taking advantage of public sympathy to manufacture an example of government's inefficacy that will serve as political ammunition many election cycles into the future.
We can't sit around in front of our big screen TVs and wait for the mid term elections to return fire. We must act now, and not limit our response to merely voting.
Zack Fields' column appears Wednesday in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at zfields@cavalierdaily.com.
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