Ronald A. LeMahieu, West Windsor
In Naomi Klein’s book “The Shock Doctrine” she suggests that since the 1970s “right wing ideologues have exploited crises to push through an agenda that has nothing to do with resolving those crises and everything to do with imposing their vision of a harsher, more unequal, less democratic society.”
Today conservatives are mounting attacks on labor unions, the rights of minorities and women, protection of the environment, health care, pensions, public broadcasting and the arts to push toward such a society.
Do budget deficits really matter to Republicans and tea partiers? If they do, why didn’t we hear from them during the administration of Bush-43 when many of those deficits were being generated? In just a few weeks, Wisconsin’s new governor has turned a budget surplus into a deficit by giving tax breaks to corporations and is now trying to use that deficit to destroy labor unions. It’s time for a reality check.
Only five states do not allow collective bargaining for educators. Those states and the ranking of their students on the ACT/SAT tests are: South Carolina (50th), North Carolina (49th), Georgia (48th), Texas (47th) and Virginia (44th). Wisconsin, which allows collective bargaining, ranks second in scores.
There is plenty of money in the U.S. to provide the necessities of life in a civilized society. However that wealth is concentrated in the top 1 percent (largely because of the Bush tax cuts) while middle class wages have been flat for 30 years.
The same conservative values that caused the economic collapse through lack of regulation (again due to Bush) are now hoping to lock in their economic domination. Rather than balancing the budget on the backs of workers and the poor, a just solution requires tax increases for the wealthiest Americans.
Ronald A. LeMahieu
West Windsor
