The BigotBasher

The Tea Party protested in support of cuts. There was no answer from the left in America. The largest protest group in the US, with the exception of Wisconsin is the Tea Party, campaigning for their own redundancy notices.

When the Tories attacked social security in the UK there was no protest, sure the middle class and rich protested against student fees (which actually benefit the poorest) but welfare, nowhere.

Austerity budgets lead to more austerity. The great plan for Europe was to ride the wave of a resurgent US and a growing China. Say goodbye to the idea of a resurgent US.

The only budget that would have actually started to cut into the US National Debt would have been that proposed by the Progressive Caucus. It still makes that passed by the right wing UK look “far left” (UK top rate taxes of 50% and a partial removal of the National Insurance (Social Security cap). It was however completely ignored in media debates. The left was represented by the “middle”, that of President Obama. The right was the Tea Party and the middle was somewhere in between the two. A position far more right wing than anything Bush could have proposed.

We can not and should not blame the President for this. The message from November was clear from those selling that message. Cuts are wanted. That is the message that was sent to the President. That is the message Washington heard. That is the message the IMF and the Credit Agencies are forcing down the throat of European Nations.

We scream only at our own side. There has been no effective answer to the right.

There are real alternatives to austerity. Germany reduced their working week. Everyone took a hit but few became unemployed. They are now booming. They have no need to cut their social programmes and they have absolutely no desire to cut their social programmes to bail out Nations who did not do what they did.

In our great Anglo-American Economy, the richest 1% have had their incomes grow massively while those at the bottom are being forced to pay. The top end market for house prices in London has never been higher. The bottom end has collapsed because ordinary people can not get mortgages. Who paid to bail out the banks to save the wealth of the top? Ordinary every day workers.

An Empire died 20 years ago because they gave a higher priority to military spending than spending on their own people. Another Empire is now coming to an end.