The nation's social bargain with the rich

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The nation's social bargain with the rich
By Derrick Z. Jackson
September 30, 2008

CONGRESS has been rushing to save financial CEOs from themselves with a $700 billion bailout that amounts to a tax of $2,333 on every man, woman, and child in America. This is after three decades of the nation's leaders punishing struggling Americans for their lack of personal responsibility, from Ronald Reagan's assault on "welfare queens" to the bipartisan slashing and capping of welfare benefits by President Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

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Then, of course, there were the 1.5 million home foreclosures last year and the 2.5 million foreclosures projected for this year by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Many economists and politicians have washed their hands of them, saying, tsk, tsk, they were irresponsible for taking on too much responsibility!

If scapegoating struggling Americans on personal responsibility fails to work, we just ignore them, as sure as the Ninth Ward of New Orleans remains the American Dresden after Hurricane Katrina - while rebuilt Gulf Coast casinos break new revenue records.

All those millions of Americans, facing everything from slashed food stamps to swamped homes, live in a patronizing America where Clinton signs the 1996 welfare bill by saying, "We're going to take this historic chance to try to recreate the nation's social bargain with the poor. We're going to try to change the parameters of the debate. We're going to make it all new again and see if we can't create a system of incentives which reinforce work and family and independence. We can change what is wrong."

No broad parameters are being changed for greedy or incompetent Wall Street CEOs, as the financial sector assures itself a compliant Congress with $2 billion in campaign contributions since 1990 (Obama and McCain have respectively received $25 million and $22 million in campaign contributions from the financial sector in this campaign cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics).

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/09/30/the_nations_social_bargain_with_the_rich/">FULL TEXT

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