To the Nation: GOP Wants Massive Profit Not Debt Reduction

To the Editor of The Nation,

Of all the columnists and talking heads I have read, William Greider (“Obama’s Bad Bargain,” August 15-22) comes closest to understanding the real function of the deficit/debt debate for Republicans. It is an understanding which Democrats must have in order save our country.

Greider nails it with this observation: “The president has done grievous damage to the most vulnerable by trying to fight the GOP on its ground—accepting the premise that deficits and debt should be a national priority.”

But even this falls far short of what Republicans are really after. They are after profits.

The federal government, starved by draconian cuts in “expenses” (regulatory agencies and the recent infamous FAA incident come to mind), will be unable to carry out its functions which will then be privatized, sold off to corporations piece by piece.

The grand prizes are Social Security and Medicare. Republicans have told us what they want to do to those programs but always in terms of reducing the debt and never in terms of the real purpose: profit. Hundreds of trillions of dollars from these programs would flow to Wall Street, banks, and insurance companies, yielding windfall profits of trillions upon trillions of dollars at enormous and debilitating expense to the poor and the middle class in increased premiums and lower benefits.

The ruling class will have expanded its wealth and power to untold dimension.

This is not about mean spirited Republicans or even about ideology. This is about profit, pure and simple. Mr. Greider identified the false front Republicans have used to frame this challenge and the gullible acceptance of it by Democrats, but he didn’t show why. That is the most important piece.

Thomas Hunter, Ph.D.