How
often have you heard reactionary politicians who are opposed to
universal social programs and even the most modest reforms say, “There
is no such thing as a free lunch,” followed by their favorite excuse,
“There is no money.”
Anyone with an ounce of common sense understands everything has to be paid for.
However, there is such a thing as a “free lunch;” but, as a society we agree to pay for those free lunches for school children.
As far as there being no money for social programs, this is a matter of
the struggle over priorities... why do those who say there is no money
never quibble about the cost of militarism and wars?
Anyone
capable of logical thinking understands that if you spend trillions of
dollars on militarism and wars that money is no longer available to be
spent funding “free school lunches,” health care, child care, public
education or maintaining the public infrastructure; for much less than
is being squandered on militarism and wars we could fully fund all of
this.
Whether it’s Republicans with, “There is no such thing as a
free lunch” or Wall Street bribed Democrats claiming, when it comes to
social programs, “We must pay as we go,” neither party ever subjects
spending on militarism and wars to the same scrutiny nor complains about
spending on militarism and wars...
In fact, Democrats and
Republicans join hands in overwhelming bi-partisan unity to keep
increasing the budget for militarism and their never-ending dirty
imperialist wars.
We have seen the failure of the Democrats to
defend the New Deal reforms while these Democrats often join Republican
attacks on these programs. A perfect example is how Obama appointed the
reactionary Republican Alan Simpson to oversee the National Commission
on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform where he attacked everything from
Social Security to the Food Stamp Program.
Democrats have
rejected the “spend on people not on war” views of Henry Wallace, Claude
“Red” Pepper, Frances Perkins and George McGovern.
We might as
well be dumping the tremendous wealth of our Nation created by the
working class into the deepest depths of the oceans for all the good
this spending on militarism and wars is doing for us.
The most
massive transfer of wealth from the working class to the rich takes
place through military spending which further enriches the Wall Street
merchants of death and destruction.
The corporate owned,
dominated and controlled mainstream media and the over-paid pundits and
professors use every conceivable means to steer us away from having this
discussion about our Nation’s priorities.
And this is not going to change until the working class takes the initiative to organize its own political party...
A real people’s party that is both anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist
not afraid to challenge Wall Street for both political and economic
power.
Immediately we need to launch struggles for:
Ending these wars.
Increasing Social Security; no retiree should get less than $2,700.00 a month.
Cancelling student debt.
Creating a National Public Health Care System.
Creating a National Public Child Care program.
Fully fund public education.
Raise the Minimum Wage to a real living wage based on the actual
cost-of-living; let any employer who does not want to pay workers a real
living wage do whatever jobs that need to be done do the work
themselves.
This discussion begins around our kitchen tables and
must continue into our break rooms at work and brought into the public
square.
We need to write letters, leaflet, petition, demonstrate.
The key to winning is:
Education.
Organization.
Unity.
Action.
We need to create a new kind of discussion focused on the politics and economics of livelihood.
Working people need to be empowered.
Winning is all about working class power.
Dare to struggle; dare to win.
