I wanted to follow up and connect the dots between two posts that appeared on this blog earlier this week. On Tuesday, I wrote about a Reuters series about economic inequality in the states (here are parts one, two, and three of that series). My post focused on the role of the federal government, and in particular of the enormous growth in defense spending, in driving economic inequality.
The following day, Sam Knight wrote about the extensive ties between Fix the Debt and defense contractors. Fix the Debt is a pro-austerity advocacy group that supports shredding the social safety net by making steep cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and other social programs, but completely rejects any cuts in defense spending.
Connecting the dots between these two posts, I think you can see where I am headed. The defense industry has a very clear agenda. They want to suck up as much of your and my tax dollars as possible, and put it into their own pockets, to make themselves rich. As their front group Fix the Debt makes crystal clear, they also want to decimate social spending, particularly the types of social insurance, such as Social Security and Medicare, that middle class Americans heavily rely on. The Reuters article referred to these reverse-Robin Hood tactics as “Redistributing Up.” Indeed.
Upward redistribution — it’s what’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the nation’s capital these days, only they like to call it “deficit reduction” or some other BS euphemism. But don’t let them and their mouthpieces in the wingnutosphere and the mainstream media bamboozle you. It’s class warfare, pure and simple, and it has got to end.
