If
the Republicans gain a Senate majority, they'll try to topple these four
pillars of public service.
 |
| The GOP’s Sharp Teeth, an OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib |
Republican
operative Grover Norquist used to quip about shrinking government to the point
where it would get small enough to drown in the bathtub. You probably thought
he was kidding.
His
joke could be on us all soon enough.
Pollsters say the Republican
Party is likely to nab at least a slim Senate majority in this
year’s mid-term elections.
And The Washington Post gives
Republicans a 99 percent chance of retaining their firm control over the House of
Representatives.
Well,
a lot. For starters, consider these four pillars of public service that the
Republican Party will try to send down the drain.
First,
there’s Social Security. Their game is to gradually chip away at
the nation’s primary retirement benefit program and then
privatize it when it runs into trouble. Scores of
Social Security offices around the country have already closed
even though record numbers of people are turning 65, setting the stage for failure.
Then,
there’s what passes for affordable health care in the United States. Despite
the Republicans’ sneering over “Obamacare,” their backers in the health
insurance industry love its requirement that everyone must get one of their
plans. Next up on the GOP agenda: replacing Medicare with
a voucher system
And
don’t forget the public schools. Many Republicans are heeding a push by
billionaires to jam as many pupils as possible into charter and
online K-12 schools. That means taxpayers are increasingly paying
private businesses to educate their kids at ostensibly public facilities. And
do kids learn more at
brick-and-mortar charters or virtual
schools? In a word, nope.
Finally,
Republicans are tampering with your mail. The U.S. Postal Service is losing
money because Congress forced it to pay upfront for future retirement benefits
— unlike any other agency — creating the illusion that it’s on a shaky footing.
This started the last time the GOP controlled both chambers, when
lawmakers produced the cynically named Postal
Accountability and Enhancement Act. If Republicans recover their
majority in both chambers, this absurd law would be sure to stay on the books.
There’s
nothing new about trying to replace government services with private ones or
substituting contract workers for government employees. And the GOP doesn’t
always act on its own. Plenty of
Democrats are joining with their colleagues across the aisle to
accomplish at least some of these maneuvers.
The
difference today is money.
Thanks
to a string of Supreme Court decisions, corporations and wealthy individuals
may contribute nearly limitless amounts of money to political campaigns. Later,
they demand favorable policies when their candidates win.
The
result? Social Security, schools, affordable health care, the postal service,
and other essential government operations all suffer as the private sector
extracts ever larger profits from the public realm.
Grover
Norquist has compelled most Republican politicians to swear off raising the
tax revenue that might cover the cost of delivering essential
public services. Is this what Norquist envisioned before he conjured up
his his anti-tax pledge? Probably.
Emily
Schwartz Greco is the managing editor of OtherWords,
a non-profit national editorial service run by the Institute for Policy
Studies. OtherWords columnist
William A. Collins is a former state representative and a former mayor of
Norwalk, Connecticut. OtherWords.org