December 28, 2005
Giving Voice to the Voiceless
By Ed Koch

It's hard to believe, but nevertheless it is true.

The Republican majorities in both Houses were unable to achieve the goal of a $50 billion reduction over the next five years in a total annual federal budget of $2.6 trillion this fiscal year, settling instead for $39.7 billion, a ridiculously small amount. Described by the Chairman of the Committee on the Budget as, “less than one-half of 1 percent of the total mandatory spending projected over the next 5 years.” One-third of the total savings comes from reductions in student programs. College students will be paying higher rates of interest and receiving lower subsidies. The other forced contributors to the meager savings achieved overall are the most vulnerable people, Medicaid beneficiaries with benefits scaled back and co-payments imposed, as well as the elderly whose benefits were reduced.

While many economists -- among them Alan Greenspan, the retiring Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank -- continue to warn of the danger to our economy resulting from rising federal budgetary deficits, little of substance is being done to address the issue. Nothing can be responsibly accomplished as long as the Congress and President are bent on using enormous amounts of tax revenues to enrich those already wealthy, diverting those revenues which should be used to maintain adequate services for those in need, expand our health and education coverage for the entire nation, and reduce the national debt, reducing thereby the huge interest payments on that debt.

Instead, the President and Congress continue to assist the top two percent of America’s taxpayers by providing billions in tax reductions that began in the first four years of the Bush administration. Now they're trying to make them both permanent and larger. Those tax deductions overwhelmingly benefit people who earn more than $300,000 a year, with two percent of the taxpayers getting 37 percent of the tax reductions.

I deplore fascism, socialism and communism. I'm a believer in the capitalist system that allows you, subject to reasonable restraints and taxes, to use for your own benefit and that of your family your personal abilities -- the skill of your hands and the power of your brain.

But I also believe just as firmly in fairness, which requires us to help those who need government assistance. It's not fair that those with the necessary ability should be denied the opportunity to pursue a higher education because they were born into the homes of financially poor parents. The country needs their talents. It is simply wrong that people should suffer because the country’s legislators favor helping those already better off. They are so shameless they have even eliminated subsidies intended to help poor families with their heating bills. Consider how shameful that is when at the same time our government stands by without taking appropriate regulatory and criminal actions against oil companies and foreign countries that violate the existing anti-trust laws intended to protect American consumers.

These laws, initiated as far back as President Theodore Roosevelt’s administration 100 years ago, were intended to protect the people of our country from cartels and monopolies that gouge us everyday, most flagrantly today in the unbridled prices they charge for oil and gasoline. Capitalism that is fairly administered and subject to fair laws works wonders. Yes, our economy is booming. But capitalism that runs amok, as it is currently doing in the U.S., adds immensely to the benefits for those already financially secure and injures those who are not. Such a gross distortion of our economic system is unacceptable and should be denounced in the same way we already denounce fascism, socialism and communism.

So long as the 45 million Americans who are without medical insurance continue to find themselves more and more in need of medical assistance, we will be a nation without a conscience. Yes, we now have a prescription drug program that is badly needed. But this program is limited to those on Social Security and is so complex that those eligible are literally terrified because they don’t understand the available new coverage and need the services of accountants to select a particular insurance program covering their needs. How can it be in a capitalist system which deplores cartels, our government protects prescription drug companies from competition? That our government prohibits the Social Security Agency from securing lower prices by using its immense buying power with bulk purchases as an instrument to affect prices is scandalous and demonstrates how special interests control the President and the Congress.

Does this sound like a rant? I hope so, because it is, as well as a cri de coeur. What if on an agreed upon day, every columnist, on the right and left, used their commentary of the day to voice the distress of the common people of this country who are voiceless? What if on a single day and hour everyone walked into the sunlit streets of their city and at a given signal shouted in unison nationwide, “We demand our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?" Let’s throw the rascals out.

Ed Koch is the former Mayor of New York City.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-12_28_05_EK.html