THIS IS JIM HIGHTOWER SAYING . . .
The Real Economy
These are the Best of Times--all the politicians, media sparklies, and Wall Street analysts tell us so. Stock prices are soaring, jobs are being created by the zillions, people are buying fabulous new homes, and there's caviar in every pot!
Unless, of course, you live in the real world. Out here, you can literally hear the drip . . . drip . . . drip of the lifeblood of the middle class bleeding away. British Petroleum-Amoco announces 1,600 more U.S. job losses than the original 6,000 predicted when the two firms merged last year; Avery Dennison, the maker of labels and office equipment, will cut 1,500 jobs in order to jack-up its profits and make its stock price more attractive to wealthy investors; Universal-PolyGram, the hip record company, says it will punt 500 employees; Integrated Device Technology Inc., one of the hot computer chip stocks, kills 300 jobs; Frito Lay, the edible chip-maker, shuts down four plants employing 850 people; Burlington Industries, the clothing and textile giant, slashes 2,900 U.S. jobs. All this in only two days in January, two weeks after Bill Clinton crowed in his State of the Union speech that America was prospering like never before.
Of course, Clinton's policies help to create this disconnect between the powerful and the rest of us. Burlington, for example, cut 2,900 families from its payroll because it shut down seven factories in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia--not because it's cutting back production; just moving it. Thanks to Clinton's NAFTA deal, Burlington can get its stuff made on the cheap by exploited labor in Mexico, then ship it back here to sell without paying any tariffs or reducing its prices. Sure enough, as Burlington closed seven U.S. factories . . . it opened seven Mexican factories.
This is all done in the name of "global competition," but to the middle class, it's just another way of saying "Gotcha."
Hogs at the Pentagon Trough
Let's check today's Hog Report. These fat oinkers are members of Congress who constantly claim that there's just not enough money in the trough for a jobs program, universal health care, toxic clean-up or anything else needed to help America's workaday majority.
But when it comes time to spend money to serve their own political needs-sooooeee . . . here come the hogs, rolling out the pork-barrel and chowing down at taxpayers' expense. The Washington Post reports that the latest Pentagon spending bill contains $4 billion worth of projects that the military never asked for and doesn't need, yet members of congress tucked them in the bill to gain political favor back home.
Lawmakers call this "earmarked money." You would call it "pork."
The Senate Republican leader, Trent Lott, for example, added a billion-and-a-half bucks for a new helicopter carrier, even though the Navy already has seven and doesn't want or need another one. Why is Lott so insistent? Because the carrier would be built in his home state of Mississippi by Ingall's Shipbuilding, one of his political backers.
Democrats love pork, too. Rep. John Murtha inserted $25 million into the Pentagon budget for DRS Laurel Technologies, based in his hometown. Murtha has regularly fed military funds to this company, even though the military has not requested them. The company's president, of course, is grateful, giving Murtha "100 percent" credit for his firm's lucrative Pentagon business, saying "He kicks the door open."
Meanwhile, as a few politically-connected companies get fat, the pay for the men and women enlisted to fight our wars is now so low that 11,000 military families actually qualify for food stamps.
To help slim down the hogs and redirect our military spending, contact the Center for Defense Information at 202/332-0600.
Uncle Sam Wants to "Protect" You
Everything that can be invented has been in-vented," said the US Commissioner of Patents. The year was 1899. Obviously, there have been a few more technological inventions in the intervening 100 years . . . but there has also been no shortage of new excuses invented to rationalize the steady erosion of our civil liberties in America. Our presidents and lawmakers have grabbed any cause as an excuse to stiff the constitutional strictures of the Founders and give authorities the OK to intrude into people's liberties.
The latest excuse is "fighting terrorism here at home," and its inventor is Bill Clinton. He says he has spent many sleepless nights over what he calls the "highly likely" possibility that a terrorist group will launch a chemical or bacterial attack on American soil sometime soon, and he now wants his presidential legacy to be that he readied our country for this assault. So he's been holding secret meetings, taking secret actions, and issuing secret directives to "protect us."
Protect us how? As always when our liberties are being further sliced, Clinton says he can't give details, but he did recently give a few clues in a New York Times interview. One, there is to be stepped-up monitoring of civilian computer networks. Notice that every move to protect us begins with more surveillance of those to be protected. Clinton says he'll create a special new corps of computer experts to keep track of . . . well, of what? And of whom? "Terrorists," of course, but who are they? Your neighbors? Certain citizens who fit "a profile"? Any "odd" political group?
To handle our "protection," Clinton is even considering a Pentagon request to create a new "commander in chief for homeland defense," giving the military a new beachhead in our own country and a new combat target: us!
Beware of presidents promising to use spooks and soldiers to protect you.
Gore Gets Tight with Wall Street
Bill Clinton, in my estimation, has been the best Republican president since Eisenhower. He's shown a steady loyalty to the whims of Wall Street and the interests of global corporations--at the expense of America's workaday majority.
But I've been told not to worry, because Al Gore is now set to be president, and once he's free of Clinton, Al will show us what it's like to have a real Democrat in the White House again. Before you swallow that, though, you'd better know about Rattner, Tisch, and Kramer.
This is not a law firm, but three Wall Street heavies who have become tighter with Gore than the bark on a tree. Steve Rattner is CEO of the investment bank Lazard Freres, John Tisch is chief exec of Loews Corporation, and Orin Kramer is a major money manager for big investors. A little noticed article in the Washington Post discloses that this trio is serving as Al's tour guide to Wall Street, raising beaucoup bucks for his campaign and serving as his kitchen cabinet on economic policies.
Through them, Gore--the supposed Democrat--has been holding what the trio calls "cultivational meetings" with the top dogs of Bankers Trust, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and others. At breakfast brainstorming sessions, New York meetings and White House coffees, these Wall Streeters have been advising Gore-including telling him to tone down his traditional Democratic concerns and to focus instead on Clinton-style financial and trade policies that have enriched them so handsomely in the '90s. Apparently they're plenty pleased with the progress of their star pupil, who now turns to them for development of his economic proposals--and even vets his speeches through them! As Jon Corzine of Goldman Sachs put it: "The Vice President has tried to understand how the global economy works from the eyes of someone sitting in Wall Street."
That's exactly what's wrong with America now--Washington pays too much attention to Wall Street . . . and not enough to our streets.
Join GrannyD's Crusade
I'm in love. Hopelessly in love. Doris Haddock is her name, but she's called "Granny D" by her family and friends, and she's filled with the fighting spirit that makes America so great. She's an 89-year-old great-grandmother on a mission. Her goal is to help get the corrupting power of big campaign money out of politics. To rally public support, Granny D is walking across America--all 3,000 miles of it. "Call me crazy, call me God-sent," she says, "I am on a crusade to create a groundswell for campaign finance reform to eliminate the cancer [of big money]."
She flew from her New Hampshire home out to California in late December, then began walking East from Santa Monica on January 1st. She plans to average 10 miles a day as she treks through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia--and finally, sometime next November, to cross the Potomac and walk straight up Capitol Hill to the halls of Congress. There, she'll deliver thousands of petitions that she will have gotten signed along the way.
"I'm traveling as a pilgrim," Granny D says. She's asking people for a meal, a warm place to sleep at night, and, of course, to sign and spread her petitions. Already, support is building for this unique, heartfelt crusade--local media are pouring out, towns folks gather at the city line to escort her in, people are walking with her, rallies for reform are being held when she visits, and travelers that pass her on the road invariably honk and shout, "Go Granny Go."
She's a Granny with both an 800 number and a web site, so if you want to follow her travels, know when she's coming to your town, or get her petition, go to grannyd.com, or call 1-800-298-2182.
This is Jim Hightower saying . . . Those of you who've been waiting for a leader . . . I think she just arrived.
Contact us directly at: hightower@essential.org Copyright 1998 - Hightower and Associates, Inc.