The “Thirdworldization” of America: Defunding and Privatization, Draconian GOP FY 2019 Budget Proposal

America is being systematically thirdworldized – notably since the neoliberal 90s, escalated under Bush/Cheney, social justice further assaulted under Obama. The Trump regime and GOP-controlled Congress want New Deal/Great Society programs eliminated altogether – by defunding or privatization, giving Wall Street and other corporate predators new profit centers, at the expense of grievously harmed ordinary people, especially the nation’s most vulnerable.

The state of America today is deplorable. Reported 3.8% unemployment is baloney, real unemployment at 21.4% with longterm discouraged and displaced workers included, according to Shadowstats economist John Williams.

Most US workers are underemployed in rotten part-time or temp jobs because millions of full-time ones no longer exist – lost by offshoring to low-wage countries.

Poverty in America is a growth industry, tens of millions of US workers a missed paycheck or two away from possible homelessness, hunger and despair.

The Trump regime and GOP-controlled Congress are waging class war on ordinary Americans, escalating what began earlier, wanting America returned to 19th century harshness, eroding or eliminating one social program after another, wanting maximum resources for warmaking and corporate profit-making.

On Tuesday, Republican House members introduced a FY 2019 budget proposal, calling for $5.4 trillion in mandatory spending cuts over the next decade – for defense spending increases and to help pay for the great GOP tax cut heist enacted last year.

Major cuts in Medicare and Medicaid are prioritized over the next decade – $537 billion and $1.5 trillion respectively, another $5 billion from Social Security, additional cuts from other social programs.

According to Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget president Maya MacGuineas, the House budget proposal

“calls for $8.1 trillion of deficit reduction relative to CBO’s baseline, most of these savings com(ing) from rosy economic assumptions or unreconciled and often unrealistic spending cuts.”

The proposal calls for fast-tracking at least $302 billion in spending cuts over the next decade, a process requiring a simple majority to pass, avoiding an undemocratic Dem filibuster.

Republicans will again try to kill Obamacare. The Orwellian-named “A Brighter American Future” budget “assumes Congress repeals Obamacare and replaces it with a patient-centered, free-market health care system,” its summary states, failing to explain what Republicans have in mind is egregiously unfair.

The proposal also includes an option for eligible government-run Medicare recipients to enroll in privatized plans, a scheme to let corporate predators charge more and deliver less.

With midterm elections in November, budget legislation isn’t likely to be enacted before the lame duck session ahead of when a new January 2019 Congress is sworn in.

Undemocratic Dems will surely use the draconian House GOP proposal as a campaign issue to boost their electoral chances in November.

According to top Dem House Budget Committee member Rep. John Yarmuth, his party members

“will make sure everyone knows that after providing millionaires and corporations with massive tax breaks, House Republicans decided to pay for it by once again calling for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, ending Medicare as we know it, and offering deep cuts to investments in economic growth.”

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities president Robert Greenstein issued a statement in response to the GOP House scheme, saying:

“It’s easy to become numb to the harshness of these budgets and to brush aside their policy implications based on the assumption (likely correct) that few, if any, of these policies will be enacted this year,” adding:

“But this budget reflects where many congressional leaders – and the president – would like to take the country if they get the opportunity to enact these measures in the years ahead.”

“Rather than help more families have a shot at the American dream, it asks the most from those who have the least, and it would leave our nation less prepared for the economic and other challenges that lie ahead.”

A Final Comment

The nation I grew up in long ago no longer exists. Endless wars rage against invented enemies. Monied interests are more omnipotent than ever.

Social justice is on the chopping block for elimination. Harsh legislation transformed the country into a police state.

Undemocratic Dems are as deplorable as Republicans, each right wing of US duopoly government as bad as the other – privileged interests alone served, ordinary people increasingly harmed.

The deplorable state of the nation should terrify and enrage everyone. The only solution is nonviolent grassroots revolution. Nothing else can work.

Elections change nothing. Dirty business as usual always wins at the federal, state and local levels.

America’s ruling class may doom us all if not challenged. Ordinary people have disruptive power when they use it.

It takes more than marches, rallies, slogans, grumbling or petitions. It requires taking activism to a far higher level and sustaining it whatever the challenges – by withholding cooperation with government responsible for inflicting enormous harm on countless millions at home and abroad.

When government serves privileged interests at the expense of most others, sustained resistance is the only possible way for positive change.

Regime change begins at home. It’s an idea whose time has come.

Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the CRG, Correspondent of Global Research based in Chicago.