December 30, 2015

How Reaganomics killed the American middle class

Richard Brenneman - Perhaps Ronald Reagan’s most powerfully symbolic actions of his first months as president was the firing of nearly 13,000 members of the Professional Air Traffic Controller’s Organization after they walked off their jobs in an illegal strike — illegal because federal employees were barred from walkouts and strikes.

Reagan’s move marked the end of organized labor in the United States as a decisively powerful movement, a rise that had gained momentum during the Great Depression as government actively courted craft unions as an alternative to the rise of industrial unions in hopes of staving off the rise of an energized Left stirred to actions by the ravages of the banksters and corporateers who had brought the global economy to its knees.

It was Reagan and his team of advisers — the same cabal who would continue through the administrations of the two Bushes — who also plotted the dramatic tax cuts for corporations and plutocrats, freed corporations from a variety of regulatory regimes, dramatically stepped up privatization of education and the military, deregulated finance [with a dramatic assist from Bill Clinton], and so much more.

Here to put it into perspective is an interview of economist Richard D. Wolff by Thom Hartmann of RT's The Big Picture:

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"It was Reagan and his team of advisers — the same cabal who would continue through the administrations of the two Bushes — who also plotted the dramatic tax cuts for corporations and plutocrats, freed corporations from a variety of regulatory regimes, dramatically stepped up privatization of education and the military, deregulated finance [with a dramatic assist from Bill Clinton], and so much more."

Actually, no, it wasn't. It was the solidly Democratic Congress of the time who did all of those things; not Reagan at all. Rather surprising that despite covering DC politics for over 50 years Mr. Smith doesn't seem to realize that the President can only do very little without Congress. Again, all of those things were passed by a Democratic Congress, and all of the liberals, such as Kerry and Pelosi, made considerable money from the tax cuts and other plutocratic measures they pushed through.

Anonymous said...

I tried to watch the interview of economist Richard D. Wolff linked above and it took 30 minutes to see the first 10 minutes of content with constant buffering and re-loading. Every 30 seconds to 2 minutes the site re-started and would not continue w/o re-loading. I'm not sure the issue. I watch movies and videos, other news sites live streaming all of the time, even other RT segments but this one was impossible to watch. I finally gave up and went here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdCNGkZoIZw

Anonymous said...

I wonder if "Anonymous" above would say as firmly that "Obama's" expansion of the surveillance/security State, Increased Militarization of Domestic Police apparatus, Creation of "Obamacare", expansion of the illegal Drone wars, increased secrecy of the Government apparatus, et al. is "solidly the [result of a] Republican Congress... who did all those things, not Obama at all"?

Anonymous said...

Not long ago, I was in a take out restaurant. One of the customers was complaining out loud about the "death tax."

He had come out of a pick up truck which had seen its better days. He had no idea that the so-called death tax was actually an estate tax on large estates. He was safe. No one was going to arrive from Washington upon his demise to confiscate his collection of Johnny Cash eight tracks.

You want to know who to blame for what happened? it wasn't Reagan.

Blame uneducated, uninformed Americans.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 12:01PM is confushed. Congress does not make executive decisions. That's what the chief executive does, as in the case of PATCO. Democrats joining in the smashing of working people is fair comment, but even at his worst Tip O'Neil was junior partner to Reagan's efforts. (see also The Historical Record)