[IMC-DC] BTL Q&A 2-15-05: Opponents Prepare to Challenge Bush Budget Cuts and Drive to Privatize Social Security

[Scott Harris]

Between the Lines Q&A
A weekly column featuring progressive viewpoints
on national and international issues
under-reported in mainstream media
for release Feb. 15, 2005
http://www.btlonline.org
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Opponents Prepare to Challenge
Bush Budget Cuts and Drive
to Privatize Social Security

Interview with Roger Hickey,
co-director of the Campaign for America's Future,
conducted by Scott Harris

Listen in RealAudio:
http://www.btlonline.org/hickey021805.ram
(Needs RealOne player or RealPlayer)

After winning a narrow victory in the November 2004 election, President
Bush set out an audacious set of foreign and domestic policy goals in
his State of the Union address and his administration's budget proposal.
In his State of the Union speech, Mr. Bush gloated about the higher than
expected turnout in the Iraqi election and threatened the nations of
Iran and Syria, demanding they comply with Washington's blueprint for a
democratic transformation of the Middle East.

On the domestic front, the president made many questionable declarations
about the imminent demise of the Social Security system while proposing
that the nation follow his prescription of moving toward costly partial
privatization of the popular New Deal era program. In his
administration's 2006 budget proposal, Bush put forth a plan that would
eliminate or deeply cut programs benefiting veterans, food stamp
recipients, students and farmers, while increasing funding for the
Pentagon. The dramatic cuts were said to be the start of a plan to
reduce record deficits amassed during the president's first term in
office.

But much of the country greeted Bush's audacious agenda with skepticism,
noting that with the U.S. tied down in a bloody guerrilla war in Iraq,
threats made against Iran and Syria were mere empty gestures. And
although solutions to long-range shortfalls in Social Security and
current budget deficits could easily be addressed with a rollback of the
president's tax cuts primarily benefiting the rich, these obvious
resolutions were willfully ignored. Between The Lines' Scott Harris
spoke with Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America's
Future, who takes a critical look at the president's agenda and the
strategies being discussed to oppose his policies.

Roger Hickey: Well, it's really ironic that the president claims to be a
champion of democracy around the world and he also claims to be pursuing
terrorism systematically and effectively. That's probably the one issue
that got him elected -- the claim that he's a fighter against the forces
of terrorism. But in reality what he has done and continues to do, is
stir up massive reaction to the United States and to even the notion of
democracy, especially in the Middle East, where he has spent the
treasure and the blood of American soldiers in a really ill-considered
adventure. There were no weapons of mass destruction, there were no
imminent threats to the United States at all, and Osama bin Laden is
never mentioned in his speeches any more, because the full force of the
U.S. military is focused on the maintenance operation in Iraq and
threatening countries like Iran and others. The neocons around Bush have
created a mess. It's costing enormous amounts of money in terms of the
federal budget, and it is amazing to see them trying to package this
mess as a crusade for democracy. It's far from it.

Between The Lines: Roger Hickey, in looking at the Bush administration's
proposed budget specifics, deep cuts, elimination of some (social)
programs. The Bush administration seems to be targeting all these
programs for the poor and disadvantaged.  And they justify it by saying
that this is an effort to reduce the deficit.  Does it make any sense to
you?

Roger Hickey:  It makes a lot of sense. They have, on purpose, created
this deficit.  When the Bush administration came into office, there were
large surpluses; we were actually paying down our debt.  And we had
money to attack (child) poverty and other noble causes, fix Social
Security. If fact, they have systematically created this federal deficit
by cutting taxes for the very wealthy. And these tax cuts now have given
us a massive problem, a problem that the president is now addressing by
slashing the budget. It's health care for young children that's on the
chopping block; it's nutrition programs; it's education. This president
tries, claims to be an education president. He temporarily increased
spending for education while he was trying to get the "No Child Left
Behind" act passed and now education in this budget is targeted for
steady reductions. This plays very, very well to Bush's Republican
hard-core supporters, especially the very wealthy.  But this is a budget
that is going to hurt the middle class. It's going to be a bloody
battle. If the Republicans stay together, they may have the votes to
pass it. And then on top of this budget-cutting, Bush will then try to
extend the tax cuts for the wealthy and make them permanent. And so,
you're going to see additional holes blown into the federal budget for
the out years, as they call them.

And then you have the Social Security privatization plan, which all
experts estimate is going to cost $2 trillion in transition costs over
the next 10 years. Those are major, major impacts on the federal
revenue, which this budget does not take into account. It's quite a
mess.

Between The Lines: Roger Hickey, as you survey the Democrats and other
opposition voices out there, what are the chances the country is going
to respond effectively to defeat this agenda, whether it be the foreign
policy agenda, the privatization of Social Security, these deep cuts in
the federal budget?

Roger Hickey: Well, I do think that on foreign policy, the president has
got a shot in the arm in terms of the election. Polling shows that
people are feeling a little bit better about the "Iraqi adventure. " But
that's not going to last long if the Bush administration does not figure
out an exit strategy. And I think there will be continuing calls -- as
Ted Kennedy called for just the other day -- a plan to remove our troops
from the Middle East and from Iraq. This is similar to the Vietnam War
when Nixon tried to "Vietnamize" the Vietnam War. More and more members
of Congress are joining with average people in the street, saying "let's
see a plan for withdrawal."

In terms of the domestic bloodbath that is the federal budget, just
about every group that you can imagine, every organized civic
association and group that represents working families is engaged in
trying to stop the cuts. I think there will be victories against the
Bush budget although the Republicans have the votes; they stand united
to pretty much pass whatever they want. I think the one place where the
Bush administration is going to find their Waterloo this year is going
to be on this plan to privatize Social Security. The Republicans are
divided; the Democrats are united in opposition to privatization. There
is hope and there is a likelihood that Bush is going to see his winning
streak broken and turned around.

Contact information and related links can be found on our website at
http://www.btlonline.org/btl021805.html#1html

Scott Harris is executive producer of Between The Lines, which can be
heard on more than 35 radio stations and in RealAudio and MP3 on our
website at http://www.btlonline.org. This interview excerpt was featured
on the award-winning, syndicated weekly radio newsmagazine, Between The
Lines for the week ending Feb. 18, 2005. This Between The Lines Q&A was
compiled by Anna Manzo and Scott Harris.

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