Letter from a reader on the recent budget "compromise"
December 21, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Dear Revolution,
Ok, let me get this straight. The extreme right/tea party wing of the Republican Party forces a partial shutdown of the government this past October 1, causing great suffering and uncertainty especially among those most impoverished already. The shutdown lasts for 16 days. Afterward the media and pundits declare that it was a disaster for the Republicans. Some progressives feel that the Democrats are finally standing up and getting some "backbone."
Then, after the dust has settled, on December 10, the Republicans and Democrats announce they've agreed on a "compromise" budget agreement to avoid another government shutdown (which it may or may not do). It's widely hailed as a victory for "civility" and "sanity." But it turns out this "compromise" the Democrats agreed to includes cutting 1.3 million people off unemployment, many of whom may end up homeless, starving or both. The issue of restoring vicious cuts to food stamps (which is taking place as the stock market hits record highs) isn't even part of the budget negotiations. Is this what the capitalist-imperialist system calls "civil"?
Then, it turns out that the Republicans, who supposedly lost the last shutdown, actually set (one analyst said "dictated") the terms and framework of the compromise: "fiscal responsibility" and budget cuts. "When it comes to policy, it is still the Republicans—that is, the tea party, the GOP's new beating heart—who are still largely setting the agenda," the right-wing National Review noted after the shutdown ("Republicans Lost the Shutdown Battle, but They're Winning the Fiscal War," October 19, 2013) "[T]he tea partiers have made the sequester and debt-ceiling fights the new normal in Washington…Indeed, going back to 2010, when the GOP took control of the House, nearly everything has gone or more less the Republicans' way on fiscal issues."
This brought me back to the point made in the first of the 7 Talks by Bob Avakian, "Why We're in the Situation We're in Today... And What to Do About It: A Thoroughly Rotten System and the Need for Revolution," and the analysis in the Revolution article "The Shutdown, the Showdown, and the Urgent Need To Repolarize... for Revolution": even as there are intense and potentially volatile conflicts within the ruling class, the core dynamics of the capitalist-imperialist system, and the economic-political necessities it now faces make it very difficult for the Democrats to come up with an alternative to the hard-edged right (for instance, reviving the "New Deal" of the 1930s or the "Great Society" of the 1960s). Both the Democrats and Republicans are operating on the terrain of lean, mean global imperialism, hence both are compelled to deal with the economic-fiscal contradictions the system they represent faces (which are real and not just a question of greed or corruption). Talking about "fiscal responsibility" is a euphemism; if they spoke honestly (and scientifically), they'd say they're trying to figure out how to meet "the ruthless necessities and requirements of capitalist-imperialist accumulation and strategic rivalry, while still maintaining our system's legitimacy in the eyes of those we rule over."
So all this is to say – listen to and promote the 7 Talks and read (or re-read) and spread "The Shutdown, the Showdown, and the Urgent Need To Repolarize... for Revolution" and "The Shutdown Aftermath... and the REAL Choice We Face." More jolts and crises are ahead!
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