Wall Street drop and health crisisBy Dr. Don SloanThis article was reprinted from the September 5, 1998 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits. 
The recent stock market collapse could spell a sharp increase in the health care crisis already taking place in the United States. The continuing attack on Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security and other federal programs enacted to protect workers and their families will surely come under greater assault. Senate leader Trent Lott and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, both right-wing Republicans, have begun to unfurl their anti-people banners. These Republican/corporate politicians will be joined by some of their openly anti-Social Security Democrat Party supporters, such as Senators Robert Kerry and Daniel Moynihan. They will be recommending the same dose of harsh austerity measures that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have thrust on other countries in trouble. The script is written on Wall Street, in Bonn, Germany and London. They believe the only way out of economic crisis is for the working class to tighten its belt and, at the same time, to increase financial incentives for the wealthy. Trickle-down economics will remain their fundamental strategy. Medicaid and MedicareThe greatest attack will come against the remains of an already crippled Medicaid program. Heaping greater indignities and hardships on poor people is routine for desperate corporateers. The twin evils of budget cutting and privatization will be heralded as a major way out of the general economic crisis. Medicaid health program cutbacks will be attacked in tandem with the rush to end welfare payments. You can be sure that the five-year period that now exists for welfare recipients to find jobs will be reduced to four or three. Medicare, the healthcare program for retirees over 65, was given the same prescription for disaster as Medicaid - budget cutting and privatization. Both Medicaid and Medicare are being privatized, with the stated goal of making these programs more cost effective. To date all that has been accomplished is cost cutting, with the savings going into the profit greedy pockets of corporations. The privatization of Social Security by investing Social Security funds in the stock market with the casino/lottery style goal of "greater" benefits should hit a major snag given the Wall Street collapse. But don't be surprised if the Lott/Gingrich team increases its demand for privatization, saying that such investing would help "stabilize" the stock market. Kerry and Moynihan will surely fall in line with that chorus. 1998 electionsThe big problem that Republican Party pundits have is how to play this political attack and "belt tightening," both of which would greatly please Republican corporate givers, but will it get them re-elected? They know that the votes lie with people, that their corporate support is small when compared with the masses of people who would suffer by this method of rescuing Corporate America. The current hysteria surrounding the Wall Street collapse will not end. The personal troubles of Bill Clinton have Republicans smelling blood. An economic downturn will fuel their bloodthirsty antics. There is a good chance they will, through their sheer arrogance, overplay their hands. The health care political program, which appeared in this column on July 16, laid out a simple pledge that would establish a valuable reference point in these congressional elections. Now is the time to stop counting the stock market losses and mobilize union bothers and sisters in the shops and in the communities.
PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS! |
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