How Do You Like Your Poison Tea?
by digby
Regardless of how bizarrely incompetent their leaders in the congress are, the Teabaggers must be thrilled at their progress in the states. If you want to know what a nation led by the Tea party might look like, look no further than Florida's Rick Scott, who is taking a hacksaw to social programs while giving huge payouts to corporations. Ed Kilgore has the details:
Scott is proposing $5 billion in state spending reductions (in absolute terms, not reductions from some sort of current-services budget). Many of these cuts seemed to be ideologically driven, such as the decimation of the state Department of Community Affairs, which runs growth-management programs hated by developers; and a (roughly) ten percent cut in K-12 education, part and parcel of the state GOP's war with teachers and other state employees.
But the size of the cuts wouldn't be nearly so high if Scott were not also insisting on major tax cuts, notably in corporate taxes (due to be phased out entirely in a few years) and in state-controlled property taxes that support public schools.
Moreoever, nestled in his budget proposal are spending increases that are designed to redistribute resources according to conservative ideological prescriptions. Most remarkable is his request for $800 million (over two years) for "economic development incentives," which almost certainly means a gubernatorially-controlled slush fund to be used to bribe companies to relocate to Florida through tax abatements, free government services, and other subsidies. And even as he sought major cuts in public school funding (in a state already facing something of a school financing crisis), he managed to find room to propose $250 million in private-school vouchers.
Scott seems to be exulting in the radicalism of his budget, which he chose to announce not at the state capitol but at an actual, billed-as-such Tea Party rally at a Baptist Church (!).
That certainly tracks with the Tea Party's economic program, although I'm not sure most of the rank and file understand what that means in practice. I'm sure that when they get their own services cut they will just see it as more evidence that government doesn't work and demand more tax cuts and deregulation. That's the method to the plutocrats' madness and you have to give them credit for it. It's very tough to beat, especially with politicians who are completely unwilling to challenge the propaganda, preferring to simply tweak it in small ways in order not to cause any dissonance.
But there is another strong element in the Tea Party philosophy that's not quite as obvious, which Wisconsin Governor Rick Walker is handling in a very interesting way. The right wing purports to hate the government jackboot, arming themselves like crazy in the event the Army comes to take them away to FEMA camps. But unsurprisingly, they are more than willing to use the strong arm of the law --- and the military --- against their political opponents:
The proposal by Mr. Walker, a Republican who was elected in November after pledging that he would get public workers’ compensation “into line” with everyone else’s, is expected to receive support next week in the State Legislature, where Republicans also won control of both chambers in the fall.
The prospect left union leaders, state and local employees and some Democrats stunned over the plan’s scope and what it might signal for public-sector unions in the state. Union leaders began planning rallies in Madison and contacting lawmakers, pressing them to reject the idea.
Mr. Walker said Wisconsin was prepared for any fallout, noting in an interview that the National Guard was ready to step in to handle state duties, if need be.
Basically, he's busting the public employee unions and deploying the state army in their places. This is not unprecedented in American life --- during the heyday of the labor movement, it was sometimes done. But it's been many, many decades since anyone's tried such a thing and in a sane world, people would be somewhat stunned by the use of the armed forces by people who purport to believe in small government. But I'm not sensing any discomfort with this ploy. Indeed, the prospect of busting the public employee unions is so exhilarating, that I expect to see the allegedly libertarian Tea Partiers endorse the use of government violence against them if necessary.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives in DC is taking up the social conservative slack and are working diligently to destroy Planned Parenthood and further restrict a woman's right to choose. The wingnuts are firing on all cylinders.
These are the three branches of the right wing Tea Party movement: the plutocrats, the authoritarians and the patriarchs. The plutocrats don't give a damn about anything but maintaining their stranglehold on the nation's wealth and privilege. The other two are basically the same people. And throughout the country they are getting busy.
It will be interesting to see whether Real Americans are as happy with the reality as they were with the fantasy. And it will be extremely interesting to see whether the Democrats can find the gumption to raise a decent protest. You'd think this would wake them up, but I'm not holding my breath. I have little doubt they are scrambling madly to find "common ground" and are busy drawing up loans to only fire 2/3rds of public employees, lower taxes on corporations to 5% and make women who want abortions wear a sandwich sign in front of the clinic proclaiming herself a slut before she can exercise her constitutional rights.
Let no one ever say that the left is as unreasonable as the right. And that's what really matters.
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