Money is Power

And the overriding goal of all Bush administration (and Clinton administration, for that matter) economic actions is to concentrate both money and power in the hands of the wealthy few. The WSWS has an article about the "American Jobs Creation Act," the most recent tax-cut bill rammed through Congress last October. The bill eliminates most of the taxes on billions of dollars earned overseas by American corporations. Megacorps like ExxonMobil, GE, IBM and Pfizer are making out like bandits (a very appropriate comparison). While it is labelled as a jobs creation bill, it essentially puts the money, and therefore the power, in the hands of the corporate bosses. There are some supposed restrictions on how they use the money, but, as the WSWS points out, using the money for the allowed purposes frees up other revenue to be used for the prohibited purposes. And one of the main uses this windfall is being used for is corporate acquisitions. Proctor & Gamble, for instance, will use their booty to buy Gillette. Mergers typically eliminate jobs, so the bill should have been labelled the "American Jobs Destruction Act."

If the Bushies, and their Democratic accomplices, actually believed in democracy and free markets, they would see that any excess money was placed in the hands of as many people as possible, and let the corporations then compete to earn it. This would put power in the hands of the people. Instead, they consistently give the money to corporations, which are run by a select, unelected few. (They did this after 9/11, giving huge handouts to the airlines, but nothing for their thousands of laid-off employees.) Our government, while still being accused by right-wing nutjobs as a tool for wealth distribution, is in fact a powerful engine of wealth concentration. And while the media and the politicians will tell you how valuable your vote is, they all know that a wad of money carries a lot more power than your vote.