Big business very pleased with Democrats in California savaging workers and the poor

Brown, like Obama, a slick bourgeois politician

"I'm so far out of my comfort zone I feel like Charlie Sheen at a rehab clinic" says Bob Blumenfield, a California Democrat who chairs a key legislative committee who along with other Democrats, "reversed direction" and supported a plan that savages the poor and elderly of the state.

We don't find Blumenfield's attempt to make light of his violent actions against the poor to be very funny. We also don't believe his comfort zone is a place populated by many working class folks.  The plan that these so-called friends of the working person have recommended includes the following:

Reduces the time that adult recipients of Cal-WORKS, the welfare to work program  can spend in the program from five to four years.  This doesn't sound so bad unless you take the chance of getting a job in to consideration given the unemployment situation.

It cuts $486 million from In Home support services for the elderly and disabled.  Elderly and disabled people had better prove they need care to get it.

Caps the number of doctor visits Medi-Cal recipients get to seven.  

Cuts a further $50 million from services to the developmentally disabled on top of the $527 cut so far.

As these politicians of the corporations and super rich attack us by eliminating spending on social services, they also come at us another way through tax increases.  The plan includes another $14 billion in taxes.  The leading Democrat in the California Senate Mark Leno offers the same propaganda, "Unfortunately, given the severity of the crisis" says, "...California is going to look a little different by the time we get to the end of the budget season."

The gang that should have an injunction filed against it whose members are  most ruthless of all the known gang members, the Chamber of Commerce, is very pleased and would support a "comprehensive plan" from its two parties that will close the deficit as long as it does so by attacking the working class as opposed to business. The Chamber will,  "defend individual lawmakers who take heat if they vote for it", the San Francisco Chronicle reports.   Allan Zaremberg, the leader of the gang, the president and CEO of the California Chamber of Commerce, the press calls it, assures their politicians that attacking the working class will bring rewards; "It's important for them to know and people to know that there's going to be support for them if they participate in a solution that is comprehensive and helps solve the budget crisis he tells the media.

"I welcome the forthright and positive message of the California Chamber of Commerce" Governor Brown replies.  The capitalist class comes to the defense of the individuals in the political parties that aggressively represent its interests.

Jerry Brown, the former leftist ideologue who had his own show on KPFA, a "progressive" public radio station, some years ago, applauds the committee's decision, "The conference committee today made some bold decisions and I commend their work and their willingness to face the tough challenges that this years budget presents." he says.  It's somewhat comical that the people who are not the victims of their actions talk about "tough" decisions and "hard choices".  What's "tough" about savaging the living conditions of others, especially the poor and needy among us?

The two parties of capital are moving closer and closer together as their system struggles through its worst crisis in 70 years.  "It is apparent that momentum is now building for a bi[artisan budget solution that includes spending cuts and a temporary (ha!) extension of current taxes." says Brown.

As we pointed out in a previous blog, capitalist propaganda limits discussion on the crisis to reducing the deficits and bailing out the system, not the real cause of the crisis. (Read more here). The Labor leaders at the highest levels agree that capitalism has to be bailed out and their entire approach to the attacks on workers is based on making concessions and fitting the needs of workers in to what will make capitalism work and capitalist profitable. (with the exception of their own wages and benefits that is).

This is done despite ample evidence that there is plenty of money available other than in the pockets of workers and the middle class and through cutting vital social needs.  According to the Center for Defense Information, the estimated cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will reach $1.29 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2011.  And other reliable sources estimate costs of $3 trillion or more when all the extra costs such a medical care for veterans and lost production are included. This doesn't include the trillions in bailout money.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that the US government is shifting its position somewhat with regard to the uprisings in the Middle East and that autocratic thugs like the royal family of Bahrain that has ruled the country like a private business for 200 years will be supported and that the full democratic aspirations of the population will have to be subordinated to the interests of US capitalism and its ability to plunder the wealth of the region.

US capitalism will demand certain reform like more democratic rights but universal suffrage is impossible for dictators and absolute monarchs that are not supported by the majority of  the population; they'd just vote them out.  Continuing to prop up these folks will cost the US taxpayer more money and the country will sink further in to debt.  The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are financed by debt.

We will see what the further shift to the right of the Democrats will portend. Hopefully the movement for a mass workers political party will be brought closer to the forefront of mass consciousness.