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CounterPunch
January
13, 2003
Economic Chickenhawks
by RICH PROCTER
The wonderful "Chickenhawk
Database" defines a chickenhawk as "a public
person, generally male who (1) tends to advocate, or is a fervent
supporter of those who advocate, military solutions to political
problems, and who have personally (2) declined to take advantage
of a significant opportunity to serve in uniform during wartime."
Naturally, just about every "Bomb the dune goons back to
the stone age and grab their oil" type in the Bush Administration
had "other priorities" when it came to serving in the
military during the Vietnam War. It's breathtaking how many Bushies
managed to get out of serving their beloved country. Bill Bennett,
chickenhawk supreme, has actually written a book called "Why
We Fight." Shouldn't the book be called "Why They Fight"?
Bennett left the room when the last fight started.
Okay, so what's an "economic chickenhawk"?
I'd define it as "a public person, generally male, who (1)
tends to advocate, or is a fervent supporter of those who advocate
radical, permanent tax cuts and "voodoo" economic programs
designed to make the rich richer, all in the name of 'free enterprise,'
while (2) declining to take advantage of a significant opportunity
to participate in the free enterprise system itself.
In other words, Bush/Rove/Cheney are
dangerous to the economic health of the United States because
none of them has ever successfully run a real business. Running
a successful business is a tough, complex, messy, difficult enterprise,
requiring a good product, sound judgement, intelligence, ability
to deal with people, timing, and luck. Complex thinking, intelligence
and the ability to embrace ambiguity are not the hallmarks of
the Bush Administration.
Just as it's a wonder that anyone cares
what Bush thinks about military matters, since he dodged serving
in Vietnam through Poppy's intervention (and then went AWOL from
his National Guard Post), it's incredible anyone can take his
economic thoughts seriously. Here's a man who ran his oil company
into the ground (resorting to insider trading to make his bones
before bailing on the stockholders), and then made some dough
off his failing baseball team ONLY after blackmailing the taxpayers
into building him a free stadium. As Governor of Texas, he destroyed
the ability of the state to raise money through tax cuts, and
then bugged out before the consequences hit. Since he's come
into power, he's turned a huge surplus into an exploding deficit,
produced no jobs, and sent Wall Street into a tailspin. And now
he's offering more of the same, and we're supposed to care what
he thinks?
ALL of the Bush Economic Death Squad
-- Cheney, Rove, Grover Norquist, etc. -- have avoided serving
in the Free Enterprise System. Almost all of them have spent
their time in one of three places -- Big Government (which they
pretend to hate, and want to dismantle), Think Tanks (safely
insulated from the hurly-burly having to create and sell products),
and Mega-Corporations like Halliburton, where the real business
of the business is getting Big Government to dole out pork-laden
"no-bid" overrun-friendly contracts.
Before we listen to George W. Bush about
economic issues, I suggest we let him spend a couple of years
running a hamburger stand somewhere. Let him deal with suppliers,
employees and customers. See how long he lasts by slashing the
price of the product but tripling his own salary. Find out how
he likes knowing that his livelihood is actually dependent on
pleasing his customers while paying attention to the bottom line.
No exploding deficits here, George, or you're gone.
The Economic Chickenhawks in the Bush
Administration can yammer about "cutting taxes to produce
jobs" and "cutting dividends to create prosperity"
with such confidence because they've never put these principles
to the test themselves (GUESS WHAT! THEY DON'T WORK!). Like the
Vietnam war, where these gutless wonders could safely bellow
about the domino theory and "getting tough with Ho Chi Minh"
from the safety of the Young Americans For Freedom Rec Room at
Yale while blacks and poor Southern whites did the actually fighting
and dying, so now they can pretend that "Leave No Millionaire
Behind" economic voodoo actually means something. None of
these folks have ever succeeded running a real business. None
WILL EVER run a real business -- after Bush loses in '04, they'll
go back to their Think Tanks, Consulting Fiefdoms and Corporate
Boardrooms, and continue to pretend that making rich people richer
actually makes the United States a better place.
John Kenneth Galbraith once said, "One
of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you
do not know." The Bushies don't know what they don't know.
Worse yet, they don't care about finding out. Their economic
policy is like their war policy. They have that absolute Chickenhawk
clarity that comes with never having actually had to fight the
battle themselves.
Before you buy into George's economic
plan, ask yourself this question -- would you trust him to run
a 7-11? I wouldn't. After trying to fix the Slurpee machine,
he go AWOL again.
Rich Procter
is a cranky, disaffected Democrat whose work often appears in
"SmirkingChimp.com".
He can be reached at planetniner@yahoo.com
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