The GOP and Bush administration have found a new application for the cliché that “what we don’t know can’t hurt us.” Despite the fact that the cliché is a proven fallacy, it does have its uses in political strategy, which we know often diverges from truth and logic. The new initiative is to eliminate, by cutting its funding, the official Census Bureau Survey of Income and Program Participation. The survey is a repeated assessment of public information and attitudes on how income changes affect poverty status, health coverage and use of government services. The survey results provide the only longitudinal data routinely used by Congress in developing and reshaping legislation regarding poverty and social service programs. The survey acts kind of like headlights for a legislative vehicle driving in the dark. Unfortunately, the same survey results also provide a picture of the status of poverty in this country and the effectiveness or failure of economic and social service policies. This is where the GOP stratagem comes into play.
They reason that we should stop collecting reliable information that shows: that poverty is increasing, that there are millions of families and children without health care, that senior citizens are having increasing difficulty surviving on social security and that Medicare is failing to service its intended constituency. If the public and Congress do not have reliable information that evidences failures of the Bush administration and the GOP controlled Congress in addressing the basic needs and concerns of the American people, then they cannot hold the GOP accountable for those failures. The Bush administration will be free to claim that “all is well” and that poverty is declining and that senior citizens are pleased with the changes in Medicare and prescription drug regulations. After all, it is arguably true that when Bush and his colleagues examine their well stocked larders, sumptuous dinners on their silver bedecked tables and their on call private physicians and access to prescriptions for free, all paid for by the public, life is "very good" from their perspective.
When critics challenge those rosy elitist assessments, the GOP can simply reply that there is no “reliable evidence” to prove that they are lying to the public. So what ["they"] the public does not know won’t hurt ["us"] the GOP come the November 2006 elections. Besides, those critics are just "sore losers" because Bush "won" the presidency and the GOP captured control of Congress. This has become a very pressing issue when repeated polling results show that about 24% of the American people approve of the job Congress is doing, and the Bush approval rating has stagnated around 33% of the public. If you cannot or refuse to actually adopt beneficial economic policies that promote the well being of the populace, you can always turn to the maxim that "perception is reality." After all, it has worked for the Bush folks before in the face of blatant falsehoods, you know, "we do not engage in or condone torture" and "we do not engage in spying or eavesdropping on American citizens." So why not take another run from the same old playbook.
Although you can fool some of the people all of the time, it is very difficult to fool all of the people all of the time. Remember that dwindling but very diehard GOP "base" of 33% that will swallow as gospel anything the White House dishes out. Truthful information has a way of leaking out and causing embarrassment to those who are spreading convenient lies. But Vice President Dick Cheney has a solution for that contingency. He is prepared to declare all factual data showing that Americans are experiencing increased pressure from the ravages of poverty and the lack of health care to be “classified secret” government information. Public disclosure of such information would threaten "national security." Then if members of the media attempt to disclose such information to the public, they can be arrested and jailed under the new laws adopted to protect "Homeland Security". It is all very neat and tidy, and it is always good to have a backup plan. It makes sense too, if "national security" is defined as a delusional sense of well being and complacency, even if generated by deceit and misinformation. Indeed the White House spokesman is prepared to announce that this new initiative is a beneficial conservation program involving recycling. They are reusing the old policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.” That should get rid of those pesky poverty and health care issues.
No comments:
Post a Comment