The Public Is Enemy Number One

There is something egregiously wrong about a government that will not listen to its people especially in, dare I say it, a democracy.

Poll after poll warns that people are opposed to the government's specious solutions for social security, they are opposed to the Medicaid cuts and they are opposed to congress in general, opinion showing the majority of people believe those on the hill are doing a poor job overall.

Polls also show that consumer confidence is down and, tellingly, the only large retail company still making any money is Wal-mart. And since the government didn't listen to anyone concerning the bankruptcy bill overhaul, there were probably quite a few people stampeding the bankruptcy court system in light of the new laws favoring big business, especially credit card companies in whose grip most people's financial lives hang by a thread.

In fact, it would probably be safe to say that quite a few people may feel rather that they are the prime targets of a peevishly suspicious federal government which seems to have suddenly decided that its current worst enemy is the American citizen.

In the past few months, the government has accused its citizenry of defrauding corporations by filing for bankruptcy when they can no longer bear the crushing weight of catastrophic medical bills. Ordinary folks have also been derided for abusing Medicaid by asking it to pay for drugs that cost more than their mortgages did thirty years ago. And some of these same offenders have or will put social security in crisis by having the temerity to actually make it a part of their retirement funds.

The self-esteem of average Americans has gotten pretty low but sad to say officialdom hasn't finished with them yet. People who are still working and lucky enough and healthy enough to have health insurance, no credit card debt and are still years away from collecting social security (and with the government's constant griping have written it off anyway) have now been identified and targeted.

Forget about outsourcing to India. Big business has been asking its buddies in Washington for permission to import more foreign workers (euphemistically called foreign talent) through the H-1B visa program. Critics say this would essentially be a ticket to replace American workers in their own homeland.

For what reasons you may ask would benevolent big business want to do such a thing?

The public is being told that corporations can't find enough highly-skilled, technical workers to fill jobs whose description the companies won't tell them because it would be too much for American pea-brains to comprehend. Needless to say, they ain't qualified.

And what about those not-so-technical jobs being filled by illegal, I mean, legal immigrants?

Apparently Americans are too lazy and spoiled for these jobs and don't want do the work that some immigrants will do for far less money. The cads.

It's bad enough to find out that your government thinks you're a slacker, a thief, and a bum, but now you find out it has big business on its side saying you're lazy to boot.

Wait a minute. Lazy is the common denominator in most of the latest public policy decisions. The subliminal message in all the government's diatribe.

Which probably means that most people in the eyes of the conservative-dominated official class are lazy, good-for-nothing bums not deserving of any listening to.

Well, no surprise there.

Copyright © 2005, S. Harrell. This article may be republished, reprinted or redistributed without prior consent.

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