The Hightower Report
Dubya plays corporate performer -- but it's just pretend; and Congress sells out its trade authority for cold, hard cash.
By Jim Hightower, Fri., Aug. 16, 2002
Bush, the Corporate Reformer
George W. sure worked himself into a highly publicized fit of moral righteousness over today's corporate finaglers, didn't he? He scowled at them, he wagged his finger, and he lowered his voice to sound really, really serious, then he declared: "No more easy money for corporate criminals, just hard time. The era of low standards and false profits is over."
What an act! If only it was real. But, of course, easy money will continue to flow to the CEOs, because the corporate crime bill Bush signed actually does nothing to stop the gusher of wealth that the rigged compensation system delivers to them. As for "hard time," who's he kidding? None of the CEOs will get that -- a few might do a little easy time at a Club Fed prison, but they'll keep the bulk of their wealth, their mansions, and even their pensions, because George was winking as he was scolding, and he's not about to mess with the real money.
But Bush should get an Oscar for delivering that dramatic line, "The era of low standards and false profits is over." In the first place, he pocketed millions in false profits in his own slippery business career, so saying that line without bursting out in laughter was a great bit of acting. And when it comes to the era of low standards, he has been a leader, as governor and now as president, in lowering the standards for corporate accountability to workers, investors, regulators, and the general public.
Indeed, even as George was on stage posing publicly as a born-again, tub-thumping corporate reformer, his White House staff was backstage gutting one of the key accountability provisions of the new corporate reform law he had just signed. The law provides job protection for courageous corporate whistle blowers, such as Sherron Watkins at Enron. But, the Bushites' administrative interpretation of this provision is so narrow that it effectively provides no protection for employees who dare to report executive fraud and corruption.
Bush is no reformer ... but he does play one on television.
Rigging the System Against Workers
If someone said: "I'm going to poke you in the eye with a sharp stick, but then I'm going to give you a Band-Aid and some ointment to ease the pain," would you go for it?
Like it or not, that's the essence of the deal that Congress and the White House just gave to American workers. At issue was legislation to create "fast-track" authority, which allows a president to negotiate more job-destroying trade scams like NAFTA, then ram them through Congress with practically no debate and with no possibility for lawmakers to make amendments. Fast track is a railroad job. Under this antidemocratic legislative process, Congress surrenders its power and its responsibility to review presidential trade deals and make them better.
Why would Congress give up its own authority and strengthen the autocratic reach of executive government? Cold cash. Fast-track legislation has long been the top priority of corporate CEOs who don't want Congress mucking up their global deals with concerns about jobs, wages, sweatshops, worker safety, human rights, and such ... so they've delivered trainloads of campaign money to members of both parties, greasing the system for the July vote, when Congress capitulated.
To put a little ointment and a political Band-Aid on the wound that this capitulation will cause for workers, lawmakers also approved a new tax credit to subsidize the purchase of private health insurance. Americans who lose their jobs as a result of new trade scams that are railroaded through Congress will be eligible for the tax credit. That's awfully thoughtful, except that few displaced workers will be able to afford to buy insurance since, hey ... their jobs are gone! Ironically, this raw deal was pushed by the so-called "conservative" Republicans. But they've shown their true colors here -- they're not conservatives, they're corporatists.
Rather than the weak ointment of a tax credit, how about they don't poke us in the eye to start with? And they wonder why working folks say the system is rigged against them.
Jim Hightower is a speaker and author. To subscribe to his monthly newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown, call toll free 866/271-4900. To order his books or schedule him for a speech, visit www.jimhightower.com.
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