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BlackCommentator.com: GOP Plan to Steamroll Workers is No Secret By Jamala Rogers, BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board

   
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Republicans are about to take over the House and Senate in numbers or in spirit. The GOP, including junior Tea Party legislators, has pledged to give the Obama Administration holy hell and at the same time, make our lives more miserable. Their ultimate goal is to make the wealthy elite richer and to make slave wage-earners out of the rest of us. Yes, this is class warfare.

The GOP plan is to attack health care reform, either through repeal or allowing it to hemorrhage because of a thousand cuts—literally. If repeal doesn’t work, portions of the reform package will be de-funded over time.

Rep. Darrell Issa of California will head up the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Calling President Obama, “the most corrupt president in modern times”, Issa vows to rake Democrats across the coals with investigations and hold hearings on the president’s programs and policies. Issa will have a big investigative staff at his disposal and almighty subpoena power in his evil hands. He has even asked the corporate sector what would they like him to do for while he has all of this power.

Issa’s colleague, Rep. Harold Rogers, will be chair of the House Appropriations Committee, and promises to haul in officials from all major government agencies to justify their budgets and in some cases, their total existence.  (Remember there are some GOP folks who have called for the elimination of the Department of Education). Those agencies who don’t carry out the GOP’s bidding should expect cuts in their budgets.

Their buddy heading up the House Energy and Commerce Committee is chomping at the bit to reverse the government regulations already put into place and to halt future rules and regs that keep their corporate masters from making unrestrained profits off our backs. Rep. Upton’s first target is the Environmental Protection Agency, which as weak as it is, has been trying to address issues related to global warming--a phenomenon that Republicans don’t believe is really happening.

Rep. Dave Camp, the new House Ways and Means Committee chair, is dreaming about the re-writing of the country’s tax code. We don’t have to guess about what protected stinky-rich class his reforms will favor.

In many states like my home state of Missouri, the GOP majority at the state level will be  aggressively carrying out the Republican agenda. Lawmakers here plan to dismantle health care with an opt-out bill. Even though Missouri is hundreds of miles from the Mexican so-called border, immigration is on the front burner. We can expect to see devastating union-busting legislation and unrelenting attacks on the public sector across the country, especially in red states.

The good thing is that the Republicans have telegraphed most of their treacherous intentions, saving us the time to figure out what they might do. Now we can spend our valuable time in organizing to hold government of all levels accountable and to build the necessary organizational forms to fight for what is ours. We will have to figure out how to sustain and protect our communities because the infrastructure and resources to support them are in deep trouble.

We can’t wring our hands and hope the Democratic Party will do right by its constituents. It is past time for some real organizing and a focused strategy carried out by a united front of fighters from labor, clergy and community. The next two years will test our skills, patience and commitment. We can falter, but we cannot fail.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, Jamala Rogers, is the leader of the Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis and the Black Radical CongressNational Organizer. Click here to contact Ms. Rogers.

 
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Jan 6, 2011 - Issue 408
is published every Thursday
Est. April 5, 2002
Executive Editor:
David A. Love, JD
Managing Editor:
Nancy Littlefield, MBA
Publisher:
Peter Gamble
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