The shutdown of the US government by the right-wing Tea
Party faction of the right-wing Republican party is a critical moment, one that
reveals deepening cracks inside the capitalist state’s political system.
On the first day, 800,000 federal employees were affected by
the absence of a government that could pay their wages. On the same day, many
of the 32 million Americans not covered by insurance queued to sign up for
access to affordable health care.
The new insurance marketplace websites which opened for
business on the first day of trading are a key part of the president’s
so-called “Obamacare” legislation. Overwhelmed by the demand, many websites
crashed in the first hours.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was adopted
in 2010, in fulfilment of Obama’s election pledge, and Republicans have failed
50 times to block it. To their disappointment, the Supreme Court ruled that
that legislation was constitutional.
In trying to place more rocks in the road of a long,
tortuous, contradictory journey towards the universal provision of healthcare,
Republicans led by the Tea Party have initiated the shutdown of government by
denying approval to the federal budget.
So with services closing, government workers are being sent
home on unpaid leave. It’s wish-fulfilment time, a dream come true for the
super-rich corporate funders of the Tea Party who vehemently hate all forms of
public spending.
Never mind that the massive expansion of the insurance
market was a Republican model pragmatically adopted by Obama as a way to
provide health care for the tens of millions who’ve been denied it in the
world’s richest country.
The health industry, especially in the US, has been a
feeding frenzy for Big Pharma, for the makers of ever more technologically advanced
and expensive medical devices and highly profitable insurance companies.
Although US spending per head on health is 150% more than in
the UK, life expectancy at birth is among the lowest of developed countries,
while infant mortality is the highest. Potential years of life lost by people
under the age of 70 are also far higher. It’s a health system that benefits the
well off.
When the economy crashed in 2008, the turning point arrived.
The status quo was unsustainable. Millions were thrown out of work, losing
access to healthcare funded through insurance as part of their employment
contract. Economically, socially and politically the game was up.
One thing is clear: having taken the first tentative steps
towards universal access, the current
system of government looks unlikely to survive. Its problems are piling up
fast. The two wings of the Congress of the 1%, for the 1%, by the 1% are in
deadlock.
Although the Republicans are trying to block Obamacare, the
bigger issue looming ahead is the soaring federal government deficit. Unless
Congress votes to raise the debt ceiling later this month, the US government
could be staring at an international default as it won’t have the money to
service interest payments.
The consequences of default by the world’s biggest capitalist
economy are beyond imagination. Most analysts are saying it couldn’t happen,
they’ll surely come to their senses. But the Republican Party is so divided in
itself that anything is possible.
Who is to blame for all of this? Reflecting a generalised
rejection of the political process, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed about
one-quarter of Americans would blame Republicans for a shutdown, 14% would hold
Obama responsible and 5% Democrats in Congress, while a massive 44% said
everyone would be to blame.
George Atkinson, an 82-year-old Coast Guard veteran of the
Korean War was among those pushing past barricades to visit the National World
War ll Memorial, closed by the
government shutdown. "The whole group ought to be replaced, top man down,"
he said.
Events around the world show that it’s not so much the
people who are operating the system who are to blame. It’s the system itself.
It’s in trouble wherever you look. The Greek government has arrested some of
its own, elected, Golden Dawn representatives. Britain has a non-elected
coalition. Berlusconi is singlehandedly trying to bring down the Italian
government. The system is cracking up.
Gerry Gold
Economics editor
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