Chapter 21: Carter-Reagan-Bush: The Bipartisan Consensus

Note: George Washington was opposed to political parties stating it would divide the United States.

• Both parties while having different views share common goals and values of capitalism.
• Both parties showed that they could not go beyond capitalist gains.
• Fundamental problems could not be fixed without bold change but no major party candidate was willing to make these changes.
• Due to this voters stayed away from polls in large numbers or voted without enthusiasm.
• People were alienated from the political system.
• Politicians’ major concern was their own political power.
• The culture reflected the distance between the people and politics with the media forcing the public to view a parade of politicians.
• The fairness doctrine of the FCC requiring air time for dissenting views was eliminated.
• Despite Jimmy Carter’s gestures toward the poor and black people he continued to protect corporate wealth and power, maintained a huge military machine that drained the nations wealth, and allied the US with tyrannies abroad.
• All of Carter’s major cabinet appointments were given to wealthy or cabinet leaders from older administrations. This gave confidence to wealthy businessmen
• Carter combined practical strategic needs with the advancement of civil rights to bring business opportunities to American businessmen.
• Politicians disguising personal interests with humanitarian goals.
• Political leaders constantly saying one thing then later contradicting themselves.
• Defense Department viewed war as a ruthless attack on civilian populations for strategic military and economic interests but tried to show people that war was an unfortunate error.
• Multinational corporations were the third largest economy 98% of there executives were Americans.
• Although the US had a reputation for giving aid to foreign countries they only gave aid to those loyal to them.
• Carter stated to lawyers that the laws were on the side of the rich.
• Carter approved tax reforms that mainly helped the corporations. The tax reduction included 18 billion dollar tax reduction mostly for affluent individuals and corporations.
• While corporate oil companies’ net income rose in 1979 three thousand independent gas stations went out of business.
• Carter supported right wing dictatorships fighting leftwing rebels.
• Carter’s loss in the 1980 election brought Reagan into office who lacked the faint liberalism that Carter had.
• Reagan’s policies included cutting benefits to poor people, lowering taxes fo the wealthy, and increasing the military budget.
• Concern for the “economy” under Reagan-Bush became a short hand term for corporate profits became more important than workers and consumers.
• Enforcement of environmental laws became voluntary leaving it up to the businesses to decide.
• Funding for environmental regulation had decreased. EPA received 80,000 complaints about contaminated drinking water, only 100 were investigated.
• Business worries about regulation are more important than the safety of the public.
• The crisis had become so severe and obvious that Pope John Paul II rebuked the wealthy of the industrial nations stating that, “Today, the dramatic threat of ecological breakdown is teaching us the extent to which greed and selfishness, both individual and collective, are contrary to the order of creation.”
• The United States lead the world in carbon emissions.
• During the Reagan administration 90% cuts were put on the research into renewable energy.
• Reagan’s budget cuts included the Social Security disability benefits were terminated.
• In 1982 30 million people were unemployed all or part of the year.
• New requirements eliminated free school lunches for more than one million poor children.
• Democrats joined republicans in denouncing welfare programs.
• Politicians denounced welfare programs to gain political support from middle-class public that believed they were paying axes to support teenage mothers and people they thought too lazy to work.
• The public did not know that welfare took a tiny amount of the government budget and the military took huge amounts of the budget.
• During this time the superrich were given more and more tax reductions starting from 91% to 70 of incomes over 400,000 a year. To 50 percent in 1986 then the republicans and democrats sponsored a bill to lower the top rate to 28%. At this time a schoolteacher, factory worker, and a billionaire all paid 28% of their yearly income.
• Social Security decreased during this period.
• Those earning less had to pay a higher percentage of their income towards social security than those who earned more.
• The gap between rich and poor increased during the 1980’s. CEOs were making 40 times the factory workers in 1980 by 1989 they were making 93 times as much.
• From 1977 to 1989 the before taxes income of the richest 1% grew 77% while the poorest two fifths of the population stayed the same.
• Huge military spending took money away from social programs.
• Military spending was approved by both the republicans and the democrats.
• The military buildup was caused by the cold war and the impending fear that the Soviet Union was going to invade Western Europe. But this fear had no reality because the Soviet Union would lose money by invading Europe.
• Misinformation was used to inflate military expenditures. The CIA reported that Soviet military spending since 1975 was growing 4 to 5 percent a year when the actual figure was 2 percent.
• Even with the disintegration of the Soviet Threat the Military budget remained huge with some small reductions. Both Republicans and Democrats supported this.
• During this time 59% of American voters wanted a military spending decrease of 50% over 5 years.
• Both parties continued to ignore public’s opinion about military spending by keeping military spending high.
• The Reagan administration would also support right wing tyrannies over left wing rebels justifying this by saying they were fighting communism.
• During the Reagan administration there was a law banning military involvement directly or indirectly in Nicaragua. His administration ignored this by using a third party in Guatemala to get arms to the right wing contras. The US would also sell arms to the Iranians and give some of the funds to the Contras in Nicaragua.
• The Bipartisan Consensus of the Carter-Reagan-Bush is the equivalent to a one party system in a totalitarian state.
• The only person to be imprisoned by the Iran-contra affair was a pacifist critic of American Foreign policy Bill Breeden who stole a street sign that was named after one of the key figures in the affair John Poindexter.
• This affair shows that the American government will break its own laws in the pursuit of foreign policy.
• The War Powers Act stated that the president had to consult congress before proceeding with military intervention or possible military intervention. This Act was constantly broken by Reagan in areas such as Lebanon and Grenada.
• A US raid on Libya in an attempt to kill Muammar Khadafi failed and killed a hundred civilians. This was considered by some as terrorism.
• Even with the end of the cold war military spending was still at optimum levels.
• In 1989 the United States invaded Panama bombarding towns. It was recorded that they killed 700 civilians. Even liberal democrats agreed with this.
• Bush wanted to invade Iraq on the basis of Iraq invading Kuwait and the assumption that Iraq had nuclear weapons.
• The public was given misinformation on how powerful the Iraqi military was and that the US was using smart bombs to strategically hit targets and spare civilians. In actuality 40% of smart bombs missed their targets.
• American reporters were not allowed in Iraq and their correspondents were censored.
• When the war ended the US did not take Saddam Hussein out of power in order for Iraq to keep balance with Iran.
• The war brought anti-Arab racism to the United States.
• The war in Iraq supposedly buried the memories of their difficulties in Vietnam.