If the White House ends up going along with sequestration, it will be because it calculates that the enactment of the initial cuts will create more favorable conditions to blackmail and bully the American public into resigning itself to unprecedented cuts in basic entitlement programs. Part of this propaganda offensive will be fear-mongering over the impact of cuts to the military on "national security" and a supposedly heightened danger of terrorist attacks.
Entirely excluded from the official debate are the needs of the vast majority of the American people. With unemployment at mass levels, poverty, hunger and homelessness on the rise, and the closure of schools, health clinics, fire stations, libraries and other essential services continuing to spread, there is no discussion of measures to create jobs or provide social relief.
And under conditions where trillions of dollars are being funneled by the Federal Reserve into Wall Street, stock prices, corporate profits and CEO pay are soaring to new heights, and hundreds of billions are being spent on colonial-style wars and drone assassinations, the entire political and media establishment maintains the lying refrain, "There is no money."
The Obama administration's drive to impose unprecedented austerity measures will further fan the flames of social discontent. There will be mass struggles in opposition to these cuts. What is critical is that they be guided by a clear political perspective that begins with a rejection of the entire framework of the so-called budget debate.
The working class is not responsible for the failure of the capitalist system. It must reject any and all demands that it "sacrifice" to save the fortunes of the financial parasites who are responsible for the crisis. The basic social rights to employment, decent wages, education, housing and a secure retirement can be secured only through the independent mobilization of the working class.
The coming struggles must take the form of a conscious break with the two big-business parties, which are united in seeking to destroy the living conditions of the working class, and a rejection of the capitalist profit system which they defend.
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