THE HEADLINES

The proverbial jury may still be out, but the first hint at details of President Obama’s proposal for deficit reduction that will sent to the almighty “super committee” looks ominous. Getting most of the play from the White House and in the media is the so-called “Buffett Rule” or “millionaires’ tax”; a plan to boost tax revenue by $1.5 trillion through a higher tax rate on taxpayers earning more than $1 million and allowing some of the Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire. Republicans, naturally, are rising in instant opposition to what they call “class warfare.” But beyond the populist them of hiking historically low tax rates for the richest people in America, Obama’s proposal is full of dangerous cuts in entitlements. Safety net programs like Medicare and Medicaid would be faced with nearly $600 billion in cuts, although an increase in the Medicare eligibility age is not currently on the table. The only defense from the White House is that Social Security will supposedly be spared…

Outside of Israel itself, the only major push to oppose the Palestinian people’s request for state recognition at the United Nations is being organized by the United States and the administration of President Barack Obama. Ordered about by the right-wing Israeli government of Netanyahu, the Obama administration has been aggressively fighting the right of Palestinians to an independent state, at least in terms of international recognition. Gideon Levy of Haaretz characterizes Obama’s decision to acquiesce to Israel as mind-boggling and dangerous, the “threats” issued by his administration to stave off a UN vote “pathetic.” Levy writes that, by following in the footsteps of an Israeli government that refuses to make peace, Obama has fundamentally tarnished his image as a world leader, transforming himself into a “George Bush for the poor.”

The message was not put in quite so blunt of terms, but the meaning was unmistakable. The creation of the so-called congressional “super committee” empowered by the president and the rest of Congress to find almost $2 trillion in spending cuts and deficit reduction has led to a mass lobbying effort from the corporate elite and special interest groups. So while no one lobbies on behalf of ordinary Americans or the government safety net programs they rely on, major drug companies and hospital chains are confronting lawmakers with a demand to raise the Medicare eligibility age to 67 and force more costs onto beneficiaries while preserving government subsidies for drug makers and health care providers. Drug manufactures like Merck and Pfizer, along with the powerful American Hospital Association, call the super committee’s budget-slashing mandate a “unique opportunity” to transform Medicare.

Already facing an unprecedented funding crisis thanks to over $2 billion in education cuts passed by the state legislature in successive years, Florida public schools are about to deal with another financial blow. Two years after receiving the first federal funds tied to President Obama’s “stimulus” legislation, schools in the Sunshine State are about to watch that pot of money run dry. Given hundreds of millions of dollars that was supposed to be earmarked for education “reforms” and to “improve learning,” school districts instead were forced to use the stimulus funds to save the jobs of thousands of teachers after deep budget cuts were imposed by state lawmakers. With confusion over just how the money could be spent, most Florida districts that received stimulus dollars used it to keep teachers employed and basic programs functioning. Now, with the federal money running out, these districts are facing a “cliff”; teachers and school programs that were saved two years ago with stimulus money will now end up being eliminated after another round of billion-dollar education cuts from Tallahassee.