Privatizing TSA raises threat to national security

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When it comes to government administration, the republican solution to just about every issue is, ‘turn it over to private industry.’ However to some, letting a sub-contractor who may be more interested in profits than safety is the equivalent of letting a privately run, for-profit company take over the military.

What a private company is likely to do is what they have done in the past; hire people at $8.00 an hour and make them work 10 hour days under the threat of firing them if they don’t like it.

How much do you think an underpaid, over worked employee will really care about what someone brings on a plane? And now many of them will only take the job because it’s the only work they can find?

Putting national security in the hands of private industry not only increases the threat to America, but also to the world.

In our new austere America, cost cutting by way of giving the United States government to Wall Street, is not new. Nor is the concept of prioritizing the bottom line over all else. Just ask the families of the eleven men who were killed when the Deepwater Horizon exploded. Safety comes in second to profits in America. Now the GOP is making their pitch to sell our national security for what amounts to $8.00 an hour. Something is wrong with this picture.

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What happens when lobbyists complete their takeover of America?

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As recent polls suggest, America is indeed heading in the wrong direction. A confused and manipulated electorate is being brainwashed into believing that the United States of America should no longer be ruled by its people for the greater good. Instead the masses are being led to believe that every inch of our nation should be run by, and for, profit.

When votes no longer count toward serving the will of the people, we will see the end of Democracy. Some believe we have already arrived.

The conservative Republican agenda is pro-big business and pro-deregulation. On the other side of the isle, Democrats have traditionally been the party of the middle-class, but even that platform has become clouded with the rise of the Blue Dog Democrats. In reality, party affiliation matters less and less since millionaire lobbyists are influencing more decisions in Washington than constituents. The trend seems to be running away like a loose horse in the marketplace. Whatever gets in the way is trampled and crushed.

What exactly does this mean for average Americans who have to work for a living?
There is no clear-cut answer as to where our corporate-owned US government will ultimately take us, but if we consider the foreclosure epidemic and 2010 Census data showing poverty at its highest level in 100 years, the direction is down for all but the super rich in our fading Democracy.

Back in 1999, “An agreement between the Clinton administration and congressional Republicans, reached during all-night negotiations which concluded in the early hours of October 22, set the stage for passage of the most sweeping banking deregulation bill in American history, lifting virtually all restraints on the operation of the giant monopolies which dominate the financial system.”

The move was orchestrated by lobbyists in “the best-financed campaign of influence-buying ever seen in Washington.” But only until the health care reform debate began.
“In the first quarter of 2009, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America spent $7 million dollars lobbying against the President’s proposal. Pfizer came in second spending more than $6 million.”

There is a pattern here that should terrify most Americans. Things being discussed in today’s political arena that were considered political suicide a decade ago are now getting serious attention. Dismantling Social Security, repealing the 17th Amendment of the US Constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act, and lowing or eliminating the national minimum wage. All these are targeted at giving more money to millionaires and less to the general public. America’s safety net is the enemy of big business because accommodating it cuts into corporate profits.

Sources and recommended links:

Republican Senate candidate wants to lower minimum wage?
Clinton, Republicans agree to deregulation of US financial system

2010 Census: Poverty and foreclosures rip America

GOP wants to give Social Security to Wall Street gamblers

Republican Pledge to America drafted by lobbyist in bed with AIG, Exxon Mobil, drug makers

Michelle Bachmann fueling republican drive to eliminate Social Security

GOP plan to privatize Social Security gives US retirement future to Wall Street gamblers

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Social Security is one of the most popular programs in America. Yet the GOP and Tea Party conservatives want to hand it over to Wall Street so it can become a profit generator for corporate gambling. No doubt the idea is being funded by lobbyists looking for easy money with loads and fees they can put on taxpayers' tabs. Why else would there be such a hard push to dismantle one of the most efficiently administrated government programs America has?

Out of every dollar that Social Security takes in, only .09 cents goes toward running the program. If Wall Street takes over, those costs will become fees of 5%, according to MSNBC.

Former president George W. Bush suggested privatizing Social Security in 2005. When the financial markets collapsed in 2008, retirement plans and 401K’s crashed along with the rest of the stock market, and millions were relieved that the Bush plan never went through. If it had, retired Americans might have lost their monthly checks entirely. Is this the path America really wants to take? Or do people simply not realize just how high the stakes are in giving Social Security to Wall Street?

People were outraged when CEO’s at taxpayer bailed-out financial institutions gave themselves multi-million dollar bonuses with TARP funds. Do they really want to give them even bigger bonuses with loads and fees tacked on to Wall Street controlled Social Security, or has anyone in favor of the GOP plan to privatize America’s future thought about that one?