Black Face

When the details of the deal began to emerge, it became obvious that the agreement was yet another frontal assault on the working class and the poor that has characterized state policies over the last three decades. For the millions of people knocked to their knees by the economic crisis created by the robber barons of finance capital, the neoliberal fiscal priorities of the budget obliterated any hope that they would get relief from the insecurities and fears of living in an economy that seems aligned against them.

Not only was there no plan to use the power of the state to create or stimulate jobs, but the Christmas gift to the 1.3 million long-term unemployed left out of the deal was the elimination of their unemployment benefits on December 28.

The deal does not raise real revenue by closing tax loopholes for wealthy. It does not restore food stamps cuts for the 47 million receiving this assistance or cuts to Medicare and other vital public services like special education programs, Head Start and nearly $2 billion slashed from housing aid.

And because the deal lacks mechanisms for raising revenues, it places the burden for funding the deal squarely on the backs of working people by requiring federal workers to take another hit on their wages and benefits. This hit to federal workers is in addition to the increase in taxes that all workers experienced in January 2013 when the payroll tax cut was rescinded while the $4 trillion in Bush tax cuts for the wealthy were allowed to continue for another decade.

Furthermore, while poll after poll demonstrated that the public was no longer in favor of costly military adventures around the world and wanted to see a reduction in military expenditures, Congressional representatives still increased military spending by $20 billion.

[...]

Obama, the quintessential neoliberal technocrat, calls these kinds of agreements “compromises.” But [...] the interests of working people and the poor are the interests usually compromised in those agreements.

  Black Agenda Report

And perhaps now we are beginning to see why America was allowed to have a black president. A (half) black man who came pretty much out of nowhere, known nationally by only a few voters before his meteoric,sudden rise to power. If you take away material support from the impoverished black masses, you are going to have to placate them with something else.

The interesting years are coming up when Obama is no longer in the White House. But, no matter. What can those masses really do? Militarized police with tanks and drones are in place, privacy has been replaced with full-scale surveillance and data collection, torture has been justified and sanctioned at the highest levels, and executive power now includes the right to assassinate American citizens.