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Citizens Electoral Council of Australia

Media Release  9th of July 2010

Craig Isherwood‚ National Secretary
PO Box 376‚ COBURG‚ VIC 3058
Phone: 03 9354 0544 Fax: 03 9354 0166
Email: cec@cecaust.com.au
Website: http://cec.cecaust.com.au
 

America’s breakdown gives lie to ‘recovery’

The United States is on the verge of an immediate general breakdown, with most U.S. states in insoluble budget crises:

Budget cuts: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has moved to slash wages for more than 200,000 of the state’s 250,000 public servants down to minimum wage—$7.25 per hour in one of the most expensive places in the U.S. to live—to pay for California’s $19 billion budget deficit. The National League of Cities (NLC) released a survey on 24th May, indicating that most cities and towns in the U.S. are facing worsening economic conditions that are forcing layoffs and reduced services. Seven in ten city officials responding to the survey, indicated that they were responding to the crisis by making personnel cuts, including layoffs, hiring freezes, and furloughs. In addition to cutting personnel, 68 per cent of cities said they were cutting capital projects and 22 per cent said they were cutting public safety budgets, “which is typically an option of last resort.”

Emergency services: Many cities are slashing their budgets for emergency services, firefighting and police, freezing wages, or laying off dozens of firefighters and policemen. Many fire stations are being shut down. At least three cities, San Luis in Colorado, and Oakland and Maywood in Los Angeles, have disbanded their police forces altogether and are contracting out law enforcement to the sheriff’s department which covers the broader city region, in an effort to save money. (Click here to view a 20-minute interview with a former Mayor of Maywood on this subject.)

Education: While some states and regions of the U.S. have cut back to four day school weeks, virtually all school districts are facing multi-million dollar budget shortfalls, forcing staff furloughs, pay cuts, layoffs, and spending cuts. Los Angeles, for example, is set to lay off between 2,700 to 4,000 school district employees. Some smaller cities are being forced to lay off hundreds of employees; some schools are closing altogether, and others are increasing class sizes. Nationwide, between 100,000 and 200,000 teachers may be laid off due to the budget crisis during fiscal year 2011, according to the National Education Association.

Health: Because the U.S. Senate is blocking $25 billion in Medicaid (low-income healthcare) funding for fiscal year 2011, the Governor of Michigan believes that 1.5 million residents of her state, 15 per cent of the state’s population, will end up with no healthcare; Pennsylvania may lose 20,000 government jobs as a result; the Governor of New York already vetoed $519 million in education funding to partly fill the gap.

Unemployment crisis: 200,000 Americans are being cut off unemployment benefits every week. On 1st June 900,000 unemployed Americans had no benefits, and as of 1st July that figure increased to 1.2 million. On 31st July it will reach 2 million. On 24thJune Congress voted down funding to extend jobless benefits.

Housing crisis: “Obamaville” tent cities of homeless are springing up across the country, without sanitation, refuse collection, medical facilities, clean water or adequate food, creating a veritable “Petri dish” for epidemic disease, even before the effect of the above shutdowns of emergency and public-health services occur. One tent city in Hawaii stretches five miles and covers 50 acres around Pearl City. A tent city in Colorado displays a sign declaring “Welcome to Obamaville, Colorado’s Fastest Growing Community.” As a spokesman for the California Contract Cities Association, Sam Olivito, summed it up, “There’s a real danger of a social fabric breaking down … all cities are trying to deal with the same thing.”

Economically, the fate of the U.S. determines the fate of the world. The only way this crisis can be solved is by implementing the LaRouche Plan: A comprehensive bankruptcy reorganisation based on Glass-Steagall regulations, which protects all crucial financial activities, including savings deposits and public finances, from Wall Street speculation; the speculative obligations are cancelled or allowed to collapse, while the real economy is refinanced through national banking to revive essential services, infrastructure and industry.

To find out about the massive fight to reintroduce Glass-Steagall regulations across the globe, click here.

In 2008 LaRouche presented the solutions to the U.S. crisis, but he was not listened to. It’s time to listen—order a free copy of that 2008 program (Firewall) now.

To buy a copy of What Australia Must Do to Survive the Depression, click here.

Click here to join the CEC as a member.

Click here to refer others to receive regular email updates from the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia.



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