In an interview with local broadcast news outlet Fox10, McDucey responded to a question about creating jobs, "How would you go about creating good jobs?"
"My goal is a growing, thriving economy where citizens of this state can make their own opportunities and be successful in their own way. I support reforming the tax code and reducing the individual income tax."This is code for the fact that McDucey does NOT have any plan to promote job growth. Reducing individual income tax is the expression he uses to lure citizens into his trap. Because it's only the "takers" who need state government services, right? So his hypnotic mantra suggests anyway.
Everybody is on their own as far as his administration is concerned, as evidenced by installation of the Kochtopus as its driving force. Further, appointment of Club for Growth hack Stephen Moore as Scrooge's chief economic advisor portends a severe curtailment of the social safety net in Arizona.
Remember, Arizona -- in large measure due to McDucey's advocacy against extending the one cent sales tax -- has a huge budget deficit staring it in the face. This is not some mere possibility if something goes wrong in the future, it's the immediate challenge of the Arizona Legislature and the new governor.
What happens when people are punked into believing that everyone has the opportunity to make it to the top 1 percent financially if they only work hard enough? They end up with NO customers because nobody has any discretionary spending money. Then they blame themselves. That is exactly the message McDucey was telegraphing with his statement (quoted above) from the Fox 10 interview. It won't be my (McDucey's) fault when you fail as an entrepreneur, it will be your fault.
That's the prevailing mythology in present day Arizona (and America). That's why and how voters got punked into electing Scrooge.
There is critical insight for us in this week's Moyers and Company episode. Bill's guest, historian Steve Fraser has written a new book due out in early 2015 titled, The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power.
Bill’s guest this week, historian Steve Fraser, says what was different about the First Gilded Age was that people rose in rebellion against the powers that be. Today we do not see “that enormous resistance,” but he concludes, “people are increasingly fed up… their voices are not being heard. And I think that can only go on for so long without there being more and more outbreaks of what used to be called class struggle, class warfare.”
Revolutions are the result of taking a stand for big, important ideas.
The time to revolt against Scrooge McDucey austerity is nigh upon us. Gird up your loins!
From a protest in downtown Phoenix today:
Photos courtesy Michael Nehl Royer
What do you know? The Arizona Republic actually covered this demonstration.
Today it is a case of the grasshopper pitted against the elephant. But tomorrow the elephant will have its guts ripped out. Le Loi, Vietnamese emperor, 15th Century.
Scrooge McDucey and his fervent allies will go after the social safety net with a vengeance, even those aspects protected by voter initiative. They will also go after education spending.
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