I began writing about Republicans’ disregard for laws in 2012 after the Great Recession of 2007-09, in which as many as 8 million jobs were lost. But not the Republican Party’s lawlessness itself, though it has always been the party of the wealthiest oligarchs fighting for lower taxes and downsizing of the IRS that monitors their tax shelters.
There were always lawbreakers in both political parties, but I never thought it possible that Republicans would allow a convicted felon to take over their party, who is now their presidential candidate, and who advocates programs that could cause another Great Recession.
Larry Summers, former treasury secretary under the Bill Clinton administration who also has served as the top White House economic adviser for former President Barack Obama, told The Atlantic as cited in MSN.com, of economic policies Trump wants to enact that could increase inflation, if re-elected, and perhaps lay the groundwork for another recession.
"These included compromising the independence of the Federal Reserve Board, enlarging the federal budget deficit by extending his 2017 tax cuts, raising tariffs, rescinding Biden policies designed to promote competition and reduce 'junk fees,' and squeezing the labor supply by restricting new immigration and deporting undocumented migrants already here," The Atlantic wrote in an article published last Sunday.
But that is just the beginning. Trump wants to weaken regulatory oversight by appointing more political appointees if elected that would carry out his agenda who could neutralize officials and whole departments that enforce regulations, a major cause of the Great Recession under President GW Bush.
There were many causes of the Great Recession, but front and center were the GW Bush administration appointing officials who consciously downgraded governmental powers of enforcement so that regulators such as the SEC looked the other way when Goldman Sachs, for instance, sold funds to their investors that they then secretly bet against would fail.
Real laws were broken then -- from conflicts of interest to outright fraud that were never prosecuted. The 2010 congressional hearings unveiled much of the double dealing that was rationalized by Goldman Sachs' buyer-beware code -- its clients should be sophisticated enough to know that Goldman would try to maximize its own profits, before those of its clients.
But even more damage was the disregard of basic economic safeguards by successive Republican administrations. It was really the attempt of Big Business to unravel the economic safeguards of the New Deal, first spelled out in Paul Krugman's The Great Unraveling, by advocating massive budget deficits to pay for a Pax Americana -- with especially severe consequences for the old and poor. The Bush administration then ran up the first $1 trillion federal deficit.
A culture of greater lawlessness can be traced back to the early 1980s when President Ronald Reagan trumpeted that government was the problem and more private enterprise the solution for greater prosperity.
The number of convicted criminals in those administrations tells part of the story. President Reagan's administration was marked by multiple scandals, resulting in the investigation, indictment, or conviction of over 138 administration officials, the largest number for any U.S. president.
And Salon.com had documented 34 incidents of law-breaking in just the first 4 years of G.W. Bush's Presidency, the most blatant being unmasking covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, and its fabricated claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Former President Trump is the latest example with dozens of convicted felons in his administration that he pardoned while still President.
"Deficits don't matter" was the infamous chant of Bush VP Dick Cheney. At a time when economic inequality had risen to levels last seen in the 1920s, these administrations wanted to divert attention from a vanishing social safety net by proposing the ago-old Darwinian solution -- the free market. For only the fittest will survive in a world ruled by self-interest, rather than laws and regulations.
The United States, beginning in the 1980s once again became the most ardent advocate and practitioner of the oldest form of capitalism, now a primitive relic of 18th century enlightenment. This is but one part of our aging democracy that U.S. hegemonists put up as the model for western civilization. But it is a very imperfect model for the rest of the world as well.
A 2002 survey of 38,000 people in 44 countries by the Pew Center for the People and the Press found what they think of our American Way. "Since 2000, favorability ratings for the U.S. have fallen in 19 of the 27 countries where trend benchmarks are available ... pluralities in most of the nations surveyed complain about American unilateralism," says the study. They think we disregard their interests in pursuit of our own self-interest.
Few dispute that our capitalistic economic system has won the day. It produces great wealth, particularly for those at the top of the wealth pyramid. Robert Reich's book, The Future of Success said it best: "By the end of the (20th) century, the richest 1 percent of American families, comprising 2.7 million people, had as many dollars to spend after taxes as the bottom 100 million."
It is also no coincidence 25 states have now passed anti-union Right to Work laws that are also the poorest states with the highest income inequality, lowest educational achievement, and receive the most in public subsidies. Taking incomes and wealth away from those states' workers can only make them poorer in relation to other states and regions that is a continuing drain on public finances.
It is the real lesson of our greater lawlessness. By choosing to break laws and regulations that govern economic activity, some region are being pushed back to levels of past centuries, including holding the minimum wage at $7.25 per hour. Workers will only produce more and better products and services when they have the incentive to do so.
In the end, such greater lawlessness means a disregard for everyone but one's own clan or tribe, a greater selfishness. No country can remain prosperous with such a breakdown in social welfare. That is the lesson learned from the Great Depression and Great Recession. Policies that ignore economic as well as civil laws and well-being, that continue to divert incomes and wealth to the wealthiest, impoverish all of US.
Harlan Green © 2024
Harlan Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen
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