US Fed Chairman demands plan to cut social programs [View All]

Testifying Wednesday before the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke demanded that Congress and the Obama administration map out a program of austerity measures to bring down record budget deficits. Bernanke made clear that the heart of this program should be sharp cuts in social spending, including basic entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

“Maintaining the confidence of the financial markets,” Bernanke said in prepared remarks to the committee, “requires that we, as a nation, begin planning now for the restoration of fiscal balance.”

The phrase “confidence of the financial markets” is a euphemism for the interests of Wall Street and major international banks and investors. In demanding the preparation of austerity measures to be imposed on the American people, Bernanke was speaking in behalf of the financial elite whose massive taxpayer subsidies have been the major cause of the explosive growth over the past year of the federal deficit and the US national debt.

He made clear that his prescription for “fiscal balance” was dramatic cuts in what remains of social programs, rather than tax increases. He zeroed in on the basic programs upon which tens of millions of Americans depend—Social Security and Medicare.

This week, (Obama's) treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner...spoke of a permanent reduction in the “discretionary spending” of the American people.

At Wednesday’s Budget Committee hearing, the ranking Republican, Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, articulated even more openly than Bernanke the ruthless policy of the US ruling elite toward the working class. He...urged the Fed chairman to adhere to the central bank’s “commitment to price stability”—in other words, to pursue a deliberate policy of keeping unemployment high in order to bludgeon the working class into accepting wage cuts and other concessions.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, speaking for the Democrats...said the Democratic-controlled House planned to pass legislation before its July 4 recess to establish “pay-as-you-go” rules, which, he said, would require that any increase in spending be offset by cuts in other programs.

In addition, he said, “We need to address entitlements.”


http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/fed-j04.shtml


The fuckers are going to kill people.