This from yesterday’s Democracy Now, (11/17/08) with Amy Goodman interviewing Naomi Klein.
“Think about what these leaders could do if they really wanted to,” Klein suggested. “When you have a crisis like this, which so clearly shows the need for those types of regulations, when you have an election like there just was in the United States, where people have said clearly that this is a priority, the leaders have an opportunity to act. … But they blew that opportunity, and they actually called for less regulation.”
“This crisis isn’t over,” Klein warned, “and the same people who justified this bailout, who clamored for this bailout, are the very people who are going to turn around and say to Barack Obama, ‘We can’t afford for you to make good on your election promises. We can’t afford universal healthcare.'”
“The money has been given to the people who needed it least, and it’s going to be used to justify austerity measures imposed against those who need it most,” Klein concluded. “It’s going to be used to justify cuts to food stamps. It’s going to be used to justify cuts to Social Security, to health care, let alone being used to justify why more ambitious plans for a national health care program, for green energy are not affordable. So people have to be ready for this. You know, the next shock is yet to come.”
I want to tell the pond “I told you so.”
