Word: gramm
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...Gramm's appeal is about self-righteous selfishness; those who can't afford their rights are left out in the cold. But at the head of the revolution, Gramm thinks his message will strike a nerve--and he may be right. A recent New York Times/CBS poll showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans support a balanced-budget amendment; that percentage dropped by more than half when it was pointed out that Social Security--one of those ways, invisible in Gramm's rhetoric, that government benefits all those who pay for it--might have to be cut to balance...
Eventually, the amendment failed. But in whose name had Gramm fought with such indignation? Throughout the debate, Gramm invoked the figure of the embattled common taxpayer, the "real, honest, flesh-and-blood working person in America." In his arguments, Gramm had a sharp distinction between the taxpayers, who "pull the wagon," and the rest, who ride it: "I am always amazed at how much passion there is for the people that are benefiting from government and how little passion there is for the people that are paying for the government...
...Gramm's rhetoric, the government is a machine that siphons off the earnings of working people and distributes it to those on welfare; he seems to believe both that taxpayers gain no benefit from government and that the poor, who "benefit" from government, should not be represented in the decisions of that government. For Gramm, the U.S. government and all the rights it is charged with defending should be accessible only to those who can pay for it; it's a free country, he seems to say, but free yourself with your own money...
This early skirmish in the Republican revolution shows that Phil Gramm's America is a nation of people who think that only they pay for government, and who resent the fact that their money benefits anyone else. It was that America Gramm addressed when he declared--at his $4.1 million fundraiser--"We are one victory away from getting our money back...
...else would Gramm save your money? In his speech, he said he would "stop building prisons like Holiday Inns" and instead, push for vigorous use of the death penalty. In the final analysis, that's Phil Gramm's answer to the spirit of the moment: we'll get our money back, no matter how may people we have to kill...