Who gains? Not us.
August 8th, 2010 3:44 am
By Jim Celer, Omaha Liberal Examiner
The radio station that brings us Rush “I hope the President fails” Limbaugh, Glenn “the President is a racist” Beck and Michael “kicked off TV for homophobia but still allowed on our airwaves” Savage is leading the charge against increasing revenue to pay the city’s bills.
Tom Becka, while claiming to merely be highlighting topics of local interest, has been advocating against the mayor since day One, peppering his Facebook profile with such “objective” statements as “Can the mayor negotiate in the city’s best interests if he’s buddy-buddy with the opposition?” That was in reference to the Mayor and his staff going to a bar frequented by fire fighters, and assumes the singularly unobjective notions that 1) the Mayor’s presence in a bar demonstrates solidarity with other patrons not in his own party; 2) being in proximity to firefighters signals a selling out of other citizens; and 3) firefighters and the rest of the city are in “opposition”.
A group of businessmen is now running an ad urging defeat of the mayor’s budget. The group is called “The Omaha Alliance for the Private Sector”, and is headed by Dave Nabity, an insurance executive and – surprise! – sometime fill-in host on KFAB.
The OAPS mission statement says “Omaha Alliance for the Private Sector is an Alliance formed to free the Private Sector from excessive government and put political power back in the hands of the people instead of the big-government special interest groups that are spending us out of control.”
Okay, let’s cut the B.S. By “the private sector”, they do not mean you. “Private Sector”, in this case, means businesses and corporations. Whether or not your street lights stay on, or your home is protected, or your parks are clean and useful – not in the equation of this particular “private sector”. Allowing businesses and corporations to do what they want, without paying taxes or being accountable for their actions and practices – that is what “free the Private Sector from excessive government” means.
Meanwhile, KFAB’s anti-Suttle campaign is just that – anti-Suttle, not pro-Omaha; it’s personal, not civic.
What other conclusion is there? These people are not stupid. They know the Mayor doesn’t unilaterally write contracts, that there are agreements and laws and regulations that have to be honored. They know that his staff aren’t just looting the city treasury, that they took 8 unpaid furlough days last year an are facing the possibility of 12 next year, that their wages are frozen, that over 100 city workers were laid off last year. They keep attacking the mayor’s staff, but since they have to know the staff is making sacrifices too, their hostility must be personal.
Because if all these people get their way – if instead of increasing revenue, the mayor cuts more city services – how in the world do you benefit?
There will be police layoffs (a good sign: despite constant agitating against the police by the anti-Suttle forces, only 30 Omahans showed up at the forum, meaning we’re maybe not as worked up as the corporate powers are trying to make us appear).
There could be repercussions like Colorado Springs enjoyed, with the removal of trash receptacles from parks, the extinguishing of street lights, the loss of whole police units.
Hawaii “furloughed its schoolchildren” An Atlanta suburb eliminated bus service.
This week, Flint, Michigan police realized they had a serial killer in their city: 13 dead so far. And Flint, with the 5th highest crime rate in the USA, just laid off 40 officers, and is likely to have to lay off 10 more.
But, you know, no tax increase, so it's all good.
It's fun to bash selfish lazy bureaucrats, sure. What we really should be asking, though, is this: Where are these so-called concerned community leaders taking us? There’s certainly nothing in it for us – what’s in it for them?
