Gingrich & Bush,Jr - Dialing for Dollars

Gingrich & Bush Jr.: Dialing for Dollars

Monday, June 2nd, 1997 -- House Speaker Newt Gingrich actually had the gall to say that Congress may launch a welfare reform "counterattack" on the White House after it returns from one of its many recesses this week.

Same old Newt: jumping on the poor to augment his own still-sinking popularity. Gingrich is angry that President Clinton is opposing a nut-brained proposal by Texas Governor George W. Bush Jr. that would privatize that state's welfare system. That's right -- privatize it!

"There are some very, very disturbing indications that the Clinton administration is trying to undermine welfare reform… [Congress] may want to look at passing a law that would require them to accept proposals like Governor Bush's proposal,'' the speaker blustered.

Bush, the genius son of former not-a-genius President George Bush, wants to use private companies to determine eligibility for social service programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. Of course, the reasons for this are clear: he wants to give part of the welfare pie to corporate America, and this is one way to do it.

Can you imagine the contracts between the state and the private sector? I can tell you one thing -- there would be a clause similar to this:

"The corporation will determine the eligibility of each welfare applicant for a fee of $35.00 per applicant. Should the applicant be found ineligible the fee will become $3,500.00."

Newt is so angry because he promised private industry that they would participate in the 1997 "New Steal" -- by replacing state and federal workers who carry out legislative guidelines for welfare payments.

Little George Bush is positioning himself to run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2000. What he wants is to be the "father" of this new idea which he hopes will spread to all 50 states before the Republican Convention. The stakes are high, particularly in the campaign treasury area, where dozens of grateful CEOs could be counted on to cut an extra large slice of their profits on these deals for Georgie's nomination and election.

The White House, naturally, has been cautious and is now finally against involving the corporate fox in the henhouse of poverty.

So Newt will have to add another failure to the ever-growing list of GOP fail-safe promises, paving the way for a potential voter rebellion in 1998 and the delivery of the Speaker's Chair to Dick Gephardt.