op-ed The S (Socialism) CHIP factor

Author: Andrew Torre

With our economy seemingly headed into rough waters, it might help suffering Americans to better understand some of the things they're up against in seeking relief. Ironically, we are given a partial insight from the Great Obfuscator himself, George Bush.

When Congress passed the State Children's Insurance Program (SCHIP) legislation that would have provided an additional 4.6 million children with health care coverage, Bush vetoed the bill on the grounds that it could lead to "socialism." By implication, then, "socialism" would insure these needy kids, while capitalism won't - and indeed, that's the case.

In claiming that it's better not to insure kids than to have "socialism," Bush had to be pretty confident of the toxic effect the word has on Americans, most of whom don't really know what it means. For their benefit, socialism is, in essence, the people collectively owning and running the world by themselves and for themselves. It is emminently democratic in theory and, as such, has yet to exist on earth - not in the U.S.S.R., not in Cuba, nor anywhere else.

Socialism is certainly contra-capitalism in its demand for public ownership and its substitution of need for profit as the singular motive of production. You can like it or not like it, but it's important to know exactly what it is, so you don't fall prey to propaganda and Bushite nonsense. As you see, providing 4.6 million children with guaranteed health care in no way meets the above definition of "socialism", as Bush would have you believe. Every advanced nation besides the U.S. provides government-sponsored universal health care, and every one of them is unshakably capitalist.

So our president was once again employing a groundless scare tactic - this time to ensure that health care for our unprotected children be purchased for profit from private insurance companies. That is, if it's affordable, which it obviously isn't since the kids aren't covered.

The vacuous "socialist" threat is always pulled out by conservatives to thwart needed government help whenever the people are hurting - whether the need is public housing, job security, subsidized fuel, health care - you name it. They are capitalism's arch-apologists, demanding that everything be privatized and for profit, whether it's affordable or not for the many. And now, with the economic system lurching, there's less and less that hard-working people can afford. So something has to give.

This has great relevance for us here in Vermont, where there's been a long struggle to not only provide health care coverage for the over 40 thousand who have none, but to bring it up to snuff for the many who, because of cost, have inadequate protection. The legislature will consider a bill that provides government-sponsored comprehensive hospital care for anyone in Vermont who needs it. The conservative opposition will echo Bush and condemn it as "a step toward complete government coverage" - which it may be - and shout "Socialism!" - which it isn't. They, like Bush, want the money to go into the hands of private insurers - whether this serves the people's real needs or not - perpetuating the very process that has brought about the crisis. Only a strong voice of the people will counter entrenched deprivative notions, however false.

In 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt shook up Congress and the nation with his revolutionary Economic Bill of Rights. He spelled out what he considered inalienable human rights - not privileges - due every American, among them: "The right to a useful and remunerative job, the right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation, the right of every family to a decent home, the right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health and the right to a good education."

Now FDR didn't say that these would be nice to have if you could afford them. He said it was the duty of the nation to see that they were provided to everyone. Yet this wealthy aristocrat, who helped resurrect American capitalism during its darkest hours of the Great Depression, was branded a "socialist" by fools.

If embracing FDR's humane Bill of Rights means being a "socialist,' I'm sure every struggling American would gladly become one.

Andrew Torre is from Landgrove, VT.