Fix the Debt's prescription: Corporate profits for the 1%, austerity for the rest of us

This post originally appeared on the Des Moines Register's "A Better Iowa" blog on July 10th, 2013. Check out the original here: http://abetteriowa.desmoinesregister.com/2013/07/10/espey-fix-the-debts-prescription-corporate-profits-for-the-1-austerity-for-the-rest-of-us/

We’ve told you before that Fix the Debt couldn’t be trusted to advocate in the interests of everyday people. Behind their benign-sounding name lies an agenda focused on maximizing corporate profits while cutting earned benefits like Social Security and Medicare. They’ve got a summer blitz planned, like a traveling carnival show.

The problem, and very real threat, is that the character they play is that of a snake oil salesman, pitching a “cure” that does more harm than good. Fix the Debt is already in Iowa with a steering committee set up, and they’ll likely be touting the austerity message throughout the summer and fall here in the Hawkeye State. And it shouldn’t be surprising that Iowa’s Fix the Debt members are made up mostly of folks who’ve been pushing a corporate 1% agenda at the expense of everyday people.

Take for instance David Oman, long-time advisor and confidant of Iowa Governor Terry Branstad. Just this past election cycle, Oman was the Iowa co-chair of the failed presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, who told us all that “corporations are people, my friend.”

It’s not just Republicans who make up this list – Democratic State Senator Joe Seng of Davenport sits on the same steering committee. Many will remember Seng as the guy who challenged Congressman Dave Loebsack in the 2012 primary for the US House because he thought Loebsack was too liberal. At the statehouse, Seng chairs the Senate Ag committee and regularly carries water for the corporate factory farm industry.

Oman, Seng and others with Fix the Debt are not in the people’s corner. It’s pretty clear what their agenda is – to continue the stranglehold that corporate power has on our democracy.

Fix the Debt and their talking heads want us to believe there is only one way to prosperity, and that we must trust in the corporations to lead us there.

Or we can call them and their corporate backers out and push for a different vision where everyday people are treated fairly, corporations pay their fair share in taxes, and Social Security and Medicare are strengthened for future generations. The choice is ours.