Name the socialists, Mr. Bachus

By By Bob Martin, The Alabama Scene
Speaking to a Trussville audience a few weeks back, Congressman Spencer Bachus, R-Mt. Brook, proclaimed that he had a list of socialists in Congress and later revealed to a reporter the number was 17. He must not have had the list in his pocket since he didn’t reveal the names when he told the group that “some of the men and women I work with in Congress are socialists.”
According to The Hill, a newspaper in Washington, Bachus, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, actually voted for last fall’s bank bailout that other Republicans had opposed and criticized as socialism.
Nonetheless, as all Americans should be, I am concerned about this revelation by the congressman. After all, according to most definitions of Marxist theory, socialism is that stage of society that follows capitalism in the transition to communism.
Mr. Bachus continues to keep the names on his list sub-rosa but I believe it is vital to our national security and well being for him to identify these rascals. Socialists in Congress?…Surely not, Congressman. But we must forever remain vigilant since some may actually be fascists.
Our congressman and former state legislator has now raised the possibility that we have these subversives in Washington enacting the laws that govern us. It is a similar stand to the one made in the early 1950’s by Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy who pronounced that he had a list of, not merely socialists, but communists and Soviet spies operating in the federal government.
The Washington newspaper Roll Call reports, that an e-mail to a Bachus spokesman about the names of those 17 socialist congressmen was not returned. And it is reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) plans to ask Bachus if he would support her call for a McCarthy-like investigation into the “anti-American” views of her peers in Congress.
Rise from the grave Joe McCarthy and meet Spencer Bachus. Your work is not done. This time there may be some real ‘commies’ uncovered by the representative from Alabama and still entrenched in those hallowed halls in Washington.
And speaking of socialism…
It appears that a billion-and-a-half of that “socialist” stimulus spending coming out of Washington will keep Alabama’s general fund and education budgets afloat, saving the jobs of thousands of teachers and state employees and keeping a tax increase at bay for another year.
Just over a half-billion in stimulus dollars will replenish a large part of the decline in receipts to the Education Trust Fund, which is dependent on the income tax, sales tax and property tax.
With over a billion dollar infusion from the stimulus package to the state’s general fund, state agencies will be able to continue to operate without crippling cuts to programs along with massive employee layoffs. This addition of Washington dollars will allow nearly a 30 percent increase in general fund spending.
Most of the federal monies though have strings attached and must be used for designated purposes. Medicaid, for example, would see an increase of over 20 percent, but the extra money would meet increased health care needs and keep current programs operating.
The Department of Environmental Management will get nearly a $50 million increase but the money is to provide for local sewer and water systems. The Department of Industrial Relations will see a significant increase, but the money will be used to make up for the increased cost of unemployment compensation.
Of course this federal money is merely postponing the inevitable. Legislators and the governor are eventually going to be forced to find other sources of revenue if state government is to continue to keep important services afloat.
This legislative session is nearing the end. There could be a four-day work week next week with the final day on May 18 which will be followed by a collective “sigh of relief” from the residents of the capital city.
Bob Martin is editor and publisher of The Montgomery Independent. E-mail him at: bob@montgomeryindependent.com