A New Politics That Rejects Austerity and Wars of Whim

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http://www.thenation.com/blog/167952/new-politics-rejects-austerity-and-wars-whim

There's something sick about a politics that tells children to give up their lunch money so that billionaire speculators can avoid paying taxes. And that sickness will only be cured by a new politics.

That new politics begins this week in Chicago.

When National Nurses United and the union's allies rally May 18 in Chicago on behalf of a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street speculation, the lie of austerity will be exposed.

The proponents of austerity--from Madison to Washington to Berlin to Athens--would have us believe that nations, states and communities must sacrifice public education, public services and healthcare in order to balance budgets. Yet, the same politicians who preach that there is no money for vaccinations and school lunches can always find the money for corporate tax breaks, payouts to defense contractors and wars of whim.

Politicians in both parties tell austerity lies.

But the people are pushing back.

There's an uprising brewing, not just in Europe but in American states such as Wisconsin and Ohio. There's a dawning recognition that it is neither morally nor fiscally prudent to sacrifice human needs in order to pay for wars--or to redistribute more of the wealth upward. We do not need "shared sacrifice" and the lie of austerity. We need new priorities.

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1. austere DURec