by Laura Adelmann
A “new economy” is eliminating capitalism throughout the United States.
In June, there was a collective head-shaking in Minnesota when state officials unsuccessfully sought big-buck high-tech firms to work on their computer systems — for free. And, the state’s embattled Crosstown road project halted yet again when contractors weren’t interested in loaning the state millions to perform the multi-year work. Not one developer submitted a bid because everyone knows the project’s costs are rising faster than inflation, and they likely won’t ever recover dime one from the state because it is committed to repaying previous transportation project loans.
The real eye-opener here is that government officials actually thought people would donate labor and materials for the honor of being government’s partner.
Welcome to Fascist/Communist anti-American system of public/private partnerships upon which America’s “new economy” is built. Ripe for corruption, the partner system has been planned for years, as this country has been undergoing a massive societal restructuring involving the merging of education, business, government.
According to the National Council for Public Private Partnerships, such good-ole-boy arrangements allows government to use private money for government’s ever-growing list of “needs,” and allowing government to avoid its own red-tape. (“For the Good of the People: Using Public-Private Partnerships to Meet America’s Essential Needs.”)
Federally, public/private partnerships are being promoting as the new way to finance transportation projects. In 2005, Federal Highway Administration acting Administrator Rick Capka called public-private partnerships a tool that will be “grabbed more confidently and more often.” Why? Read between the lines, and it’s always the same: Government wants more of your money.
While some would argue public money is being drained through ever-bloating government and, in the case of transportation, heavily subsidized mass transit, Capka said we need to “broaden our thinking” and “change our mindset” when it comes to funding government. He envisioned a “growing” group of “investors ready to share the risk in advancing large, crucial projects.” Financial risk usually involves a chance of a more significant profit. So, what’s it for private business, according to Capka? Money out of the public’s pocket in the form of toll road taxes.
Government is getting businesses to take the bait by forcing citizens to open their wallets for years after the project is complete.
To ensure a roaring start, last July, President Bush signed a bill allowing tolls to be charged on existing and planned interstates, bridges and tunnels. And some states have raced into public/private bureaucratic toll road tax highway, without nary a reflection as to where the road will lead.
For example, Capka held Texas as an example of public/private partnerships. He said international businesses are willing to pool $7.2 billion together for the Texas Trans Corridor project, which appears to be the first phase of the NAFTA Super Highway, connecting Mexico and Canada, a division through the heart of America. (Another partnership, but this one is an agreement between countries to develop a “North American Union,” complete with a new currency and in the likeness of the European Union. But I digress.)
Regarding roads: Public/private partnerships allow government to avoid its own bureaucracy, while giving private business commuter’s money for payback, and raking in some of it for its own coffers. As TexasTollParty.com put it: “It’s not about transportation. It’s about revenue.” The Web site calls it a “boondoggle” that costs Texas citizens and “politicians’ corporate friends profit.”
How much money? Over time, billions, as exemplified by, for example, the Indiana Toll Road. This toll road generated $96 million in 2005, and over the next 75 years is expected to bring in more than $100 billion in toll funds. But, that is still not enough. There are plans to double, and in the case of trucks quadruple, toll road taxes within four years.
And regarding the Texas Trans Corridor, all toll road profits, except for about $2 billion which would go to the state for leasing fee, are planned to go to the foreign companies managing the tolls. Then, after 50 years, government would take over the Texas Trans Corridor toll road profits.
It sure looks like a system of public/private partnerships can be profitable to those with power and money — it’s only the poor slobs who need to get to work on congested roadways who pay.
But promises of billions in toll fees isn’t the only way this system can work. Government also has another way to pander for private investment: Promises of tax breaks and the elimination of competition through exclusive bidding opportunities.
The public/private partnership system is ripe for corruption. Perhaps that is why the corporate fascism that is public/private partnerships were Mussolini and Hitler’s preferred method of doing efficient business.
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