Chapter Fifty-Two
CONTRACT ON AMERICA
[ a song, folk-rock ]
My future's a joke, my wheel has no spokes
All my bills are left unpaid
I have an empty lunch pail, my ex-wife's in jail
I'm last in line to get first aid
My dog has no bone, my sky has no ozone
My cardboard box has just been robbed
I've been stamped "No Food", my brain has come unglued
And no one will offer me a job
But it's alright, don't worry 'bout me
I'm okay and you're okay
Livin' all alone without a job or a home
In the good 'ol U.S.A.
Yeah, it's alright, don't worry 'bout me
Though it's very plain to see
There's a contract on America
A contract out on you and me
I went down to the church where they worship John Birch
And was handed an abortion sign
They said "don't worry 'bout pollution or the poor
We have the unborn waitin' in line
"Now don't smoke or drink or bother to think
Cause we already have the answer
We're protectin' your children from sex education
And protectin' homeless lungs from cancer"
But it's alright, don't worry 'bout me
I'm okay and you're okay
Livin' all alone without a job or a home
In the good 'ol U.S.A.
Yeah, it's alright, don't worry 'bout me
Though everyone can plainly see
There's a contract on America
A contract out on you and me
Newt the 'suit' with his corporate loot
Didn't give a hoot how the poor feel
His old contract, like the current Bush league
Was frontin' for the corporation steal
Their trickle-down theory gives the rich a break
And gives the workin' class the screw
Congress gives the lobby toilet a royal flush
And it trickles all over me and you
But it's alright, don't worry 'bout me
I'm okay and you're okay
Livin' all alone without a job or a home
In the good 'ol U.S.A.
Yeah, it's alright, don't worry 'bout me
Though the whole world can plainly see
There's a contract on America
A contract out on you and me
Now faces have changed, but the contract's the same
At the White House prayer dedication
They make no provision for the sick and poor
While stealing funds from the public's education
Let's subsidize the N.R.A., ignore the E.P.A.
As we play the foreign war drum beat
Ignore health care, when social security's not there
Senior citizens can live out in the street
But it's alright, don't worry 'bout me
I'm okay and you're okay
Livin' all alone without a job or a home
In the good 'ol U.S.A.
And it's alright, don't worry 'bout me
Though any Commie can plainly see
For a few more dollars in corporate coffers
They're sellin' out our democracy
Yeah, it's alright, don't worry 'bout me
It's gonna be a bright laser day
With no soup in our spoon and blood for a moon
In the good 'ol U.S.A.
And it's alright, don't worry 'bout me
Though the blind can plainly see
There's a Contract On America
A contract out on you and me
Yeah, we're all bein' screwed by the Grand Ol' Party
In the grand ol' U.S.A. . . . Hey! *
Veterans For Peace
Veterans Teaching
Peace In Schools
Your
Government on Drugs
DEDICATED TO: Peace and justice activist and paralyzed Viet Nam War veteran
Ron Kovich
("Born On The Fourth Of July"). Any member of the current
administration and congress of international chicanery who supported the March 2003 invasion of
Iraq is in clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations and as a matter of law, a traitor to
the United States, bound by Constitutional law to uphold United Nations international law,
mandated by a 1945 Act of Congress. In taking an oath to uphold the
Constitution, violating an Act of Congress constitutes an overt action of
high treason on the part of any United States President, member of Congress and/or other
elected or appointed U.S. official who has taken such an oath and is clearly, the opposite of
patriotism.
*FootNote: First written in January, 1996 (updated as more recent events transpired),
based on the Contract With America as proposed by Newt
Gingrich. As the author of Ecclesiastes pointed out, truly "there is nothing new
under the sun", only the names and dates change. Inspired by "I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die
Rag" by Country Joe McDonald; I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die; Country Joe and the
Fish (1965).
**FootNote: "As Republican Members of the House of Representatives ...we propose not just
to change its policies, but even more important, to restore the bonds of trust between the
people and their elected representatives. That is why, in this era of official evasion and
posturing, we offer instead a detailed agenda for national renewal, a written commitment with
no fine print." --Contract With America; 1995
"By the year 2002, we can have a federal government with a balanced budget or we can
continue down the present path towards total fiscal catastrophe." --Tom DeLay, Republican
Congressman; 1995
In April of 2003 the United States, after less than a year and one half of Bush Junior and
his corporate crony-packed administration, was estimated to be over one-half trillion dollars in
debt (there was a surplus the day he took office). American health care costs were spiraling out
of control, the American education system was in its worse financial crises since perhaps the
Great Depression, the economy and business in general, due to erstwhile Washington D.C.-backed
war profiteering, Enron and other corporate malfeasance, was virtually paralyzed (much less so
due to lingering 9/11 fallout) and energy costs, jobless and homeless population numbers were on
the rise.
Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled Congress and the
Bush Administration were proposing to reduce veterans benefits amidst a war of illegal
international corporation and media backed aggression, cutting funding from programs for the sick and
poor, drawing up a 399.1 billion dollar defense budget, which included a large percentage for
entirely unnecessary and battle-tested as virtually useless Apache helicopters and Stealth
bombers specifically designed for types of warfare no longer engaged in (according to many
military experts) and insisting on another huge tax cut that would benefit the wealthy
substantially and benefit the average American far less than zero (i.e., the average citizen
will no doubt eventually pay in terms of inflation, high unemployment, loss of social security
and health benefits, loss of social services and by future tax increases at both state and
federal levels). The half-trillion plus deficit figure does not include the total cost of
the second Gulf War (including reconstruction), estimated between 300 million to well over a trillion dollars, nor the long-term
cost of the recently revamped Star-Wars program, estimated to be anywhere from three to ten
trillion dollars or more (see Ronald
and His Ray-Gun). This recent American political legacy emanates, not from the
Democratic "tax and spend" party, but from "fiscal conservative" Republicans in control of the
nation's purse strings (including Tom DeLay quoted above and others formerly parroting the
alleged virtues of the Contract With America), who claim, as 'compassionate' conservatives, to
be all about better education, cost reduction, smaller government and lower taxes for the
average American citizen.
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