(Seems like we’re nearing a big turning point in how the people of the state and the nation regard our political economy, and our corporate friends and their corporate pols are trying to speak with a unified voice to defend the status quo. – promoted by eli_beckerman)

Have you heard about the speech given this morning by Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo to the Boston Chamber of Commerce?  Sounds like it’s going to be a very good year on Beacon Hill for the business lobbyists.   But the news isn’t so good for the rest of us.  Here are some highlights of the speech:

1) Remember all that talk about how casino revenues would be devoted to worthy purposes like education?  Now DeLeo has a different idea: the priority is doling casino revenues out as gifts to corporations.  You know, building infrastructure for businesses.  It’s NOT graft – it’s economic stimulus.  The recent Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to spend unlimited money in campaigns seems to be having its effect already.  The politicians aren’t even waiting for the money to appear before they sell out.

2) According to DeLeo, it’s either a job in a casino or joblessness – take your pick.  Yes, gambling addiction may ruin lives and wreck families, but DeLeo reminds us “there is also a social cost to joblessness.”  He doesn’t seem to have any alternative vision for our future.  Of course, there’s the inconvenient truth that studies show casinos also kill jobs by diverting money from other businesses.  Guess he hasn’t had time to read up on that, being so busy being a big Speaker and all.

3) Community colleges are going to get aligned with business interests.  According to DeLeo, “We need to tie our community colleges and vocational schools more closely to specific growth industries in Massachusetts.”  With the CEOs dictating educational policy, think of all the money they will save on worker training.  Who needs educators when we have corporate personnel departments from “specific growth industries” who know what students should be taught?  

4) And finally, DeLeo revealed that the budget will be balanced by cuts, cuts, cuts.  Forget making businesses give back any of the big tax breaks that have been handed out to them over the last 20 years. “The budget we will propose this spring will not include a tax increase,” DeLeo promised.  Adequate funding for health, education, and the environment just isn’t his job, I guess.

Of the four gubernatorial candidates who will be on the ballot this November only the Green-Rainbow Party’s Jill Stein says that we can have a thriving economy without casinos and slot parlors.  All the others are debating whether it should be one, two, or three casinos.   Stein’s alternative vision involves community-based green jobs.  She says there’s a “jobs bonanza” out there if we start moving to renewable energy.  It would be good if she at least got a fair hearing on this alternative, because once a state lets the casino industry in, they tend to take over the political structure.  Once you say “yes” you lose the ability to say “no.”  And that closes down a lot of options.