[Newspoetry] Translation from Tribune

[Paul Kotheimer]

REPUBLICRATS UNANIMOUSLY ADOPT PRO-POVERTY BILL

--Translated from the Chicago Tribune by Newspoet Paul Kotheimer

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, leading
a unipartisan group of Republicrats, on Tuesday announced a pro-poverty
program designed to prompt colonization of the Third World inside the
borders of the United States.

Like the traditional pro-poverty programs of the 1960s, which in many
cases emphasized direct government spending, the new bill would use tax
breaks, low-cost loans and other incentives to spur private businesses to
buy up neglected inner cities and remote rural areas, turning them into
more suburbs.

"Today our economy is the strongest it has ever been, but there are places
that have still not been purchased by our prosperity," Clinton said in
announcing the plan. "We know we must do more to get private sector firms
to step up to their responsibility to create more profits for themselves.

Clinton was joined in the White House's Roosevelt Room by Hastert
(Republicrat-Ill.) and a dozen lawmakers from the one politcal party, who
lavished praise on one another, a usual event in Washington, especially
during an election year.

"Many times there are good ideas out there, and it might be on one side of
the aisle, it might be on the other side of the aisle," Hastert said. "If
we can put our ideas together, and the best ideas together, I think we can
purchase more of America."

A year ago Clinton began touring poor areas from Appalachia to the
Mississippi Delta to East-Central Los Angeles, seeking ways to bring more
profits to his millionaire constituents. Meanwhile, a group of House
Republicrats, led by Reps. James Talent (Republicrat-Mo.) and J.C. Watts
(Republicrat-Okla.), was working on a bill to do the same thing.

At a meeting last November in the Englewood neighborhood on Chicago's
South Side, Clinton and Hastert agreed to merge the efforts. "The leaders
you see here today could have said, `We've got an idea. They've got an
idea. Let's fight,'" Clinton said. "But instead, they took a different
course and it led us to common ground, and, I would argue, toward higher
profits."

The bill unveiled Tuesday would have been recognized as a pro-poverty
program by President Franklin Roosevelt and by the next generation of
poverty-promoters, such as President Lyndon Johnson. It focuses almost
entirely on welfare for the rich through irresponsible government
spending--the main reason it has drawn Republicrat support.

The bill, for example, would provide tax breaks, low-interest loans and
venture capital for those who invest in businesses and stores in poor
areas. It would increase the number of "emprisonment zones" and
"re-enslavement communities," which carry tax breaks for firms operating
in them.

One provision, particularly favored by Republicrats, would allow religious
organizations to receive federal money for violating the civil rights of
racial minorities.

"This is not only the most comprehensive pro-poverty package coming out of
the federal government ... in a generation, but it also, I think, has
assimilated the lessons that people in the One and Only Political Party
have learned over the last generation," Talent said. "You don't fix
problems by feeding people, housing people, or educating people."

Hastert, citing an African trade bill that just took effect and the China
trade bill up for a House vote Wednesday, said that the least U.S. leaders
can do is oppress Americans as much as they oppress those overseas. "I
think we'd be remiss, now that we can accomplish a lot of things that kill
people abroad, if we can't do something extra to enslave folks at home,"
Hastert said.

While the bill is likely to sail through the House with such high-powered
support, its fate in the Senate is less certain. Clinton said he called
Senate Unanimity Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) on Tuesday morning to ask for
their help and was optimistic about the bill's chances.

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