It's a big club, and you ain't in it

If you want to know what's happening in America today, a good place to start is late comedian George Carlin's rant, “It's a big club, and you ain't in it.” In the Carlin worldview, people with money and connections run the country, and the most important club rule is: members always get theirs first; for everybody else it's maybe later or maybe not.

March 13 Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte gave the club a win when he signed legislation providing more than $1 billion in tax relief, in the form of income tax cuts, business equipment tax cuts, and property tax rebates. Meanwhile, Republican state legislators were at work on a spate of proposals to make sure there will always be enough money for essentials once the current budge surplus runs out. For example, by stripping tax revenue from marijuana sales, originally intended to make sure people have places to hike, fish and hunt, legislators figure we will still be able to have roads.

It's true the voter initiative that led to legalized recreational marijuana specified that any tax revenue go to fund outdoor recreation and wildlife. And it's true those tax cuts may not add up to enough for low and moderate income Montanans to justify losing (among other benefits) places to hike, hunt or take the kids fishing, but the governor sees tax relief as key to economic development. The idea is that the wealthy, sometimes hailed as “job creators,” are going to invest the extra money in ways that benefit everyone.

On the national scene, the first days after the recent collapse of a California regional bank showed us just how effective that big club Carlin talked about can be at shielding members from even a twinge of discomfort. With senators, governors, bankers all working together, it took no more than a long weekend for President Biden to arrive at a plan to make sure depositors at the failed Silicon Valley Bank won't lose a dime. Before the President's announcement, anyone who had more than $250,000 at that bank, the maximum banks pay to insure with the federal reserve, had worries. Now every dollar is guaranteed, and some people had hundreds of millions of uninsured deposits at Silicon Valley bank.

If you were wondering how to recognize people who aren't in the club, consider the railroad blues saga that seem to go on forever. Remember last year when the railroad unions were wrestling with the railroad owners and, month after month, the owners couldn't find it in themselves to allow workers a day off if they got sick? And finally some of the railroaders were ready to strike for a few sick days, but then the owners asked the President to do something about it, the President asked Congress and, with only a few exceptions, everyone quickly agreed the railroaders were going to have to keep on working on the railroad and forget about any sick days? Those railroad workers were not in the club.

Or consider the people of East Palestine, Ohio, where a derailment back in February doused the countryside in a chemical stew. The derailment itself speaks to safety regulations relaxed by the Obama administration, further weakened by the Trump administration and, to date, in no way reinforced by the Biden administration, all of which suggests questions about the club membership status of anyone who lives anywhere in the vicinity of an American rail line. As to the residents of East Palestine themselves, Secretary of Transportation Buttigieg has visited and former President Trump has distributed Trump water. However, there hasn't been a rush to guarantee future health care for those who may have been exposed to carcinogens or to indemnify are homeowners for property losses (Who is going to want to buy a house in a town where the ground may be poison?) The people of East Palestine didn't make it into the club either.

Maybe you agree that somebody has to have a lot of money if there are going to be businesses, and jobs for anyone. But you worry that those Montana multi-millionaires will just use their tax rebates to splurge on riverfront property that might have gone to Habitat Montana (except, remember the legislator had to de-fund Habitat Montana to cover the tax cut). If that's your worry, remind your Montana friends when it's time to vote. If you agree executives have to be able to get their money out of the bank to make payroll, but it bothers you that the federal government has to rush in every time some improvident banker messes up, remind your senators and representative of the old Glass-Steagall banking regulations (abandoned during the Clinton years).

But if, for some reason you don't think it's fair that those who already have always get theirs first, and the railroad workers and the people of East Palestine are going to have to settle for maybe later or never, just remember: that's the club rules.

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Will Rawn of Havre is a retired Montana State University-Northern professor