February 25, 2008 (LPAC)—The efforts by the Rohatyn-Bloomberg fascist claque at the National Governors Association meeting this week, ran into a major roadblock, as representatives of the LaRouche political movement exposed Bloomberg's Public-Private Partnership (PPP) scam for the Mussolini fascist policy it is.

Bloomberg himself, undoubtedly still smarting from his confrontation with the LaRouche Youth Movement on Feb. 21, failed to attend the Feb. 24 press conference of the Building America's Future Coalition, which he had founded with his fascist "soul-mate" California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell under the sponsorship of the Rockefeller Foundation in January. Instead, the lead presentations were made by Rendell and Schwarzenegger, who were joined by a handful of other governors. Whether those governors—NY Governor Spitzer, Maryland Governor O'Malley, Florida Governor Crist, Arizona Governer Napolitano, Massachusetts Governor Patrick, and New Jersey Governor Corzine—were dupes, or witting supporters of the Mussolini policy, remains to be seen.

After the opening statements, EIR's Bill Jones was the first to confront the governors: "What do you say to the objection that Building America's Future is a gimmick to put Mike Bloomberg into the administration, either as president or vice-president, and to thereby secure bankrupt Wall Street's control over the next Administration?"

In response, both Rendell and Spitzer rushed to praise Bloomberg, and Schwarzenegger, for their policies of imposing austerity on their populations, allegedly in the interest of investing in future generations.

Following up was EIR's Mike Billington, who said: "On the other hand, this group's and Bloomberg's policy clearly is the exact opposite of the policy you had with Franklin Roosevelt in the last great financial crisis, which was that the Federal government directly funded infrastructure, put people to work or built the infrastructure itself. Whereas this group and Bloomberg are promoting the PPPs. They want guarantees for private investment that will basically put tolls on things to extract the profit... "

Billington was immediately interrupted by Gov. Spitzer, who insisted that what the governors were doing was "exactly" what FDR did. "Whether it comes from the Federal government or from the state government, what precise form it takes, what technology you invest in is almost irrelevant," he argued, in the same spirit as Schwarzenegger's infamous remark that it "doesn't matter what you call it, it just has to get done."

The third question from EIR came from Frank Bell.

"In the 1930s there was a program similar to what you're expounding, a program to farm out to private financial institutions to buy up and control infrastructure. One of the foremost proponents of that, a fellow who described himself as a fascist, Mussolini, ended up having his corpse hung up from a lamppost. Who is giving you the assurance that you will not suffer the same fate?"

Despite a call for Arnie to answer, the Guvernator remained silent, leaving Gov. Rendell to take the point, with a tirade in favor of PPPs, and repeated insistence that the governors were not going to sell their infrastructure over to private interests, but lease it. Clearly the message had gotten through.

LaRouche Youth Movement Confronts Governors: PPPs are Mussolini Fascism

Taking the occasion of a Feb. 23 press conference held at the National Governors Association by the governors from Kansas, Arizona, Tennessee, and Maryland, LaRouche Youth Movement member Paul Mourino put the central issue of the current political situation on the table:

"I would like to ask about a bigger crime, which you neglected to mention in your talk, namely the crime being perpetuated upon the American people by the PPPs—the Public Private Partnerships and their main promoters Bloomberg and Schwarzenegger. This is fascism. In the 1930s FDR spent a lot of effort to defeat Fascism in Europe and now it's being brought back again by Gov. Arnie and Mayor Bloomberg. Why are you complaining about small petty issues when Mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Arnie are attempting to change the Federal Government into a Corporate Structure?"

Kansas Gov. Sebelius was first to respond. "Are you inferring that the PPPs are akin to fascism?" she asked.

"Yes," said Mourino.

"Well, we are not fascists," she answered.

"Good, Bloomberg and Arnie are going to be here tonight, and I want you to tell Arnie to go back to Hollywood and Bloomberg to take a hike, because we don't need fascism."