The Debt Deal

Now the GOP's agenda, behind all the debt rhetoric and manuevering, was never a secret as far as I'm concerned. It was clear to me from the first that the goal of holding the entire country hostage was to gut agencies and programs they don't like.  However, the title of the article is, "The GOP's hidden debt-deal agenda," so I guess someone was surprised.  Read about it here: The Hidden GOP Agenda Behind the Debt Deal

So you see, the whole "debt crisis" was manufactured to divert your attention from what the reactionaries really want to accomplish, which is destroying the American social safety net, and turning back the clock to the England of Charles Dickens novels.  Of course the Tea Partiers, and I strongly object to the hijacking of a proud moment in American History to camouflage the nefarious doings of these self serving ideologs, fancy themselves the Lords and Ladies of the Manor, and you and I are the prospective butlers, man servants, maid servants, grounds keepers, cooks, and scullery maids and boys of their repulsive vision for America.

I have been giving my opinion here, but recently, I've felt the need for some scholarly rigor, and that has prompted me to find some people with credentials who agree with what I've been telling you.  Now as everyone knows, the Scarecrow was quite smart, he just needed a diploma to prove it. Never the less, I give you evidence that although I don't have a degree in economics, Mr. David Gonnerman taught me what I needed to know at Roosevelt High School, in the form of an article by David Cay Johnston.  Who is Mr. Johnson? He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author. A 13-year veteran of The New York Times, David won the Pulitzer in 2001 for enterprise reporting that uncovered loopholes and inequities in the U.S. tax code. He has written several best-selling books, including Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill). His latest, The Fine Print: How Big Companies Abuse "Plain English" and Other Tricks to Rob You Blind, will be published in January


Forget-about-taxes-its-wages-that-plague-americans

The American Economy has bee fueled by Consumer Spending since the end of World War Two. If working Americans don't have any money to spend, what good is having "LOW, LOW Prices" going to do WalMart or any other retailer?  As I previously said, the rich are NOT going to spend their money. They are not going to create jobs if they get tax breaks. We need to increase revenue by raising taxes on the richest and the corporations with the biggest profits.  If we write the tax code so it is to THEIR ADVANTAGE to create jobs, then they WILL create jobs.  When Americans are working, there is money to spend, and retailers won't be facing bankruptcy.  We need to re-educate the faculty of every business school and reprogram every MBA.  We need to make sure the people we elect to represent US at all levels of government are doing what WE want them to, not lining their own, and campaign contributors pockets, at OUR expense.

American Democracy is HARD. It always has been, and always will be.  If WE don't do the work, we will end up being those scullery maids and dustmen that make us shudder when we read about what it was like to live in a society where only the rich and entitled mattered to anyone, including the government.

I see a trend in America, and I was equally guilty before I retired, of thinking that our education or skills will protect us from losing our jobs. In the so called tech revolution of the 1980s, many of us thought Labor Unions were outdated, and perhaps even in the way of our streamlined, super efficient, high tech companies. Now, it looks like we are losing 100 years of labor progress. We are in danger of losing the worker and environmental protections that went with the living wage American manufacturing and trucking workers used to make.

In thinking about how Unions are under assault from the right wing, I'm reminded of a statement attributed to Martin Niemoller.  While historians say he probably didn't actually speak the words in the form usually quoted, he did express the ideas in similar forms for many years. If there is some editorial help, making the phrases more memorable, it doesn't make the ideas any less valid.

Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) was an ardent [German] nationalist and prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last 7 years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.

Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.

The provisions of the so called "Patriot Act" could be just the beginning of turning the U.S. into an oppressive, totalitarian, corporate controlled, oligarchy. Think about it people. When will they come for you?