The real redistribution of wealth
So Obama has released his version of the budget, which claims to reduce the deficit by 1.1 trillion over the next decade– which is of course utter bullshit- but still, its probably more likely than the GOP plan of overstating numbers and killing NPR which they claim will cut $100 billion in this years budget– again, bullshit. We can safely ignore the GOP dribble, since all they have is the House sandbox to play in, well, there and the national media. They can make stirring speeches about slashing federal funding for abortion, or the EPA, or basically any sort of regulation at all, but its just chin music for the masses. It won’t go anywhere, or mean a thing.
But when you listen to their propaganda arm, Fox, all you hear is “redistribution of wealth”. Somehow, despite the lowest tax rates since Truman, the rich in this nation are being held up at gunpoint by an Obama-led progressive, socialist army intent on taking their hard-earned goodies.
We should be so fortunate.
Because we are, and have been since St. Ronnie, redistributing wealth- up. Reagan began the notion that fiscal restraint by force of law was only applicable to the middle class and the poor. The remaining 2% of America, be they in the energy industry, or defense, or financial services have watched their net worth skyrocket while the people who do the work, buy the shit, and fight the wars, they are slowly being strangled. The middle class paid for the bailouts, that could cost as much as $23 trillion dollars– and still, we allow Wall Street to play 3 card Monte with our money, fearful of “offending” the Goldman Sachs crowd if we dare attempt to regulate what they are doing with OUR money.
So instead of chipping away at the social safety net that the majority of this country has overwhelmingly endorsed since the days of LBJ, how about we attempt to even the score a bit? Now, I know this will generate howls of indignation from the Rand crowd, and in theory I agree with them. We never should have started Social Security, or Medicare, or blah blah blah, but such discussions are pointless exercises in Heritage Foundation masturbation and are oh so tiresome. And I’m not some statist cheerleader either- our government is corrupt, inept and beholden to the very few at the expense of the majority- but it’s the one we’ve got. So before we all eating dogfood while some Exxon exec moves his money further away from the country he relies upon for his profits, how about we attempt to at least make this fucked up system at least somewhat fair?
For example. Why do I pay Social Security taxes on 100% of my income (which believe me, is well below the $106k income cap) while Bill Gates only pays it on the barest fraction of his nut a year? Eliminate the income cap entirely. I’m not asking for Gates, or Neil Cavuto to pay anything different than I do- just the same. If they worked hard enough and prospered to the point of having higher income, great. That’s laudable. But they did it in my country, using my resources, and they should be treated the same as I when it comes to funding Social Security.
Secondly, if Wall Street continues to piss away taxpayer dollars in the unsustainable and nonsensical derivatives market, make ‘em pay for it. You gamble in Vegas, the house gets a cut. Enact a financial transaction tax on each market event, each sale, each re bundling of toxic assets, so that the people who bailed you out, and who generally see no real world benefit to your Gilded Cage Socialism will at least get some good out of you looting our national wealth. I have a feeling it won’t change their behavior in the least, they’ll still sell the same worthless bit of stock or bad mortgage a dozen times because its the best game in town, as it should be, since they’ve rigged it from the get go.
Nobody should have a problem with people earning vast amounts of money, at least I don’t. What I do have a problem with is shouldering more than my share of the burden- both in stagnant wages as well as a bankrupt infrastructure- while that jowly fat bastard atop Exxon pays nothing for the privilege of gouging us at the pump, for example. Fox was right, up to a point- there is a redistribution of wealth in this country. But as they are paid to do, they identify the wrong victims, as they do on everything.
“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”, – Alexis de Tocqueville
I think if de Tocqueville were wandering our nation today, he’d sing a different tune, because its not the public that is getting bribed in our system, is it?
Put another way, are you in the 98%- or the 2%?
