Why There’s an Enthusiasm Gap? Don’t Blame The President, Blame Ourselves. I agree with Robert Reich that it would have been great for the President to have stated the 7 facts in his article after the grossly rich hedge-fund manager complained that Wall Street executives “feel like we’ve been whacked with a stick” by the administration. According to Reich President Obama should have said
- Yet the lobbyists for the financiers and top corporate executives, and their Republican allies have blocked or tried to block every effort of the administration to widen the circle of prosperity, including enacting a major jobs program, providing major relief for mortgage holders who are under water, helping working families afford college for their kids, making sure states and cities have enough money to pay our classroom teachers, and cutting taxes on average working people.
- They almost scuttled the effort to make sure health care would be affordable to average Americans.
- The super-rich say the nation can’t afford any of this because of budget deficits. Yet at the same time their platoons of lobbyists are fighting off efforts to treat their income as taxable earnings rather than capital gains. So last year the 400 richest families in America, with an average income of300 million each, were taxed at an average rate of only 17 percent. That’s the same tax rate paid by a family earning30,000.
- And they’re fighting off efforts to end the temporary Bush tax cuts. If they’re successful, the richest 1 percent of Americans will get a windfall of36 billion next year. Millionaire families will avoid paying31 billion in taxes. Over ten years, they’d avoid paying700 billion.
- And they’re fighting off efforts to restore the estate tax, which only applies to the top 2 percent of Americans, and which has been in effect since Abraham Lincoln introduced it to help finance the Civil War. How do we afford national defense if the richest and most privileged Americans won’t pay their fair share?
- Wealth and power in this country are so distorted that the top 25 hedge-fund managers each earned an average of1 billion last year.1 billion would support 20,000 classroom teachers. Yet who contributes more to this country — a hedge-fund manager or a teacher?
Of course the President did not take the bait. He knows that in a country which is a border line oligarchy it simply was not the time to be that honest. He is praying that the titans of finance will ultimately invest some of the trillions they have in reserve in America if they believe the President “really” is not out to get them.
The reality is that between a Congress beholding to corporations and the titans of finance he would have simply gone on a lonely limb given the fickleness of the American population at large and many on the left in particular. The mere fact that with the possibility of a Republican take over of Congress many who know better are willing to be unenthused and stay home is proof positive.
My Book Title: As I See It: Class Warfare: The Only Resort To Right Wing Doom
ISBN: 1453608168
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Book Webpage: http://books.egbertowillies.com