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This Is What Democracy Looks Like
www.NationalView.org's Note From a Madman
October 20, 2008
Throwing OUR Money at the Problem THEY Created
The world is full of good ideas. The problem is that it's full of bad one's too.
There is a growing momentum to create a new economic stimulus package is an idea
that is being pushed by members of Congress and others who believe that it's
what we need to help right our nation today. The question is what kind of idea
will this new economic stimulus package be? Will it be a good idea or a bad
idea?
The last economic stimulus package was too little too late. Although many called
for it a long time before its execution earlier this year, how it was enacted
made it a bad idea.
The current Bush administration still insists that trickle down is the only way
to go when it comes to giving tax breaks to the American public. They feel that
if you throw money at the upper economic classes of our nation, they will spend
that money and some of it will trickle down to us. The argument goes something
like this: Give the same percentage of taxes back to everybody, which results in
those at the top getting the lion's share of the dollars. then advertise the
small sum you'll be getting while hiding what those at the top will be getting.
then make some more excuses for why the economy is still in the tank, or say
that it's "fundamentally sound".
So far this year, our job market has lost over one-quarter of a million jobs to
the Bush economy. Another $600 to those of us paying taxes in the middle class
won't help much.
It's widely known that under John McCain's economic plan - a plan which would
add $300 billion to our national debt - the upper economic class of Americans
(a.k.a. the McBush "base of haves and have mores") will gain, again, that lion's
share. It's estimated that the average Big Oil company executive would gain an
additional $700,000 each, per year, if McCain gets his way.
You and I will get fractions of pennies to their dollars.
It's the same economic plan which George Bush has proposed; enacted (with the
help of a friendly Congress) and wants to make permanent.
And John McCain thinks that making those tax breaks permanent is a great idea.
It isn't.
If we're going to throw even more dollars at our problems, which is seeming more
and more like the only solution our leaders can come up with, then they have to
be targeted towards the middle class with the aim of circulating them through
our economy. And in our current political climate with the Right knowing only
the words "tax cut", stating that you don't want to give a tax break to at least
some Americans is political suicide.
Although I was for the $700 billion economic bailout of our financial industry,
the only reason I supported it was to save the jobs that already exist - the
middle class jobs which these financial institutions would cut before they cut
the giant salaries and golden parachutes of CEO's and other upper management
types.
President Bush and John McCain would keep the money going to the top, with Bush
doing it today and McCain over the next four to eight years, if given the
chance.
So far we have seen the Bush administration, john McCain and Republican
Congressional leaders offer up tax cuts, rebates, capital gains reductions (or
the abolishment of all capital gains taxes) as their only solutions to our
current economic situation. After seeing what their policies have done for us
these past eight years, the only question one should ask them is, "Are you guys,
and galls, nuts?"
Why would we - why should we trust you to fix what you've screwed up in the
first place? The excuses, from calling it a "cycle" or "temporary economic
turndown" to blaming the Clinton administration or just "bad luck" are sickening
to all of us.
The large tax breaks to the rich haven't created the jobs of tomorrow while the
outsourcing of our old jobs and greed have just about bankrupted us as a nation.
It isn't only that we - the middle class - bail them out with our tax dollars
offering up solutions to their problems on our dimes, it's the lack of return
we've received on our investments. We've (the middle class) have experienced a
loss of jobs; a loss of real wages; a loss of disposable income while things
haven't been that hard on those at the top...
...at least not until recently.
And then we hear about trips and banquets and misuses of our tax dollars to the
likes of AIG's executives and it drives us all, collectively, crazy!
And it should.
Certainly the reason that Barack Obama is in the lead in the national polls is
realized because of the errors of the Bush administration and the Republicans
who were in charge for most of the past eight years. The truth is that it's now
the Democrats' turn to either prove themselves worthy of fixing what the
Republicans screwed up or their collective asses will be on the line in two-and
four-years from now.
As taxpayers, the only real voice we have is our vote and we will be exercising
that right in two weeks.
And with that right, we, hopefully, will be firing the Republicans as a whole.
And then the Democrats will have to make good on the promises they make today.
-Noah Greenberg
In response to Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama, Dorothy Schwartz
writes:
Regarding Colin Powell's endorsement -- I was canvassing for Obama today in a
rather up-scale area near Allentown. With at least two people who were
undecided, when I mentioned Powell's endorsement, they hadn't heard of it yet,
and by the look on their faces, it seemed significant, and very positive, to
them.
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-Noah Greenberg