Can the United States rightly call itself a democracy? As long as Paul Ryan and "Fix the Debt" types are able to push extreme austerity measures, Nation writer John Nichols says, we're looking more like a "dollarocracy," where "the ideas that rise to the top are those that are best-financed." In a democracy, Nichols explains, people have a right to say "No" to bad ideas—but in a dollaracracy, all they get is bad ideas.
IMO, dollarocracy is just another term for corporatocracy. While I agree with most of what Mr. Nichols is saying, I hope the American people see beyond what he says in this video. Of course, he's right that the focus of any debt-relief should be on corporate crime and corporate welfare reform.
But social welfare (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid) reform should never have been considered as part of the debt problem. Our national debt is a problem derived from corporate bailouts, corporate welfare, corporate crime, and spending on the military-industrial complex.
That's where all of any cuts should be directed to reduce the debt. Can't you see it?
Social welfare cuts are just a scheme introduced by the criminals who call themselves Republicans on behalf of the 1%, in a sinister plan to convince gullible American citizens to pay for their crimes. They shouldn't even be part of the conversation about balancing the budget, let alone a bargaining chip for compromise by the Democrats.
Don't be foolish enough to buy into the GOP bullshit and become one of their enablers.
I'm all for ending corporate welfare, cutting aid to the military-industrial complex, criminalizing corporate off-shoring and clawing back those losses in order to "reduce the debt". It's these three things, not social welfare programs, that contribute the greatest amount to our increasing national debt, and need to be addressed.
ReplyDeleteBut, with hard evidence that raising the top statutory tax rate wouldn't hurt economic recovery, perhaps it's time we demand that the top 1% help balance the budget, without having to force that responsibility on the rest of society, one that's economically struggling and becoming more marginalized.
According to the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute -
Widening income inequality is also much more pronounced today than when the top statutory tax rate was previously raised to 39.6 percent under President Clinton.
The United States has surpassed Gilded Age inequality levels, and this stark economic trend of exorbitant income growth within the top 1.0 percent and 0.1 percent of earners has finally gained public attention, thanks in part to the Occupy Wall Street movement.