Welcome to the new trite: Socialist

This week, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart took aim at the McCain campaign's use of the word socialist in characterizing Obama's economic and tax proposals. For the love of God, I'm happy that someone took these two to task for doing so, because most media simply parrots the McCain talking point about Obama's economic and tax proposals as being "socialist," sans any meaty commentary.

I was discussing the myth of Obama's socialism the other day online with a few friends, and I really did begin to get fired up, essentially for this reason - we already have "socialism," but in reverse! How so? Wall Street firms, greedy traditional and investment banks and insurance companies have all successfully raped the working men and women in this country, and when these companies went belly-up (AIG, Bear Sterns, Goldman-Sachs, Countrywide, etc.), who is bailing them out? The American taxpayer, that's who. But, Republicans don't want to talk about that. And I'm willing to bet everything I'm worth (which seems to be less and less every day) that when these bailed out companies return to profitability, the American taxpayer won't be paid back (enter the corporate lobbyists).

It's simply amazing to me how willing people in our society are to attack the disadvantaged among us, yet most willfully turn the other cheek (or are grossly misinformed) about corporate welfare in this country.

Of course, the party of big business, the GOP, is doing all it can to scare the living shit out of Americans, saying over and over and over again that "we must cut taxes so corporations will hire more people!" What a sham and a fraud. Millions of jobs have been lost on President Bush's watch, and off shoring is the new corporate MO - there are literally thousands of companies who are guilty of sending jobs to Asia, China and India this decade, yet now we must cut their taxes? Please. I really hope that people would wake up to this crippling, debilitating problem, before it's too late.

However, don't get me wrong, I'm not so sure that we should hike the American corporate tax rate, but I don't think we should give these greedy, selfish corporations, who see no problem doling out millions, and in some cases, billions of dollars in compensation packages to company execs and CEOs any more tax breaks. What we MUST do is close the tax loopholes that corporations are taking advantage of by off shoring jobs and operating offshore tax shelters. Barack Obama has proposed giving companies tax breaks for creating jobs and building factories here, and penalizing companies that offshore jobs. It's about time, and I sure hope it comes to pass.

Under Bush, the IRS has more than doubled its workforce to audit individual tax returns. Just wondering, what has the IRS done to combat corporate tax cheating? I don't even need to look that one up.

I digress, I know, but my point is that Repubes love to talk about lazy workers and not wanting to give them their hard-earned money, and to be honest, I agree with them. But, where's the outrage about giving companies billions in tax breaks, so they can enrich their execs and offshore the jobs?

Oh wait, maybe I've got it - big business helps keep the GOP in power.

So, when I hear Obama say that we should "spread the wealth around," I cringe, because it probably allows Rush Göring to shelve his Viagra for a few days. It's not the best way to say it, but it's about time we reverse the trend of the rich getting richer, and the working class in this country getting screwed at every turn.

Some stats that you may or may not know about the concentrated wealth in this country. ...

• The top 1% of income earners in this country currently own 90% of the wealth in this country, and 50% of the income. This was exactly the same in 1929, after three consecutive Republican administrations.

• 59% of the capital gains in this country are paid by people who earn over $1 million per year, and fewer than 2% of capital gains are paid by people who earn under $50,000 per year. Why does this matter? Investors who sit around the pool and wait for the dividend check to arrive pay 15% taxes (the top capital gains rate). So, these investors pay less taxes than I do. Outrageous.

• Among the developed countries in the world, only two industrialized nations have a larger gap among the richest and the poorest: Turkey and Mexico. Yes, you read that correctly.

• According to the General Accounting Office (the non-partisan accounting office of Congress), 68 percent of corporations in this country don't pay taxes. Yes, 68 percent! What's wrong with this picture?!?

• Under President Bush, there are now over 400 billionaires in the United States, more than any other time in this nation's history, by far. And what's more, where is the Dow now compared to when Bush took office? Even before the most recent free fall in the markets, the Dow has actually realized very little growth under eight years of Bush and mostly Republican rule in Congress. Yet the rich have continued to get richer and richer. If that's not a big, fat neon sign that the rich have gotten much richer under the Bush tax cuts, than I really don't know what is.

~~

It's this simple - Obama will save you money if you earn under $250,000 per year. And I find it outrageously offensive that people who make more than that are bitching and complaining that they will have to pay a little more. If I were making that kind of money, I would gladly pay a little more to the government. Why? Because I've had a pretty damn good year!

Republicans have so denigrated paying taxes in this country that it's gotten way out of control. As a progressive, very liberal Democrat, I'm not at all happy to pay taxes (who is?), but we have to pay for things in this country.

That military that Bush loves to use unilaterally? It only eats up about $650 billion per year out of the federal budget. Our police, firefighters, roads, government, infrastructure, national parks, state and federal governments, etc. all cost money, and it has to come from somewhere.

The greedy and selfish among the rich in this country want to keep all they make, thinking, "it's mine - why should I give it back?" (It's important to note that I don't think everyone in this country who is wealthy is greedy and selfish - in fact, there are plenty of examples of millionaires and billionaires who are not - Bill Gates, Ted Turner, the Annenbergs, the Kimmels [two local, Pennsylvania examples], etc.)

The argument for giving it back? You're using the commons! The country's infrastructure, military, economy, government, police, postal service, etc. all make it possible for innovative, successful business people to earn, keep and grow their wealth. And all of these things cost money.

If fact, ever since Reagan, we've devoted appallingly little to our infrastructure. So much, in fact, that it's beginning to fall apart. Remember the bridge that collapsed in Minnesota last year, killing 35 people? Bush's answer was to "use funds already allocated" to fix items in urgent need of repair. Wow, thanks for the help, Mr. President. Or, how about the steam line that exploded in New York City a few summers ago, maiming and even killing people? Get used to these types of incidents, because they are going to get more and more frequent unless we act, now.

But, the minute any candidate talks about fighting the fiscal fight for the common working men and women in this country, it's "socialism," or my personal favorite, "class warfare."

It's all one big, tragic joke. More like a nightmare, really. My response to it all is this - They only call it "class warfare" when we fight back. Well, it's time to fight back, because ever since Reagan, war has been declared on the middle class, and it's continued unabated. (And I'm including President Clinton in this assessment, who behaved very much like a Republican on fiscal matters.)

The time has come to take back and fight for what's rightfully ours - a chance at a decent wage and a little money at the end of the line - retirement, which, unless things change, is only going to be a pipe dream for Generation Xers and successive generations. That is, unless you're a corporate CEO. Those lucky few have been getting golden parachutes for years, and they've ramped up to epidemic proportions under Bush.

As for the rest of us? We're just getting golden showers.

Two apropos political quotes

One thing about working in academia - you run across many quotes hanging in, around or outside offices that people consider witty. I must confess, it's one of the things I like about my new job.

Anyway, I ran across two today that I feel are worth sharing.

The first one, I hesitate to write at all though, because it's attributed to a Nazi. Not that a quote from a Nazi is automatically off-limits; we can always learn, even from abhorrant monsters. The reason I hesitate is because "Nazi" is so trite in the U.S. these days. I'm sick to death of politicos slapping the "Nazi" label on enemies and people who disagree with them.

Anyway, the quote is by Hermann Göring, the Nazi commander of the German Luftwaffe and second in command of the Third Reich:

Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

Parts of that certainly apply to our political landscape today, do they not? Specifically when discussing the War in Iraq and the War on Terrorism with some people. The minute you disagree, you are "siding with the terrorists." Am I calling Republicans Nazis? No, but certain elements of their fearmongering does have shades of Nazism.

The second quote is from Richard Perle, who served on the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 1987 to 2004 (and as Chairman of the Board from 2001 to 2003 under the Bush Administration.) It reads:

If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely, and we don't try to piece together clever diplomacy, but just wage a total war, our children will sing great songs about us years from now.

Wow, that was pretty accurate - about as accurate as Vice President Cheney saying on Meet the Press in March 2003 that we'd be greeted as liberators if (when) we invaded Iraq.

One other interesting tidbit about Perle that I found on Wikipedia today regards a feud he has with noted author Tom Clancy. It reads:

When discussing his new book "Battle Ready" co-authored with retired general Anthony Zinni, author Tom Clancy stated that he almost came to blows with Perle. According to Clancy:

"He was saying how (Secretary of State) Colin Powell was being a wuss because he was overly concerned with the lives of the troops," Clancy said. "And I said, 'Look ..., he's supposed to think that way!' And Perle didn't agree with me on that. People like that worry me."

###

I found the the Perle quote on Wikipedia, and I'm wary about that site, as much as I love it, because lots of inaccurate information can be posted there. But, it raises interesting quesitons.

If the Perle quotes/stories are true, it wouldn't be the first instance of an unscrupulous character working in the Bush administration.