Our Crumbling Country

It looks like the Super Committee is about to tank. Why? The biggest sticking point seems to be the inability for Republicans to agree to reasonable tax increases. You may believe that increasing taxes in a deep recession is a bad thing… for the middle and lower classes you would be correct. For the top 1% you would be completely wrong. Households earning more than $250K are not the engines of job growth you have been led to believe. Trickle down economics is a sham, just ask the architect, David Stockman! Want to create jobs? The only method is to strengthen the economy. More demand = more jobs. Demand comes from lots of people buying consumer goods, not from a privileged few buying derivatives. What’s more governments need to deficit spend in times of recession to hasten economic recovery.

The time to reduce deficits is once the economy begins to recover and tax revenues rebound with it. We had that chance back when “w” took office. He chose to give away our surpluses to the wealthiest Americans rather than cut the deficit. This was done as a reward for a job well done (getting him elected). Then we became embroiled in two wars and “w” argued the tax cuts were fundamental to our economy. No logic or science was used to back these claims but the Republicans pushed them nonetheless.

Now we sit here with a shattered economy. A large number of Tea Baggers won office on the promise of doing things better, at tossing out the old bloated model of government. Are they being effective? That depends on your measure of effectiveness. If complete congressional deadlock, the slow disintegration of the government and of our countries infrastructure are good things then yes, they have been effective.

We live in a country where the super rich continue to grow richer as the rest of us watch our children’s prospect for the American Dream slowly crumble away. Corporations now have complete free speech rights but not the right to go to jail when they rob, maim or kill. A significant number of us claim not to be part of the 99% despite the fact that they earn far less than $250K… face it suckers, math doesn’t lie! If you earn less than $250K then you are not in the top 1%, accept the fact and move on!

Want change? Really? Do you give a damn about your fellow man? If not you had better begin because we all have to start caring about one another if we are to survive this mess. Here are a few starter ideas:
• Dismantle the Department of Homeland Security. It’s extremely costly and adds nothing toward security.
• Tie congressional health care to Medicare. If they are willing to give us the “cure” they had damn well be willing to take it themselves as well!
• Remove the right of the congress to set their own salary! Make congressional salaries, and the president’s salary subject to a national vote.
• Give corporations a choice, they can have full and complete free speech rights but have to accept the full scope of the law or they can have limited liability, not both. Let’s illustrate it this way. Enron illegally manipulated the market and stole millions of dollars. Rather than trying Kenneth Lay, try the entire company and its investors (the investors are the owners). If they stole the money jail every last one of them, all the way down to the janitor! If the corporation breaks the law, and the corporation is made up of its people and investors, then shouldn’t all of those people collectively be deemed to have broken the law? Think that won’t correct corporate greed and malfeasance?
• I don’t recall anything in the constitution that guarantees the right of anonymity with free public speech. If you want to speak in public (via ads, lobbying, etc.) you should be required to do so publicly. Our government is supposed to be operated in public so why do we allow anonymous ads aimed to sway public opinion and government action?
• Want a strong military? Quit throwing cash at the most high tech solution available. Most of our troubles in Iraq and Afghanistan had to do with too few soldiers on the ground. Do you believe manpower costs are the biggest expense in the military, think again. Our military has learned the fine art of creative accounting. Time to beef up the ranks as well as increase financial transparency. Need a more concrete example? Look up the Littoral Combat Ship, that should convince you!
• For all you “free enterprise, private industry is more effective than government” types out there. Please show me a study that proves government waste is, by necessity, higher than private firm profit margins. I agree that much government is inefficient BUT why completely turn your back on government rather than work to fix it? If you privatize ALL government you effectively create corporate anarchy. Everything becomes a matter of profit and dollars. You want a service, you pay. Need the military, the police, medical help, disaster relief, roads, airports, you had better be willing to pay whatever the market will bear. Want efficient government don’t privatize it take part in it! Vote, attend city counsel meetings, demand transparency, demand accountability, stop being so damn civically lazy!