politics and finances

[veronica_rich]

I encountered a headline this morning: LAWMAKERS FEAR VOTER BACKASH OVER FISCAL CLIFF

First off, if I never hear that term again, it'll be too soon. Second, if Congress did what the majority (who pay the bulk of taxes) wants, there'd be no fight - jack taxes back up on people who can WELL afford to pay them. I'm not sure what part of "these deep tax breaks for the wealthy were never meant to be permanent" is so hard to understand.

Or maybe most GOP lawmakers are just bad at history (obviously, given instigating two wars we can't win; I do think it was either Machiavelli or Caesar Augustus who said a nation cannot afford a war it can't win, nor that doesn't profit the masses as well as the usual warmongers on top of the heap, and the majority of Congress didn't know or forgot THAT in 2002). The US. taxed the shit out of the wealthy between WWII and the 80s, and our economy was pretty good and only hit a real snag when OPEC and oil struggles started intruding on U.S. manufacturing and take-home pay among the masses.

It was not because the rich were being taxed in a way befitting people who really OUGHT to be grateful to give back to the society that conferred upon them the environment, laws, and fiscal and social advantages to amass or inherit their wealth. I've said it before - you don't get rich because you work harder than me or 100 million other adults, or because you care more, or some other mythological right-wing fantasy bullshit. Frankly, it'd be hard for anyone to work harder or more hours a week than I did through college or just a few years ago, for several years, considering the number of jobs I worked each time. You are rich and I am not, because you inherited it; because you're smarter than me; because the work you do is valued more highly by society; or because you invented/invested in something really necessary or popular. And none of that would mean jack shit if you lived in a communist or serf system that doesn't allow you to personally profit off of such advantages.

So, kick Grover Norquist to the curb, lawmakers, and quit whining that cuts to necessary social programs are fair to go along with any tax increases on the rich. It just shows your ignorance of the fact these programs HAVE been being cut already for years (or in the case of Social Security, which WE all pay into for ourselves, been raided to pay for those unprofitable wars). You want to do some cutting, let's recall Americans from Afghanistan and then trim some unnecessary bloat from the military budget first.

Comments

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

*applauds*
Personally -- although I do agree with you and the Pentagon that parts of the military budget are overdue for cutting -- I would make my first round of cuts in the subsidies for oil companies; for offshoring; for logging and cattle companies misusing public lands; for corn and sugar production.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I may agree on most of this, except I first need to know what you mean by cattle producers misusing public lands and subsidies. (As for sugar and corn, that amount is laughable next to Defense spending. Also, the big majority of the farm bill is for food stamps and other nutrition programs.)

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

The federal government rents parkland to ranchers and timber companies not just at way below-market rates but sometimes at less than the federal cost of providing services to those companies. And higher profits for producers of cheap hamburgers ... somehow doesn't strike me as the sort of preserving natural beauty for our nation's future that was intended by the founders of our national park system.

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

The sugar and corn subsidies might not be the biggest items in the budget, but they're low-hanging fruit, and their environmental and public health costs make them non-trivial.

[a-silver-rose.livejournal.com]

With the possible exception of the 1% being "smarter" than the rest of us, I agree. There are some idiot super-rich out there *ahemshrubahem*.

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

And plenty of very bright folks in every economic category from the impoverished on up.