We Don't Play by Your Rules Here!

If we continue on the current path of radical partisanship where one side totally blocks any social progress that would help the vast majority of citizens in the country then we may be looking at the end of the experiment known as America!
Billy Joel paired a catchy tune with a list of key moments in our history entitled We Didn't Start the Fire.
I offer new words and ask you to use his song's tune and beat and decide how long we can continue before something gives?

We don’t play by your rules here

So we have no worries

No sir, no real worries

We keep ourselves in power

In our ivory tower

While the masses cower

No healthcare, End Medicare, If you die we don’t care

Union busting, filibustering, We do those best

Tax breaks for the filthy rich, Tell ya folks life is a bitch

We help only those who pay, And dump on the rest

Block the vote of those we hate, In your red or your blue State

Making all the rules is great, We control our future fate

We don’t play by your rules here

So we have no worries

No sir, no real worries

We keep ourselves in power

In our ivory tower

While the masses cower

Climate change is not a hoax, Leaders in DC are jokes

Fossil fuels can’t be your friend, They’ll cause the world’s end

Gun control is just a must, But can’t even be discussed

Instead let’s block women’s rights, How the hell do they sleep at night?

We don’t play by your rules here

So we have no worries

No sir, no real worries

We keep ourselves in power

In our ivory tower

While the masses cower

Bankers never paid their debt, Voters better not forget

On one thing we'll surely bet, Regulations keep us safe

Asking kids to go to war, Don’t tell them what they’re fighting for

Returning damaged forever more, Their plight we ignore

Think once for the other guy, Help him out do not ask why

There but for the grace you know, We will surely some day go

We don’t play by your rules here

So we have no worries

No sir, no real worries

We keep ourselves in power

In our ivory tower

While the masses cower

There are no silly fools here

So we have no worries

no sir, no real worries

And we will stay in office as our terms go on and on and on and on and on....

It's Not Too Late!

More and more Americans are working into their 70s and 80s not because they love to work but because they are forced to work in an ever increasingly oligarchic America.

In order to squeeze any and every possible greedy penny out of a business owners have taken advantage of a ruined economy to turn the once great and thriving middle class workers of this country into slaves for life.

The current feudal system was caused by a perfect storm of corporate greed and governmental complicity that allowed jobs to be shipped overseas putting more and more loyal American workers on the unemployment lines.

There was no tariff placed on the increased profit made by undermining the middle class and producing inferior and occasionally dangerous products in Asia.  In fact Congress acted to reward corporations for the unpatriotic practice with tax breaks!

And those tax breaks continue even as millions of Americans who played by the rules their entire lives are struggling to pay their bills.

And the bills these duped workers are forced to pay are to the same corporations who put them in their financial predicament.  The banks who ruined the housing market with countless bad decisions and were bailed out lest those millionaires lose money have come back as though nothing happened.

Oil companies that spilled their black death onto our shores in their wanton haste to find more pollutants and higher profits still receive subsidies from our tax dollars.  This while America’s infrastructure, our nation’s life giving arteries continue to deteriorate at alarming rates without any proper funding in sight.

The wealth gap between what once was the middle class and the top richest few in America is the widest it has ever been and still one political party refuses to ask the greedy sect for an extra penny to help the country get back on its feet.

One always has to wonder which group is worse, the evil greedy few who bribe officials to continue the ruination of America or the hypocritical politicians who accept the payments and turn a blind eye to the people who naively elected them.

Perhaps the under educated electorate deserves a piece of the blame but that can change in the blinking of an eye if they wake up to the facts that are staring them in the face and pocket book.

Every November we are allowed to choose the people we think will advocate for our best interests.  Then within months we see the results in the actions of those elected to office.

One thing should be painstakingly clear to anyone with a brain.  The Republican Party has consistently stood with the greedy evil wealthy would-be owners of America without a thought to the grief they are causing the very people who elected them to serve.

This must change!

Sadly the Democratic Party has not been the total knight in shining armor they proclaim to be but in a choice between the two they are light years ahead of their opponents.

Even if a so called super majority of Democrats are elected over the next few Novembers our country’s woes will not soon end but it would at least FINALLY be a step in the right direction.

And maybe, just maybe our nation’s 90 year olds will finally be able to retire with a modicum of dignity and a tiny nest egg with which to enjoy whatever’s left of their golden years.

Simplify for Fairness

With all the talk about lowering taxes for all or some or none or whatever one thing seems to have been lost. How can we run a country if no one will be funding it?
I cannot believe how ridiculous some if not all the arguments against raising the tax rate on those who not only can afford to pay a bit more but won't notice it if they do!
Can we all admit for once and for all that they are not the job creators?
They have proverbially more money than, choose you God here and yet the unemployment rate is way up.  And do you know what else is way up?  The job creators' bank accounts.
Corporate and wealthy profits have soared under the relaxed tax burden placed upon them by the right trending Congress.

Shouldn't he be
pointing at everyone,
not just the middle class?

Forget the term class warfare which is merely used as a way for those at the top to complain they are being persecuted.  Many are actually in need of being prosecuted but that's another story.
The bottom line is the country is in need of funding and must also rein in some of the expenditures it makes that are not totally necessary.
And there is the sticking point.
What do we cut from the budget?
So far we only seem to have one clear cut cut and that amounts to war on a large yellow avian creature who's guilty of trying to teach America's youth.  Can't have that!
And as long as we've decided to go after something that helps children at the start of their life why not go after something that ends their lives, war?  Can we please lower our UNBELIEVABLY inflated military budget?
If you listen very carefully you can hear the sound of General Dwight D Eisenhower spinning in his grave over the VAST MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX he so wisely warned against so many years ago.
Could we get Charles Grodin to visit the White House and hand him a copy of the budget book for analysis?  I believe we can rustle up some bratwurst.
One thing we must all realize is that in order for our lives to be comfortable and for the services we ALL want, use, expect and desire to be available we must have a certain amount of collective cash.
Put simply the overall government needs money and where it comes from doesn't matter as long as it comes!
Without going into actual dollar amounts let's use 100% as the amount needed for YOU.  And even if my percentages from this point forward are off you should get the idea.
The Federal government puts in 45% of what YOU need to live.
Your State chips in with an additional 30%, your City, if you live in one antes up another 15% with the 10% balance being forked over by your local community or town board.
If the Federal government lowers taxes and thereby decides it can only opt in for say 35% then they send a little less to the States.  In order for you live the same way you are living now the State must raise taxes or if not then the other collectors of taxes will have to chip in more.  Or rather dip deeper into your pocket.
The end result is you will still be paying the same amount of taxes but just altering the 'to whom' they are paid.
The menu to fix our economy with tax reform and benefit reform is a short one.
On one extreme side of the spectrum we can keep all spending as it is and raise taxes to cover the bill.
On the other end we can keep taxes as they are and get rid of all expenditures.
Either way is absurd so somewhere in the middle must be the best answer.
I believe without question that we must alter our tax structure for America to get back on track!
And even though I have some income, however small, from my investments I would not mind paying taxes on the profits at the same rate as I do regular income AS LONG AS ALL OF US DO!
And by all of us I mean politicians as well!!!
Let's be real and call a spade a spade people, INCOME IS  INCOME!
If you end the year with more money than you started the difference is income!
END OF STORY!
FARTIG!
FINITO!
FINISHED!!!
How hard is that to understand?
If we were to tax ALL income as INCOME and at the rate of income we would be on our way toward a more fair way of collecting America's life blood, AKA taxes.
For a mega-millionaire such as Willard Mitt Romney to get away with saying he pays his FAIR share of taxes and then have the unmitigated gall to blame those who make less than 1% of what he rakes in as moochers paying no income tax borders on treasonous if not at least evil!
Under past Presidents the income tax rate was always higher than it is now and our economy thrived and grew.
To believe that this winning strategy has somehow changed fits the definition of stupidity in the, 'Doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result' sort of way.
During the Reagan years we were forced into trying the 'trickle down' method of allowing the wealthy to get wealthier and the only thing that trickled down was the drool on the faces of the middle class as they watched the CEOs of America disappear in the dust.
A graduated tax scale without deductions of any kind must be the starting point for a fair tax rate for all.
Just making sure every entity, individual or corporation pays a fair share of INCOME in the total and real sense of the word is a must.  To do any less would be to welcome corruption, or actually continue to allow it to survive.
Many of us hand over papers to an accountant who charges absurd amounts to sift through everything and apply every possible deduction only to then check and see if the middle class killing alternative minimum tax rate has to kick in.
Why does a corporation, which is now a person according to a majority of morons AKA the Supreme Court of the US, have a Corporate Alternative Minimum Tax?  Certainly if us mere mortals are subject to the AMT they should have a CAMT for their very own, right?
As an individual tax paying citizen who has never sent money off-shore with the express purpose of defrauding the U S Government I can say that if I lost all my deductions and ended up paying $5 more in total taxes at the end of the year I would be a far happier camper knowing we were all in the same boat!
Figuring out how much money would be placed in the IRS coffers as a result of this fair way to collect revenue is actually a simple thing since deductions would not have to be figured in.  Then we could see how much we had to work with and  how much we could spend on the humans who fund the government in the first place!
If America is to be for all Americans then all Americans must chip in and they MUST do so fairly.
It's not "America, love it or leave it" it's America, love it and help it survive!
And to those who 24/7 think of ways to get around paying their fair share of the tax burden I say put up or shut up.
The previous message was brought to you by the letters U S & A and the number 2012.

The Rich Envy Us!?!

There are many points of view on the world and these days everyone has a blog that gives voice to them.  One of the many is a blogging duo who go by the name of Lester & Charlie.

I need add nothing to the following poll which comes by way of their collective brain:

Last week, after a national poll showed that two-thirds of the country now sees a strong conflict between the haves and the have-nots, psycho-rich Mitt Romney stated: “You’re all just jealous.”

We wondered if Mitt and his crowd aren't really jealous of US - so we asked why YOU think the haves might be jealous of the have-nots.

And here's how you answered:



Write-in answers include:

• Because they get to own a heart
• They know where to buy the best second-hand clothes
• Because they've never had the joy of receiving an unemployment check
• They can't live with the reality of what they have done
• They want to know what it's like to spend 50% of their income on clothes, just to keep their boss happy
• They're jealous that we pay for all the roads and bridges and they only get to have their names put on them when they're dead
• Because life cannot be appreciated without a struggle
• They suspect that poor people get a discount on the Lester & Charlie newsletter

Top 10 Things No Intelligent American Human Being Should Expect:

10. The wealthy actually hiring more workers at decent wages after receiving yet another tax gift from Congress

9. Truth and fairness in any way, shape or form anywhere anytime from a Fox Network so-called news show

8. Narcissistic sub-humans such as Ann Coulter actually caring about anyone but themselves

7. The liberal media NOT kowtowing to conservatives’ charges that they are liberal

6. Anything but hypocrisy out of the mouths of Republican Congressmen & women, especially if campaigning

5. Sarah Palin’s voice to be soothing

4. The 'religious right' understanding facts based in actual science such as evolution, gravity or climate change

3. Corporations hiring Americans while there are still unemployed Asians overseas

2. Republicans to be in favor of anything that helps the middle class or appears to give Obama a ‘win’


And the number one thing no sane individual who has been alive and awake for at least the past few years should expect:

1. The wealthiest 1% of Americans giving up their ownership of Congress and control of the country

Can We Save America From Ourselves?

Sancho, I see an Impossible Dream!

America has always embraced the entrepreneur, the Don Quixote and his formidable windmill, the David ‘sling-shotting’ his Goliath. We cheer his or her efforts as they attempt to reach their impossible dream and conquer their mammoth goal. The underdog fighting ridiculous odds.  And to some extent we still do. But something has changed over the years.

No I don’t mean we now root for the dreamers to fail, although there are undoubtedly some who do but they are in the minority. And you may still be assured of a path being paved to your door when you perfect that new mousetrap.

What has changed is the attitude of the entrepreneur himself.

While the public is still in awe of success and everyone still loves a winner the winners no longer seem to care about their public.

Okay obviously any new business enterprise still needs customers to pay for that which they produce but believe it or not the customer isn’t the most important part of the equation anymore.

The Alice's Restaurant of Drugs

When America was young someone would open an apothecary and people would flock to purchase items they needed, or browse, or just to say hi. The store owner became a part of the community and living among his customers became family. When a family member was in trouble the brothers would chip in to help. The formula worked for all involved and success was measured not by the size of the bank account but by the number of lives touched and the friendships cultivated.

Of course no one was naïve enough to believe that profits didn’t matter or that that whole bottom line thingy was wasn’t important it just wasn’t that important!

But the corner drug store is nearly extinct replaced by the ubiquitous, faceless chain of a million links. The family doctor is as rare as a unanimous vote in Congress and business ethics well let’s just say they’ve gone the way of the American buffalo. And I wouldn’t give you a nickel for them.

But before we blame the business owner for blindly climbing up the wealth ladder of success we must look at the whole picture. The environment has made it necessary for him to step on former friends to do so. The financial landscape of this country has been reshaped, eroded if you will into one of huge peaks and tremendously deep valleys. And while some may think it was easy to see it coming it was nevertheless impossible to stop. Like a heavy freight train careening down the tracks at breakneck speed it would need time to slow down let alone change direction.

The moment of conception was when one business owner realized he could replace a trained, trusted and loyal worker with five eager new employees overseas and pocket some cash. He could train the new employees, communicate with them despite the time difference, and have 24/7 coverage while still saving money! Americans suffered but who the hell cared?

Soon he replaced another and another and before long the bulk of his work force was from Asia, his ethics from hunger and his profit margins from the pages of Fortune Magazine.

His strategy and success caused his competitors to take note and in order to keep pace they joined the Orient express.

It became a “lead, follow or get out of the way” situation and before anyone could say high unemployment ‘Made in China’ had taken over as the most common label in America.

Wall St. Investors know a good thing when they see one and they rewarded the newly non-American businesses with fists full of cash with which to continue their business practices.

And the more Americans they fired, I mean laid off, the better the investment community liked them. This was famously noted when the stock price of IBM soared after the company divested itself of over 5,000 workers. It soared again when they dumped another 5,000 Americans prompting many to conclude that if they got rid of everyone but the CEO the stock price would rise to infinity!

You might think that the government would put the brakes on this seemingly unpatriotic practice. But you also might be accused of not paying attention. No tariffs or punishments of any kind were meted out and the flow of foreign goods into the country was equaled only by the flow of cash flying out.

At that point no one could seriously blame the board of directors of any large corporation for following suit lest they lose their share of the business. Remember that lead-follow-fall into obscurity thingy rearing its ugly head again.

And as the internet became easier and speedier a seamless “flat Earth” spawned a new normal. Customer service calls were now routinely answered by people from India and another few thousand Americans went from bread winners to bread lines.

Overall wealth in America remained fairly constant but the distribution was lopsided and top heavy. CEOs were raking in cash and record profits. Investment brokers and hedge fund managers gave new meanings to the word obscene wealth as their income grew out of sight. What exactly did they do for society again?

And once again the government chose not to act instead rewarding the people who were killing the American Dream with huge tax gifts. Billions in profits were instead taxed at ridiculously low rates with loopholes rendering even those rates laughable.

The money being shoveled into the already overstocked coffers was now eagerly being spent not on new employees or benefits for the current ones but on lavish gifts for the same lawmakers who kept the playing field tilted in their direction. “K Street” supplanted Main Street as the most important address in the lives of the wealthy businessman.

Some may call that practice bribery but truthfully the wealthy were just the paying for services rendered.

Football can thank Vince Lombardi for the phrase, “winning isn’t the most important thing. It’s the only thing!” but multi-national corporations scored big using it as their mantra.

And when the small business owner or entrepreneur saw how the big boys were doing it they followed suit. Now when a business grows large enough the workers are asked to do more and more for less and less. They are told to be thankful to have a job. Unfortunately without a champion in DC they realize they realize they are swimming upstream and acquiesce.

But in the long run if you don’t pay your workers a living wage then you cannot expect them to purchase the items you produce. Even Henry Ford, anything but a workers’ advocate knew the value of a fair wage when he said (sic) “I pay my workers more so they can afford to buy my cars!”

So can things change?

Can the genie be coaxed back into the bottle?

Would you go back in if you were him?

The only way for this country to change its current path toward destruction is for Congress and the President to act and act as one. They must force the issue.

The two factions fighting are as usual on opposite sides but they must realize that if the American ship of state goes down they will go down with it.

“Cut spending.” “Raise revenue.” “No cut spending.” “No raise revenue.” “Drop Dead!” “No, you drop dead!”

The argument is ridiculous and disingenuous. Spending is out of control but taxes are outrageously low, especially on that top 2%. Wisdom, something that appears to be missing from all sides these days, must be used to find a solution. If we cut off funding for our elderly while continuing to bestow the lowest tax rates in history upon the wealthiest we will lose the game.

Some Middle Class Americans still want the wealthy to get wealthier in the hopes that when they will join their ranks they will enjoy the same freedom from taxes. They are, to put it politely delusional. They will never make it into the top 2% without winning a lottery because the game is rigged.

The rich and powerful no longer meet on golf courses. The new high profile hideout is Davos or some exclusive resort in the Pacific Northwest. And if you are reading this you need not apply for membership as admission is by invitation only and you ain’t invited!

So is the American Dream now an impossible one?

Am I tilting at windmills?

Perhaps!

But with the same spirit that pushed our first settlers to the pacific coast and 20^th century man to the moon I continue to sling shots at Goliath in the hopes others will join the fight and make our country great again.

In a way I am an entrepreneur. Except I have no employees, only partners, 300,000,000 of them!

Juxtaposition

I love that word.

Juxtapositions conjure up contradictions and opposing views that somehow mesh together into a whirlwind conglomeration of life as we know it.

And if you alter the letters of juxtapose just a little the resulting homonym, ‘just suppose’ is quite thought provoking.

Just suppose that all the peoples of the world worked together as one.

Just suppose we treated the Earth as our home rather than our garbage dump.

Just suppose we all had the common goal of making the universe our backyard.

Just suppose we were able to put all the great minds together to find cures for all that ails our species as well as others.

Just suppose those great minds could instill the desire in current and future generations to become great.

And finally just suppose that we all realized how stupid it is to be fighting wars in the name of peace.

Juxtapositions have been around since before the dawn of mankind and will be here when we are long gone.

But don’t think they all have to be bad.

The inventor of the compound trinitrotoluene, aka TNT was Alfred Nobel of the Nobel Peace Prize!  In other words he gave us the means with which to blow ourselves up and an award for not doing so!

But reality is what it is and ‘just suppose’ is juxtaposed on it every day.

The news fills our lives with stories of new and amazing advances in medicine juxtaposed against those showing our troops searching for terrorists who live like moles in caves.

We see extravagant life styles with lavish parties thrown on yachts or at mansions while millions upon millions of Americans wonder where their next meals will come from.

We witnessed the financial meltdown in Europe that caused citizens to riot over increased educational costs while being told how important education is to our collective futures.

Financial cable shows point to people buying luxury items as proof the recession is over only to broadcast the next story about skyrocketing oil and gas prices that will cause the economy to tank.

There are weather related stories showing record droughts; floods; extreme heat and major snowstorms with bone-chilling cold all blanketed against claims that climate change is a myth.

And speaking of myths there is now a theme park with Noah’s Arc showing man and dinosaur cohabitating, an oxymoronic juxtaposition in and of itself.

Law abiding hard working productive members of society who love each other are barred from being wed at any cost while the World prepares to watch the spectacle of yet another so-called Royal Wedding in London, paid for by whom?

And finally people who have been unemployed for years due to the wrong doings of others and now in need of assistance are used as pawns in a power struggle to help millionaires and billionaires keep even more of their easy earned cash, many of whom caused the problems in the first place.

Now juxtapose all the above with year end celebrations that traditionally bring people together hoping for peace and good will toward all mankind.

So as the final juxtaposition comes and the famed ball drops in Times Square we say goodbye to father time and the dying 2010 while saying hello to the baby that shall become 2011.

Will this finally be the year?

Just suppose!

Were He Alive Today

In the 1930s America moved at a slower pace than today.
Information came via the paper delivered in the morning or picked up at the newsstand on the way to work.
If something momentous happened the news would be disseminated over the airwaves on the new and miraculous Marconi wireless.
Nearly every household had one of those lovely pieces of furniture in their living room.
We might enjoy the Sunday Chase and Sanborn hour or The Lucky Strike Show.
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Eddie Cantor entertained us while Orson Welles' 1938 reenactment of the classic "War of the Worlds" scared the living daylights out of us.
But a full 69 years ago tomorrow Americans huddled around the family radio for a different type of terror, a real one!
Dubbed as 'a date which will live in infamy' December 7th was in fact the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and officially invited us into World War II.
President Roosevelt's impassioned speech in front of both houses of Congress merely repeated the obvious, that a state of war had already existed as a result of the attack.
The rest is, as they say history.
But most of us are under attack again.
This time by a far more sneaky foe.
Were President Roosevelt alive today perhaps he would address Congress in the following manner.

Today, December 7^th, 2010 the date Congress proved they have 'it in for me' - - The United States middle class was suddenly and deliberately attacked by representatives of the Empire of the wealthy and their Republican puppet regime.
The average citizen was at peace readying for a holiday season while representatives of the people from the Democratic Party were still in conversation with the emperors of the Republican Party.  Hope was still alive for peace from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Indeed within an hour of the meetings Republican Party members commenced bombarding the airwaves with a continued and continual assault on the American middle class.  This act was in direct contrast to their words of possible bipartisanship deal making when speaking behind closed doors.
It will be recorded that the distance from the Oval Office to the multi media microphone podium was short and that therefore the attack on the public was deliberate and the Party meant to deceive United States middle class by false statements and expression of hope for continued peace.
The attack on the middle class has caused and will continue to cause severe damage to the economy of the average citizen of this country.
I regret to inform you that many American jobs and homes have been lost and more will join their ranks as the Republican Party and their benefactors continue to torpedo any attempt aimed at helping the average Joe from Honolulu to San Francisco and across this great nation to the Eastern seaboard.
I submit that the Republican Party:
will continue to attack Medicare;
will continue to attack unemployment assistance;
will continue to attack fair taxes on the wealthy;
will continue to attack all so-called middle class entitlements;
And therefore will continue to attack my beloved Social Security.
The Republican Party has therefore undertaken a not so surprising offensive throughout the entire American theater.
Their actions today and yesterday and for that matter all the yesterdays speak for themselves.
The people of the United States should have already formed their opinions and must well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation!
As your commander in chief it is up to the President to direct that all measures be taken for the defense of the public at large.  But always must our nation and especially the middle class remember the character or lack thereof of the onslaught against us.
No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion into our pocketbooks and our lives by the ever increasing power of the wealthy base of the Republican Party the American people in their righteous might and fortitude shall win through to absolute victory.
I believe that I interpret the will of the Democrats in Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.
Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, our jobs and homes, our interests, and our very lives are in grave danger.
With confidence in our representatives in Congress, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.
I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by the Republican Party and their wealthy benefactors in the private banking and corporate sector on Tuesday, December 7th, 2010, a state of war has existed between the United States middle class and the Republican Empire of the wealthy.

I hereby give up any rights to the above should anyone care to forward this to President Obama.

Catch This Phrase

There are certain catch phrases and words that are used with the intention of pushing all our wrong buttons these days.  Certain groups use them to gain power, others to keep it and still others for personal monetary gain.

Former Mayor of New York City Giuliani has been stuck on a three number phrase for nine years now and he shows no intention of changing.

Republicans love to throw words like Liberal or Socialist around as if they were terrible things.  Wasn’t Republican President Abraham Lincoln a liberal?

The funny thing is many people who benefit from liberal and socialist policies fall for the tactic.

We saw this disconnect when senior citizens gathered to protest against the health reform bill and warned about messing with their Medicare.

We saw this when they rallied with intentionally ignorant politicians claiming that privatizing or ‘personalizing’ Social Security was a good thing.  In other words we should reward Wall Street for their awful greedy behavior by handing them the billions in our retirement funds.  What could go wrong with that?

But there is a subtle fight going on now and it concerns millions of us across America.  The phrase ‘class warfare’ brings to mind a civil unrest and rioting and is meant to put fear into the minds of voters that we are headed for a bad place.

I have absolutely nothing against the wealthy people of our country and naturally wish I could be counted among them.  The American dream has always included the possibility of success for all.

But should my success in and of itself impede someone else from succeeding?

Unfortunately the wealthiest 2% of Americans are doing just that.  They wish to keep their club exclusive.  And they are spending large amounts of money to wine and dine our leaders in Congress and fund advertisements in order to stop a fair tax on their wealth and income.

Clearly the status quo does not offer enough status for them.
I won't call their gifts to Congress bribes but something about a duck walking comes to mind.

Their ads claim that if we tax the wealthy they won’t have enough money to hire more workers. Higher taxes will stop them from spending and thereby hurt the economy.

Yet the poor and middle class are still taxed and in many cases at a higher rate than those in that 2% group.  Ask Warren Buffett to talk about the fairness of taxes and he’ll explain and complain that his secretary pays more, percentage-wise than he does!

Taxing the wealthy is not the be-all and end-all to our countries economic woes but it is also not the hardship they make it out to be.

How much wealth is too much?

That is an absurd question because each of us has a different answer as to what will make us happy.  But I would submit that if you cannot live comfortably on a salary of one million dollars per year there may be something wrong with you.  And even that number is way too high for most.

The world has just come to an agreement on banking regulations that will attempt to reign in some of the bad practices of the near past.  That’s a good first step but more is needed.

Want an example of a disconnect between the wealthy and the rest of us?

Remember the woman who told President Bush she had to work 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet?  Remember him saying, “That’s what makes America great?”

I have always fantasized of the day I would owe a million dollars in taxes.  Sadly many of our billionaires do as well.  The difference is they are getting away with it whilst I still only dream.

Again I have no problem with someone striking it rich.  But shouldn’t that person continue to pay taxes at a fair rate?

This is after all a union of states.  It is a union of American states.  It is the United States of America.  We are all part of this great union and we keep it great by pulling our own weight and making sure that we are all taken care of in a united way! (Not a plug for that charity but…)

There is no “I” in team and no room for obscene personal greed in America.

When President Obama was elected to office the world took note.  America finally embraced the fact that all men are created equal and anyone can rise to the top in this country.

He took office at a time when our economy was coming face to face with an abyss of monumental proportions and he immediately made proposals to help us back away from the edge.

Immediately a plan was put into place to obstruct him and, by simple extrapolation us from succeeding.

The wealthiest 2% started backing the opposition.

THE OPPOSITION!!!

OPPOSITION TO WHAT?

TO PUTTING PEOPLE BACK TO WORK?

TO GIVING THE POOR AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE?

TO DOING THE RIGHT THING?

DAMN STRAIGHT!

Any and all of the policies proposed by the Obama administration would cost money!

And every penny was going to come out of the tax roll.  And since the wealthy don’t like paying taxes the catch phrases and ads started up in full bloom.
Look into a pair of billionaire known as the Koch brothers who had to work hard for their fortune.  They got it the old fashioned way - they outlived daddy and inherited it!  They are funding group after group hell bent on stopping taxes for the rich!

If we have class warfare then it is not the poor and middle class who fired the first shot.

We need the wealthy but they in turn need the rest of us.  Unfortunately they are not acting like they realize that fact.  Once they fire or lay off all their workers who’s going to continue to make them rich?  From whom are they going to get more money?

The Bush tax gift is supposed to end this year.  The Republicans wrote that into the bill but now they wish to renege.  We cannot allow that.

A parasite lives off the host but dies if the host dies.

Catch this phrase: America’s middle class is dying and the parasitic 2% are to blame.