Did we elect George Bush in someone else's body?
Quote in today's paper by Barack Obama: "Programs people rely on will be cut back", Obama said, adding Americans had to begin to live within their means. "Needed infrastructure will be delayed." "Cuts will be painful."
To whom? To the least of us, that's who. Let me give a little economic lecture here. Money does not disappear. It moves. It can move up, it can move laterally or it can move down. It has moved up to 1/2 of one percent of the population, sucking the life out of the country. And this budget bill and the one to come for 2012 is designed to move what is remaining in our meager pockets in the same direction. Critical thinking is seriously missing in our general population. I guess massive numbers of us will need to pee on the electric fence before we learn. They get away with this because we let them.
If tax cuts to the 'job creators' created jobs, we should be swimming in work, as we have had tax cuts for these mythical job creators for ten years. Ah, but it isn't enough to get them to create those jobs. They need more and Paul Ryan has just the ticket; more cuts, down to a top tax rate of 25% for individuals. And of course, we can't change the tax laws to force GE, Exxon Mobil, et al, to pay federal income tax. We can't discontinue the federal payouts that these defrauders receive. We will not change the law that rewards companies for sending their jobs to other countries. Countries that these greed mongers exploit to the fullest extent possible, before moving on to the next. But we will cut Federal employees, infrastructure spending, medicaid payments, attempt to dismantle Medicare and Social Security, defund WIC & programs for the disabled and elderly, eliminate Federally backed loans for first time home buyers, cut veterans benefits, or if I simply cut to the chase; throw us under the bus.
And here is something important: no one creates a job because of a tax cut. Jobs happen when demand for something increases. Not because someone's personal wealth is increased. Tax cuts for rich people are a way of redistributing the wealth, to rich people. Tax hikes on rich people redistribute the wealth to society. We are getting our pockets picked. The only entity that creates jobs when there is not demand is the government, because it is not in the business of profit. It should be in the business of protecting the people, but at this time it is not a government of the people, by the people, for the people. We have an oligarchy, yes we do. All of these Federal spending cuts are going to tailspin an already fragile economy. But the titans of industry and finance are not concerned about that. They need to have their pathology fed.
We had better get busy and start peeing on that electric fence.
