What has bled the nation dry is the conservative policy of keeping revenues disastrously low while continuing to raise expenses, such as two unfunded wars. A 25% cut in taxes on capital gains and (special) dividend income is still in place (capital gains and dividend income are now both taxed at 15%), resulting in federal taxes on the wealthy averaging 16%. Most of the income on the wealthy is exempt from payroll taxes. Contrast this with a 25% tax rate on middle class incomes along with payroll taxes. So people are taxed at a much higher rate if they have to labor for their income rather than sending their money out to do the work for them.
We have had thirty years of class warfare by the wealthy. Income at the top has soared while wages among the poor and the middle class have stagnated.
Legislation is dominated by corporate influence. The conservative strategy of increasing the deficit in order to provide justification for cutting social spending has worked. The conservative's stated goal of keeping the economy from recovering in order to defeat Democrats is working.
There is a reason the top 1% pay more in taxes than the bottom 50%. Look at the relative incomes. Just how much should poor people pay in taxes while their income and spending power continues to tank?
Unemployment benefits, public libraries, a women's right to vote, environmental protections, food safety, a 5-day work week, living wages, child labor laws, desegregation, national parks, Social Security and Medicare. That is what progressives have fought for and won. How many of these have conservatives attacked? Do you really want a return to child labor, six-and-a-half day work weeks, senior poverty and poorhouses, sawdust in hot dogs, rivers catching fire, workers being fired for not being able to perform their jobs after being injured on those jobs, and wages that are little more than indentured servitude?
Go ahead and continue to support today's GOP. Continue to vote against your self-interest. Continue to believe right-wing propaganda and continue to believe that progressives are socialists. Continue to support free trade agreements that force American companies to compete against companies that are subsidized by their governments and whose workers have government (not company paid for) health care and 50-cents-an-hour wages.
1 comment:
Low wages are an education issue. Most of americas wealthy started out poor, worked hard while going to school and ended up wealthy by getting better jobs. too many americans want something for nothing. by that i mean they want a highly paid job that requires little to no education. that's not realistic, but people want it. most of the rest of your comments are just factually wrong. do the research, state real facts and then vote republican. once you figure out what you really believe in your heart, you will realize you are not a democrat. And better yet, you will realize you are also not a republican, but a tea party member. what most of america is afraid to admit is that we are all tea party members. from the day we actually dumped the tea into the harbor. we don't want large deficits, we do want to be safe and protected, and we all hate freeloaders. anyone who works in a job that has the word "tenure" in it's description after so many years is a freeloader. they want to be able to keep a job forever and not have to work hard to keep it. that's not being an american
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