"Class Warfare" is a term you will be hearing a lot these days. The term will be used on all sides, in both liberal and conservative media but mostly the cry will from members of the Republican Tea Party who feel that it's "their class" that is under attack.
President Obama had the gall, the nerve, to take Warren Buffett's idea that he recently wrote about in the New York Times piece called
"Stop Coddling the Super Rich." and propose a
"Buffett Tax" on millionaires as part of his recommendations to lower the 14 trillion dollar deficit caused by the Bush Tax cuts and the Bush Wars..
Buffett's opinion was that the wealthy should pay higher taxes like they used to and he defines wealthy as those making over $1 million and especially those making over $10 million. To prove his point, he explained how much he paid in taxes and points out that he pays a lower percentage than anyone in his office. He claims he paid about 17% in taxes, while others in his office pay between 33% and 41%.
All of this sounds like a very practical if not prudent idea that would at least bring in more desperately needed Tax Revenue from people who can surely afford it to help reduce the deficit which is hurting all of us, including said rich people. Except the members of the Republican Tea Party in Congress have already started with the same BS talking points they use for everything else they object to. Just once I'd like to hear them tell the truth and say…
"Taxing the Millionaires discriminates against the "Job Creators", even though they are not creating any jobs and many of them actually sent thousands of U.S. based jobs overseas and the "Buffett Tax" is just another "Obama The Kenyan Job Killing Bill" that we must unite to defeat because we signed "Grover Norquist's Pledge" of no new taxes for any millionaires and billionaires. Because we the members of the U.S. Congress have been bought and paid for by multibillion-dollar corporations, some of which, like GE, paid no U.S. income taxes at all. Now, thanks to the Citizens United decision of the Supreme Court we pretty much do what ever those corporations tell us to do. So, sorry middle class, it sucks to be you, maybe one day you'll be rich like us, ...not! I would love to hear one of the GOP / Tea Baggers say that as that is the truth and then their head would explode, because they can't handle the truth.
Over the weekend in New York City's financial district on and near Wall Street, thousands of protesters gathered in a peaceful protest similar to those we saw in the Arab Spring. Twitter was lit up by hundreds of tweets from
@OccupyWallSt and
@USDayofRage and many others on the scene as the event unfolded. Mainstream media largely ignored covering it.
Starting in the 1980's under President Reagan we started to deregulate the financial industry. Congress proposed new Bills that repealed laws that were in place to protect us and the "Greed is good" era slowly began. The rich got richer until the rich messed up and then they turned to the taxpayers for help.
The
Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA), was signed by President George H. W. Bush on August 9, 1989 after the failure of over 700 Savings and Loans in the 1980's. We bailed them out but failed to take real notice of the problems and on October 3, 2008. President George W. Bush signed the
Troubled Asset Relief Program of 2008 (TARP) after the economy tanked and we again bailed out the financial industry by buying and insuring over $700 billion of "troubled assets" they themselves had created.
Why is that we seem to have to cut entitlements that help the middle class, (i.e. Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security) but not cut the entitlements (Bush Tax Cuts, Hedge Fund Tax Loophole) that only help the top 2% of Americans? Why can't the millionaires who can afford it pay just a little bit more, Why?
Welcome To The Class War. Why is anybody surprised that we are now fighting back?