Grand Bargain or Grand Sell-out

BERNIE SANDERS, U.S. Senator (VT)

The media appear fixated about when and if a so-called “grand bargain” on our economy will be reached. Wrong question! The question we should be asking is: What should be in a “grand bargain” that works for the average American?

At a time when the middle class is disappearing, 46 million Americans are living in poverty and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider, we need a “grand bargain” that protects struggling working families, not billionaires.

With corporate profits at record-breaking levels while the effective corporate tax is at its lowest level since 1972, and 1 out of 4 profitable corporations pays nothing in federal income taxes, we need a grand bargain that ends corporate loopholes and demands that corporate America starts helping us with deficit reduction. We must not balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. We must not cut Social Security, disabled veterans’ benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, education and other programs that provide opportunity and dignity to millions of struggling American families.

Before we pass a grand bargain, we have got to take a hard and sober look at what’s happening economically in our country today. In doing so, we must acknowledge that the United States has the most unequal distribution of wealth and income of any major country on earth and that inequality is worse today than at any time since the late 1920s. Today, the wealthiest 400 individuals in this country own more wealth than the bottom half of America — 150 million Americans. The top 1 percent owns 38 percent of all financial wealth, while the bottom 60 percent owns just 2.3 percent. Incredibly, the Federal Reserve reported last year that median net worth for middle-class families dropped by nearly 40 percent from 2007-2010. That’s the equivalent of wiping out 18 years of savings for the average middle-class family.

The distribution of income is even worse. If you can believe it, the last study on the subject showed that all of the new income gained from 2009-2011 went to the top 1 percent. ALL of the new income!

In America today, the average middle-class family has seen its income go down by nearly $5,000 since 1999, adjusting for inflation. Real unemployment is not 7.7 percent, it is 14.3 percent, counting those workers who have given up looking for work or who are working part time when they want to be working full time. While youth unemployment is exceptionally high, millions of young people are struggling with student loans they can’t afford to pay back. While we talk about the need to strengthen the middle class, we have to understand that more than half of the new jobs that have been created since 2010 are low-wage jobs paying people between $7.80 and $13.80 an hour.

That’s the economic reality facing a large majority of our people, and that’s what has to be taken into consideration when we discuss deficit reduction and a “grand bargain.”

As a member of the Senate Budget Committee, here are my priorities:

We need a budget that puts millions of Americans back to work in decent-paying jobs by rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and transforming our energy sector away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy and energy efficiency.

We need a budget that keeps the promises we have made to our seniors, veterans and the most vulnerable by protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.

We need a budget that makes sure that the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations pay their fair share of taxes. We must end corporate loopholes that allow Wall Street banks, large corporations and the wealthy to avoid more than $100 billion a year in federal taxes by stashing their profits in the Cayman Islands and other tax havens.

A federal budget is not just a set of numbers. It is a value statement of what we, as a nation, stand for. We must fight for a grand bargain that stands for justice, opportunity and the needs of our middle class. We must reject any approach that continues the economic assault on working families.

“There are a lot of things going on that nobody seems to want to talk about. It’s a bad era. A very bad era.” ___ Jimmy Breslin

Who Knows? The Shadow Knows *

One of the features of the British system of government is what is called a “shadow government”. The idea is that the opposition assigns people to “shadow” members of the government cabinet serving as watchdogs and offering a contrary take on official actions.

Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for President in 2012, is proceeding to push for America’s own shadow government to keep an eye on the Democan-Republicrat coalition in power. Here’s the gist of it —

On Earth Day, another step was taken to challenge elite rule. A new alternative government was announced. It is an extension of the Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala Green Party campaign for president and vice president. The GREEN SHADOW CABINET currently consists of more than 80 activists, scientists, lawyers, advocates, economists, health professionals, labor leaders and artists who are independent of the corporate duopoly and are actively working on solutions to the crises we face. These top-level people in their fields have taken on this responsibility as volunteers.

The cabinet comes at a time when people are increasingly ready to leave the corrupt two-party system. With President Obama supporting cuts to Social Security and Medicare, drone-bombing countries with which we are not at war, and appointing Wall Street and other big business interests to his cabinet, many voters are searching for somewhere to go. Even the former head of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean is talking about leaving the Democrats.

The cabinet will serve as an independent voice in US politics, putting the needs of people and protection of the planet ahead of profits for big corporations. Members of the cabinet will demonstrate what an alternative government could look like. However, creating an alternative form of governance will depend in large part on what people do at the local level. (SOURCE: truth-out.org April 30, 2013)

I can hear my former colleagues in the Democratic Party tut-tutting in disapproval, it just isn’t practical, it’s just not realistic. Well, I have followed the “realistic” path for the last 50 years of my political participation and what do I see? A corrupt-bargain that poses as a Democratic government. A succession of wheeler-dealers who serve the super-wealthy elite while giving the voters an endless cacophony of platitudes and PR gimmicks. Continuing as is, isn’t realistic.

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A Note for the Kids: “The Shadow” was a radio program which had a recurring refrain, “who knows? the shadow knows”.

Equal Justice (Huh! Oh, Yeah, Sure, Ha-Ha) Under the Law

One of the things we’re told to make us happy, and to keep us working, and to keep us buying, and to keep us from causing our overlords any difficulties, is that we all enjoy equal justice under the law.

Do you believe this? If you do then I’ve got a bridge over the Mississippi in Minneapolis which would be a perfect investment for you.

Justice is available for those who can afford it. If we push the speed limit a might, we’ll get a ticket and pay a fine. Even if we didn’t really speed, or if we’re accused of any other violation of the law, we still pay the fine or perform the community service. It doesn’t matter if we’re guilty or not because unless you can afford to hire a dream team in your defense, you really have no alternative.

That’s true for Joe and Jane Six-Pack regardless of collar, blue, white or pink. But it does not apply to the lords of the land. F’rinstance, today AMERICAN AIRLINES after months of legal hassle, used to treating passengers (other than first-class) like cattle, and subject to a multitude of fines imposed by the Government, decided to pay $ 25 MILLION in fines.

What !?! Doesn’t this prove that the high and mighty are also subject to the  law?

No, you see, the actual fines were $ 162 MILLION for repeated violations of the law and aviation regulations but AMERICAN AIRLINES just didn’t want to pay what was imposed. (Imagine, if you said, “Sorry, Judge, I don’t want to pay the $ 200 for the wrong turn, but I’ll give you $ 30″)

No, the Government was just happy to get 15% of what was owed and accepted what the Corporateers deemed appropriate. Much like France before the Revolution in 1789, the Nation’s Nobility could choose to be bound by the law or could choose to ignore it. We sans-culottes don’t have this choice.

Howard Dean May Quit the Party

HOWARD DEAN, a former Chairman of the Democratic Party, and founder of the extra-party action group, Democracy for America, is so incensed at President Obama’s willingness to slice away at Social Security and Medicare, has declared that he might leave the Party in protest.

“I just think that’s unacceptable,” Dean said. “If this passed I would have to reevaluate if I belong in the Democratic Party. If this were passed with Democratic votes, I think it would be impossible to be Democrat.”

“I would have to oppose any Democrat that is supportive of this,” Dean added. [news.firedoglake.com - April 19, 2013]

Howard Dean shouldn’t have to leave. He is a REAL Democrat. Mr Obama is a Democrat-In-Name-Only and should leave the Party he’s betrayed.

 

 

“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde

Contempt for the Courts

The audacity and the sheer criminality of the blatantly partisan Republican courts is beyond belief.

A Republican-dominated * Federal Appeals Court ordered the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to stop requiring employers to inform employees of their legal right to organize. The NLRB, the agency responsible for regulating labor-management relations, had required employers to post a notice advising employees of certain rights under the law. The Court has decided that employers will no longer have to advise employees that they have legal rights.

The tortured logic of these ethically-challenged stooges for the Plutocracy holds that the First Amendment protects free speech and the NLRB interfered with employers’ free speech by making them tell their employees NLRB’s opinion. Opinion!?!? The NLRB simply required that employees be told what the law already requires — it’s not an opinion, it’s the law!

The Court essentially used the same reasoning as found in the court cases which held that schools could not order children to say the pledge of allegiance. It is nonsense, it is bull—-! Labor law IS mandatory, the Pledge is not, and to confound them is a specious violation of common sense.

This by the way is the very same Court which also has decided that ALL of President Obama’s appointments to the NLRB are illegal and hence the NLRB cannot operate. So although created 80 years ago and charged by statute with labor law enforcement by the Congress, the Court has effectively abolished the agency. Their argument here is that the appointments were made during a Congressional recess and therefore not subject to Congressional approval. Heck, Congress is always in recess, it is impossible not to appoint or conduct operations unless done during a Congress recess.

The Republican caucuses have refused to act on Presidential appointments thus leaving agencies and courts without responsible policy-makers. Presidents have always made recess appointments when the Congress neglected to act. Democratic Presidents and Republican Presidents have exercised this power and now a Republican Court has overturned appointments with precious little legal basis other than adherence to to the McConnell Rule: “Republicans will do anything to contribute to the failure of Government under the Obama Presidency”. The McConnell Rule is a corollary to the Republican Fundamental Principle: “Who cares if we wreck the country as long as we own the wreckage”.

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* The Courts have been increasingly dominated by Republican appointees since 1980 for one very lamentable reason. When Presidents Reagan, Bush 1 and Bush 2 had appointed judges, the Senate approves them. But when Presidents Clinton and Obama have attempted appointing anyone other than a Republican or Bluedog Democrat, the Republican caucuses have done everything they can to stymy the appointment. As a result the Courts have 70 vacancies and Republican-appointee majorities in 10 of the 11 Circuits.