The Republicans are
desperate to get their long promised tax cut demanded by their oligarchic
donors. The cover story is that cutting taxes will unleash the powers of
the market and “a rising tide will lift all boats.” This notion has long
been disproven, but it is so comforting to think that if my taxes are
lowered that it is not going to hurt anybody, and indeed it is going to help
everybody. Easy to fool ourselves into believing nonsense if it benefits
us personally.
I think a parallel and
comforting false belief is in the realm of sexual harassment – an unattractive
but wealthy old man in a position of power over attractive young women can tell
himself that exposing himself to or groping these women is actually welcomed by
them because he has somehow become magically sexually attractive to them. All
nonsense, as we are seeing over and over today as women are blowing the whistle
on these old creeps.
The real reason to cut
taxes is to increase the deficit.
Why do the oligarchy want
to increase the deficit? To allow them to cut Social Security, Medicare,
Medicaid, and all supports to the middle and lower classes in the name of
cutting the deficit.
Why cut these middle and
lower class supports? To weaken the middle and lower classes.
Why weaken the middle and
lower classes? To lower labor costs.
Why lower labor
costs? Silly question, isn't it? Yachts. 747s. Mansions.
Villas. Nothing wrong with any of that kind of wealth actually. Wealth is wonderful and
some of the wealthy are generous and exemplary, but how about earning fortunes
rather than stealing money from the middle and lower classes under the rubric
of "tax cuts" and creating a perpetually powerless and impoverished
middle and lower classes?
The oligarchs and their
Republican believers have long hated giving their money to lower classes - “Let
them eat cake.”
Step one – cut taxes on the wealthy and
increase taxes on the middle class (pretend it is a tax cut for the middle
class, they are gullible enough to believe anything that you have the right
wing media tell them)
Step two – throw up your hands in surprise and horror that the deficit
is skyrocketing.
Step three – “reluctantly” cut Social Security
and Medicare - must cut that deficit don’t you know!
Step four – buy a $500 million yacht – has to
be bigger than your rival’s yacht, of course.
So, why do the middle
classes allow, and indeed support this? I think that some people comfort
themselves with the idea that government programs like Social Security,
Medicare, Medicaid, any form of assistance to the poor, all somehow weaken the
fiber of the nation. Kind of like throwing a five year old boy into the
water to show him how to swim – he either swims or drowns, makes him self-reliant,
makes him tough. This is a stupid idea, good enough for silly old John
Wayne movies, but would end up killing children, or at a minimum traumatizing them
if they survive. The oligarchy wants us to believe in this notion of
self-reliance, especially if it means that we help them weaken the government
regulations and support of the middle and lower classes.
It’s just greed and
cruelty.
Taxes and regulations are the price of
civilization. There is no middle class without strong government support
– free press, freedom of religion, reliable banking system, roads,
infrastructure, public schools, strong universities, military, police, legal
system, rule by law not by oligarchs, safety net and assistance to the poor and
needy, etc. These things don’t happen by themselves, they need to be fed,
and it takes money – tax money – our money, middle class money, wealthy class
money. Government is needed, it is essential to freedom and democracy itself.
Killing off government
kills the middle class. And gives more power to the Oligarchy.
America is becoming a banana republic. Watch out.
But, not yet.
I really don’t expect the
Republicans to pass tax reform or tax cuts. What is being proposed is
just too terrible, has had no hearings or expert testimony, excludes every
Democrat, is hated by huge majorities of the public - liberal and conservative
alike - and has too many even within the sycophantic Republican Party opposing
too many different parts of it.
Unworkable, un-passable.
At least so I hope.
