On Dec 9, 2010, at 1:25 PM, Max Sawicky wrote:
I've been saying for a while that BHO gets what he wants, his
protestations notwithstanding, because he's a bleepin right-winger.
So on this we agree.
The political outlook is not good whether this package passes or
not, so I can't say what better course is available. So far nobody
else has either.
As I said, politics befuddles me. I look the assembled wisdom here
for guidance.
The only better course is to prepare now for an aggressive independent
national campaign in 2012. The fiscal program for that campaign is
put very well by Robert Reich:
"The solution is to reorganize the economy so the benefits of growth
are more widely shared. Exempt the first $20,000 of income from
payroll taxes, and apply payroll taxes to incomes over $250,000.
Extend Medicare to all. Extend the Earned Income Tax Credit all the
way up through families earning $50,000. Make higher education free to
families that now can't afford it. Rehire teachers. Repair and rebuild
our infrastructure. Create a new WPA to put the unemployed back to work.
Pay for this by raising marginal income taxes on millionaires (under
Eisenhower, the highest marginal rate was 91 percent, and the economy
flourished). A millionaire marginal tax of 70 percent would eliminate
the nation's future budget deficit. In addition, impose a small tax on
all financial transactions (even a tiny one -- one half of one percent
-- would bring in $200 billion a year, enough to rehire every teacher
who's been laid off as well as provide universal preschool for all
toddlers). Promote unions for low-wage workers."
Of course the essential companions to that fiscal outline are military
withdrawal from Iraq/Afghanistan, a huge slash in the military budget,
and a total commitment to the desperate struggle against global
warming especially through a massively funded national renewable
energy/infrastructure rehabilitation bank.
An independent party with such a program would be most unlikely to
prevail in 2012. But it would be able to win in 2016 against whatever
clown becomes the second straight one-term president in 2012.
On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 1:10 PM, Shane Mage <[email protected]>
wrote:
This is charity for the moderately well off, not politics. It
stinks, but that's what Obama and Biden *really* want (nobody has a
right to say that they are unable to do better, because all that it
takes to do better--pass unemployment insurance and temporary middle-
class tax cuts--is for Biden to swing his gavel, rule that a
majority vote is all that it constitutionally takes to call a bill
up for Senate debate, have his ruling upheld by his Senate majority,
and force the Repugs to filibuster 24/7 into the new year on behalf
of their millionaire income/estate tax giveaways). Since the
stinking package is what Obama and Biden really want (having gone
months to pretend that it is being forced on them) it, like votes
for the stinking Greek, Irish, Portuguese etc. bailout-qualifying
austerity budgets, is not a lesser-evil vote but a vote of
confidence in the government. Those who now vote confidence in
Obama will have little standing when it comes time for all-out
opposition in 2012.
Shane Mage
The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each
according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to
each according to his greed.
Joe Stack (1956-2010)
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