The same people who insist that critics of Social Security privatization should offer reform proposals of their own are working feverishly to eliminate alternatives that might reduce the need for benefit cuts or payroll tax increases.
I refer to the fact that House Republican leaders have scheduled a vote this week to abolish the estate tax permanently. Under a wacky provision of the 2001 tax cut designed to disguise the law's full cost, Congress voted to make the estate tax go away in 2010, but come back in full force in 2011.
With so many other taxes around, it's hard to understand why this is the one Congress would repeal. It falls, in effect, on the heirs to the wealthiest Americans. Fewer than 1 percent of the people who died in 2004 paid an estate tax, and half the revenue from the tax came from estates valued at $10 million or more....
The president bush made a recent photo-op stop to riffle through the bonds that compose the SocSec trust fund. According to him, they're just a bunch of "worthless IOU's. Of course, the US Constitution says otherwise, but questions of constitutionality never stopped this administration.
The republicans and some democrats continue on their merry tax-cutting ways, looting the treasury and giving the proceeds to the already wealthy. In the process, they are betraying the working classes.
As this editorial points out, questions of benefit cuts and payroll tax increases are being bandied about to shore up SocSec. Raising the amount of income subject to the tax hasn't seemed to cross their minds, nor has stopping the tax give-away to the wealthy.
So, guess who is going to have to put together the monies required to redeem those bonds belonging to SocSec when they come due. For that matter, guess who's going to have to raise the money to redeem those bonds owned by other wealthy individuals, pension funds, central banks of other countries, etc.?
Yep, you guessed it, the working classes. It seems that we have reached a time when the rich elite, and their political puppets, just can't be asked to make any sacrifices to support the country that has allowed them to become wealthy.
The parasitic natures of these people are becoming plain for all to see. The president bush has deluded so many Americans into thinking that those miniscule cuts they receive (if any) are good for them and the country, while hiding the larger fact that his largesse to the wealthy are condemning their children to a future where opportunity is going to be severely limited.
The chickens always come home to roost. The country's debt, exacerbated by the bush tax cuts, and his illegal war in Iraq, is going to have to be repaid someday. And it is apparent that the wealthy aren't going to be asked to reach into their pockets. Nor are the American based corporations.
That really does leave only one group to shoulder that load. With no social safety nets, no affordable health care, no guaranteed pensions, and with their wages steadily eroding, it is going to be the wage earner.
To be blunt, that situation is obscene. Why should the average wage earner be expected to subsidize the lifestyles of the rich and famous? That is what they're being asked to do.
A complete reordering of the priorities of this country is in order. As I've said earler, and many before me, the real wealth of this nation is created by the workers, not the investors. And it is well past time that they begin to enjoy the fruits of their labor, instead of watching it be siphoned off to those who already have more than enough to live a very good life.
see also guerrilla_campaign/newsletter/news050412_StrokeTheRich.html
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