Day: July 5, 2011

Must Listen To The People

Daily Agitator

We hear this from all sides in a political debate…..Senators get up and lecturing the media about the will of the American people……whether it is war or taxes or debt…..we are told that we must listen to the people….because the Representatives know what we, the people, really want and will do whatever it is that is important to us, the people……

Well, these days what we are told by the politicians is that the American people do NOT want a rise in taxes to help our deficit and debt problem…….and ALL the Repubs are on this bandwagon and spouting this talking point daily….every time there is a story about the Dems wanting to increase revenue….one or all of the leaders of the GOP run full speed to a microphone to give their talking point about what the American people want……..but what do the American people want?

To answer that question I found an article in Politicususa.com……

Despite what the GOP keeps telling us, Bruce Bartlett has compiled a list of 19 different polls taken since January that demonstrate that Americans support increasing taxes in order to reduce the deficit and inequality. Americans may not love tax increases, but they understand their necessity for deficit reduction.

In the June 9 ABC News poll 61% of Americans believe higher taxes will be necessary to reduce the deficit, and 57% of those polled said that deficit reduction should include both tax increases and spending cuts.

A Pew poll found that more people blame the nation’s involvement in wars than tax cuts or spending for the deficit. The poll also found wide support for increasing taxes, as 67% said the more high earners income should be subject to being taxed for Social Security, and 66% support raising taxes on incomes over $250,000, and 62% support closing corporate tax loopholes.

A Bloomberg poll taken in May found that only 33% of those surveyed thought that it would be possible to lower the deficit without raising taxes, 64% expressed the belief that it isn’t possible to lower the deficit without raising taxes.

An April CBS News/NY Times poll showed that 72% of people favored raising taxes on the wealthy in order to reduce the deficit. A March NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 81% of those surveyed would support a tax on millionaires that would be used for deficit reduction, and 68% supported eliminating the Bush tax cuts on those who make over $250,000.

Check out Bruce Bartlett’s blog to see all the polls.

So there you are sports fans!  Your Congress really does NOT give a crap what you want……..but rather what special interests want and the desires of ONE person…..Nordquist!

Do you still feel that you are getting the best government by your vote….or is it the best that money can buy?  Every time I hear one of the buffoons say what the people want….I have to break out in laughter….the truth is….THEY DO NOT GIVE A CRAP WHAT YOU WANT!  Get that through your head!  It has NEVER been about what you want….EVER!

Do tell!

Is Democracy Threatened?

The rocket’s red glare is waning……flags are not waving so vigorously……and “patriots” wait another holiday to spread their message…..it is time for reality to return….and I am NOT talking about some damn trial in Florida……time for the world to restart!

We are warned every damn day that our way of life, our democracy is being threatened……by whom?  Liberals, Democrats, Obama on and on…..some on the Right see undemocratic boogeymen everywhere…..just listen to the rhetoric flying around the airwaves ….health care will destroy our freedoms, congressional Dems are un-American and destroying our way of life and yada yada….and then there are those on the Left that trying and equate everything Repubs do as some sort of hidden conspiracy to destroy life as we know it…..personally, I think that all this rhetoric is just mindless political BS, with that said I will agree that there is a possibility that our democracy, that institution that we so love, is being threatened……if so….by whom?

At this point I was having a difficult time trying to decide which to proceed with the post….that is until I heard newbie Florida senator, Marco Rubio, lose his speech virginity in the Senate…..his first speech went something like this…..

yada….yada….yada…..(typical Repub talking points and doublespeak)…..and then he said this…..

“Now we find ourselves in a new century. And there is a growing sense that for America, things will never be the same. That maybe, this new century will belong to someone else. Indeed, we do stand now at a turning point in our history. One where there are only two ways forward for us. We will either bring on another American century, or we are doomed to witness America’s decline. A new American century is within our reach.”

And then he returns to the typical clap trap of a Repub…….

There was my hook!

I agree with Rubio (maybe the only time I will do do) I feel that we are doomed to watch America decline….but why?

It seems that ever Repub thinks that it is 1980 and the Reagan era….they think that tax cuts are the only answer to the problems of the nation……as long as they keep telling themselves that and convincing an uninformed public to buy into the whole tax cut theory then decline is assured…..the tax cut rhetoric worked in 1980 but has NOT worked since…..incomes have declined, jobs have been lost, perhaps forever, cost of living has increased and the standard of living has declined….corporations do not create jobs, they buy other companies and lay off workers…..now what part of that sounds like a country on the rise?

So yes….to answer my own question….democracy is being threatened….it is being threatened by partisan politics, by reform instead of change, by a lack of ideas and by planning that looks only tw0 to 4 years down the road; no long range planning what so ever and it is being threatened by the loss of rights being pushed by one side or the other………while the people sleep and dream the democratic state and the government have  been replaced by a plutocracy…..and policies of the GOP are doing NOTHING to prevent the loss of democracy…..So Rubio is correct……America is in decline and the issues that he champions is doing more to assist the decline than anything Planned Parenthood could do…..but to be truthful, we cannot lay all the blame for this decline at the feet of the GOP…Dems have been as much a player as anyone…they are the ones that pushed financial deregulation and all those damn funky free trade agreements that help the out sourcing of American jobs….DEMS are NOT guiltless!

The only way to stem this tide is to get the people to act like they care about what happens to the country and stop whining over their tiny little world…..for the only way the nation can come first is if ALL the residents come first….without that we have NOTHING!