Bill Clinton showed up at the White House for an "impromptu" press conference to discuss the president's tax compromise with the Republicans. Clinton disclosed that "I make a lot of money now" and, as a result, he would benefit from the program. Then he endorsed the compromise, calling it the best deal Obama could make.
Clinton was particularly high on the Social Security payroll tax reduction. "According to all economic analysis, [this is] the single most effective tax cut you can do to support economic activity. This will actually create a fair number of jobs. I expect it to lower the unemployment rate and keep us going."
Across town, United States Senator Bernie Sanders was telling the simple truth that Obama and Clinton avoided. Reducing the Social Security payroll tax from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent as a one year tax holiday presumes that the normal rates will be restored at the end of the one year period. Who would restore those rates? The very same party that passed the Bush 10-year "temporary" income tax reductions. That same party, the Republicans, now claims that ending the Bush temporary tax cuts represents the greatest tax increase ever. Just as they forgot that those tax cuts were temporary, the new Republican majority will forget the payroll cuts were temporary. Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Mike Johanns (R-NE) agree that ending the tax holiday will be portrayed as a tax increase.
Social Security has a dagger at its heart. In 2011, we will have a president, who wouldn't even fight for Social Security when he had a majority in Congress, with a House of Representatives with a veto proof majority that won't repeal any tax cut until Hell freezes over.
The citizens of this country have been betrayed by the smoothest con artists around for the benefit of the ultra rich, with the ultimate demise of Social Security assured by a rock solid majority of Republican extremists waiting in the wings to occupy the 112th Congress.
Where's the opposition?
The nation's largest organization for seniors, AARP, endorsed the Obama payroll tax cuts. The organization did this despite the fact that the Obama compromise offers little in the way of benefits for seniors.
The allegedly liberal publication, Mother Jones, just ran a piece by Obama apologist Kevin Drum claiming that there's every reason to believe that the payroll tax holiday will be over in just one year as promised in this deal. It's another example of tortured logic listing Republican avarice and concluding they'll honor their word.
The self-styled advocates for a FDR revival, New Deal 2.0, ran two opinion pieces supporting the Obama deal. One argued it was that the president "probably did the best he could" while the other actually praised the deal, claiming that this was the "best deal" that Obama could get. A third piece noted that Obama didn't know much about FDR's Social Security proposal but left the president untouched on the Trojan Horse payroll tax reduction. What would FDR do? Capitulate and equivocate. Hardly.
The largest organization representing seniors, 40 million strong, just caved. They and the president got some cover by two organizations that advertise as being of the left that also caved.
That leaves Senator Sanders, those who will support him for real filibuster, focused advocates for the program, and citizens of the United States. The House Democratic Caucus rejected Obama's proposal to some fanfare. But their objections were on how the bill was rolled out and specifics like a $5 million threshold for any estate tax.
Addictions 101
Two key features of the bipartisan political establishment are an addiction to stealing money from the people for their patrons, the corporate and ultra rich elite, and total denial that taking the peoples' money to satisfy this relentless craving is both harmful and morally unacceptable.
The Money Party is at the peak of its craving for more money earned their old-fashioned way, through expropriation from the masses. They will not be denied. They are Hell bent on making their once false prophesies that Social Security is bankrupt into a living reality.
We are nothing to them.
Michael Collins is a writer in the DC area who researches and comments on the corruptions of the new millennium. His articles focus on the financial manipulations of The Money Party, the abuse of power by government, and features on elections and (
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Bear Market, thanks for running this article. We're in the midst of an attack on one of the most successful social programs we've ever developed. It succeeded as a result of a general ignorance of what it means to cut the payroll tax on a "temporary" basis. When the word gets out, there will be a major reckoning. The bipartisan coalition known as The Money Party didn't just touch the third rail of American politics, they sat on it. Cheers!
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