In 2007, the top 1 percent of all income earners in the United States
made 23.5 percent of all income - more than the bottom 50 percent. Not
enough! The percentage of income going to the top 1 percent nearly
tripled since the mid-1970s. Not enough! Eighty percent of all new
income earned from 1980 to 2005 has gone to the top 1 percent. Not
enough! The top 1 percent now owns more wealth than the bottom 90
percent. Not enough! The Wall Street executives with their obscene
compensation packages now earn more than they did before we bailed them
out. Not enough! With the middle class collapsing and the rich getting
much richer, the United States now has, by far, the most unequal
distribution of income and wealth of any major country on earth. Not
enough!
The very rich want more, more and more, and they are prepared to
dismantle the existing political and social order to get it. During the
last campaign, as a result of the (Republican) Supreme Court's Citizens
United decision, billionaires were able to pour hundreds of millions of
dollars of secret money into the campaign - helping to elect dozens of
members of Congress. Now, having made their investment, they want their
congressional employees to produce. Republicans in Congress, needless to
say, are all on board. The key question is whether a Democratic
president and a Democratic Senate go along to get along, or whether they
draw a clear line at protecting the interests of the middle class and
vulnerable populations of our country while tackling our economic and
budgetary problems in earnest.
ADD TO DEBT
In the next month, despite all their loud rhetoric about the "deficit
crisis," the Republicans want to add $700 billion to the national debt
over the next 10 years by extending Bush's tax breaks for the top 2
percent. Families who earn $1 million a year or more would receive, on
average, a tax break of $100,000 a year. The Republicans also want to
eliminate or significantly reduce the estate tax, which has existed
since 1916. Its elimination would add, over 10 years, about $1 trillion
to our national debt and all of the benefits would go to the top 0.3
percent. Over 99.7 percent of American families would not gain a nickel.
The Walton family of WalMart would receive an estimated tax break of
more than $30 billion by repealing the estate tax.
JUST THE START
That's just the start.
The billionaires and their supporters in Congress are hell-bent on
taking us back to the 1920s and eliminating all traces of social
legislation designed to protect working families, the elderly, children
and the disabled. No "social contract" for them. They want it all.
They want to privatize or dismantle Social Security, Medicare and
Medicaid and let the elderly, the sick and the poor fend for themselves.
They want to expand our disastrous trade policies so that corporations
can continue throwing American workers out on the street as they
outsource jobs to China and other low-wage countries. Some also want to
eliminate the minimum wage so that American workers can have the
"freedom" to work for $3 an hour.
They want to eliminate or cut severely the U.S. Department of Education,
making it harder for working class kids to get a decent education,
childcare or the help they need to go to college.
They want to rescind the very modest financial reform bill passed last
year so that the crooks on Wall Street can continue to engage in all of
the reckless behavior that has been so devastating to our economy.
They want to curtail the powers of the Environmental Protection Agency
and the Department of Energy so that Exxon-Mobil can remain the most
profitable corporation in world history, while oil and coal companies
continue to pollute our air and water.
They want to make sure that billionaire hedge fund managers pay a lower
federal tax rate than middle-class teachers, nurses, firefighters and
police officers by maintaining a loophole in the tax code known as
"carried interest."
We know what the billionaires and their Republicans supporters want.
They've been upfront about that. But what about the Democrats? Will
President Obama continue to reach out and "compromise" with people who
have made it abundantly clear that the only agreement they want is
unconditional surrender? Or, will he utilize the powerful skills that we
saw during his 2008 campaign for the White House and bring working
families, young people, the elderly and the poor together to fight
against these savage attacks on their well-being? Will the Democrats in
the Senate continue to pass tepid legislation, or will they use their
majority status to protect the interests of ordinary Americans and, for a
change, put the Republicans on the defensive?
The time is late. The stakes are extraordinary. While it is true that
the billionaires and their supporters are "fired up and ready to go,"
there is another more important truth. And that is that there are a lot
more of us than there are of them. Now is the time for us to stand
together, educate and organize. Now is the time to roll back this orgy
of greed.
