AS WE TUNE IN TO THE DRAMA IN WASHINGTON, we are transfixed by the anguish of John Boehner, who has failed once again to persuade President Obama that without his cooperation in obliterating the Affordable Care Act, those tea partiers will have poor John for lunch. Given the years Boehner has selflessly devoted to achieving the speakership —and those accompanying precious golf tours to exotic hideways — one can only feel a deep sense of humane concern. His tears tug at the hearts of the compassionate.
And so it goes amid the impasse in Washington, D.C., where nothing is as it seems.
It is fascinating to read the reports of public reaction to the government shutdown and the budget impasse. “Why the hell can’t you ….s in Washington get your s… together” is the general reaction. However, with the GOP tearing up over the inability of folks to visit the World War II memorial and the hard-heartedness of Democrats and the president in blocking Republicans from freeing up funds for creating those tiny oases of togetherness, one cannot help but be touched by the reach of conservative compassion. On the other hand, weeping over the plight of the millions of jobless, aged, homeless, etc., etc, ad infinitum, is clearly a waste of bodily fluids. The amounts required for surcease of their sorrows are clearly an unreasonable drain on the public purse; and, for the GOP, blocking such waste is the central point of the budgetary exercise.
For a penetrating summary of the central issues involved, I quote again one of my favorite analysts, Tea Party Cat:
“What Would Jesus Do? He’d cut food stamps obviously, which is why America’s only Christian party, the GOP, slashed food stamps by $40 billion.
“The bill is expected to deny 3.8 milion people food stamps, but as Majority Leader Eric Cantor explains, this will allow them all to get jobs. Somehow.
“Most people don’t choose to be on food stamps. Most people want a job, but because the government is giving them so much food — nearly $4.50 per day! — they’re just too busy eating and miss out on all the good jobs.”
While I believe Tea Party Cat manages to capture the essence of the situation, I thought it might also be interesting to compare a couple studies that could seal the deal and, along the way, possibly help us to better understand GOP economics.
First, I note the following from a study reported by RawStory on Aug. 16, 2009, “Concentration of Wealth in Hands of Rich Greatest on Record”:
“The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans now have a larger share of total income than they ever have in records going back nearly a century — an even larger amount than during the Roaring Twenties, the last time the U.S. saw such similar disparities in wealth.
“In recent years, the fact that differences between rich and poor are the greatest they’ve been since the Great Depression has become a popular talking point among liberal-leaning economists.
“But an updated study from University of California-Berkeley economist Emanuel Saez shows that, in 2007, the wealth disparity grew to its highest number on record, based on U.S. tax data going back to 1917.
“The contrast is even starker for the super-rich. The top 0.01 percent of earners in the U.S. are now taking home 6 percent of all the income, higher than the 1920s peak of 5 percent, and a whopping six-fold increase since the start of the Reagan administration, when the top 0.01 percent earned 1 percent of all the income.”
Wow!!! If only that could have continued, it would be nirvana for protectors of the “job creators.” But of course, the Democrats and Obama brought in socialism, wealth redistribution, feed-the-poor-and-starve-the-rich, and the whole beautiful arrangement blew up! Which we can understand more clearly with the help of Pew Research and their 2013 study report, “An Uneven Recovery, 2009-2011,” by Richard Fry and Paul Taylor. To wit:
“During the first two years of the nation’s economic recovery, the mean net worth of households in the upper 7 percent of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28 percent, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93 percent dropped by 4 percent, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly released Census Bureau data.
“From 2009 to 2011, the mean wealth of the 8 million households in the more affluent group rose to an estimated $3,173,895 from an estimated $2,476,244, while the mean wealth of the 111 million households in the less affluent group fell to an estimated $133,817 from an estimated $139,896.”
(So let’s see. The wealthy in 2009 had reached levels never before seen, and this zoomed up another 28 percent? And I guess this was after Obama did his scorched-earth massacre of those job creators?)
“From the end of the recession in 2009 through 2011 (the last year for which Census Bureau wealth data are available), the 8 million households in the U.S. with a net worth above $836,033 saw their aggregate wealth rise by an estimated $5.6 trillion, while the 111 million households with a net worth at or below that level saw their aggregate wealth decline by an estimated $0.6 trillion.”
Big number always did make me dizzy. But I guess it’s all summed up by that old Depression song, which ends, “and the rich get rich and the poor get poorer, ain’t we got fun.”
Sorry to have crushed your hopes. I really thought it would work out better. On the other hand, those of you with wealthy friends or, even better, relatives can look forward to some lovely evenings on their dime.
And perhaps you missed that jagged rock of reality in this report. Taylor’s battered group below the favored included folks with net worth up to $836,000! Left for inquiring minds to explore was the harsh reality of the fate of folks without savings, sans home ownership and with day-to-day wages that had flatlined, or even lowered — or been cut off. Compared to these, those folks on the upper or middle tiers of this unfavored 93 percent are maybe not in quite the same degree of pain. And the numbers in those lower tiers are very, very large indeed.
Meanwhile, alongside the main event but certainly tightly connected to the subject of the political power of wealth in our society, we have that exciting prospect of the Supreme Court very likely deciding to loosen the strings further on campaign finance! With one more stroke, Citizens United Plus, further freeing up billionaires to push all the chips they wish into the game, we may well be privileged to enjoy that new day aborning — that time when elections become more a sport for spectators than participants. With bets to be placed on which candidates have collared the largest campaign pot, the greatest and most compelling personalized mailers, electronic billboards, savvy campaign staff and most compelling and endlessly circulated testimonials, those of us on the sidelines can at least fashion some kind of role. Actual voting may continue, of course, but we already know something of the relationship of overwhelming funds, their impacts on election results in our electronic age and, of course, upon subsequent legislation! What a tribute to the genius of Antonin Scalia!
Jerome Page is a Benicia resident.
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Thank you, Jerome, it’s always a pleasure to read your take on the state of our species. “Les Miserables” is upon us, and with it, my unfortunate summary that “The French Revolution wasn’t all bad.” The US Spring is upon us, even though it’s Fall, we nearly all have computers, smart phones, and/or toxic mortgages, so what are we gonna do about it? I for one have no respect for the sad clowns of Congress, I have more respect for feral cats…I sent $20 off today to MoveOn.org, as a donation to sustain their political activism. It’s a start. I refuse to succumb to the Mediocrity that is becoming America. Good luck to all of us. My Facebook page is ripe with further disgust with our useless leaders in Congress. I hope the elections in 2014 and 2016 clean house of the useless, dull, and the greedy. As Edward R. Murrow summarized so eloquently decades ago,”Good Night, America, and Good Luck.” Peter Bray, Benicia, CA
Yep. Mr. Page, thanks for accuracy in the Forum which we cannot get from the likes of Pugh, Lund or Livesay and their admiring hangers-on. These minions of the Koch brothers, who have their heads screwed on backwards upside-down, have nothing for us but accumulating increments of destruction. Self-convinced of absolute rightness, they are less well-motivated than the Pied Piper who led Hamelin’s children into the hollow mountain never to come home again. The Piper had, at least, been betrayed and stiffed of pay by the “good folks” of the hamlet after he had fulfilled his contract to get rid of all the rodents. These agents of the Koch boys, witting or unwitting, sympathizers or bought-out, are moved only by selfish, invidious malice toward anyone not participating in their Cloud Cuckoo Land of megalomaniacal dreams.
Thank you so much for speaking the truth, Jerome.
I’m thinking that Republicans and Tea Party Cat have never been in need, right?
Are these the people who walk by those in need because they don’t know how need feels?
Or, are these just sheep, who blindly follow Bachman, Cruz, Cantor and Boehner, because they don’t have a grasp of the issues?
I think in due time, all the lemmings will fall over the cliff, after their leaders and we will all be the better for it!
Judy Goldsmith
Just what the issues Judy?
I will ADFMITSorry, should be just what are the issues Judy? There is no question the Republicans are taking a big hit. But at the same time the President and the Dem controlled Senate will not budge amd are also taking a hit which combined is a bigger hit than the Republicans. That statement will get some comments. So Judy why are they not more to blame than the Republicans? Is it because you are a Liberal? The big issue is Liberal against Conservative. Both party’s have divided groups but the Conservatives are getting hit harder on that than the Dems who are for sure also divided. Between Moderate and left leaning Liberals.
Sorry for typos.
Hmmmm….polling shows Republican popularity at an all-time low, and increased popularity for both Obama and Obamacare. But you…the master at interpreting polls (see: President Romney) suggest the current shutdown is hitting Dems more negatively than rethugs. Yeah, run with that. Oh, and Dems are divided? Really? Care to provide an example?
Not to worry, Livesay makes up facts in a vat in his own back yard…place your order, watch out for the recycling of old jam jar labels and broken ideas…pb
Start reading what I say Peter.
I use the sdame examples as you do.
Read what I say mot what you want it to say. Romney is over. President Obama will be gone and we will have a new subject to talk about in the next three years. As I said below I use the same examples as you do. Read them differently. There has not been a 2014 election as yet. So do not count your votes yet. Manipulated numbers does not give the House to Dems. It lost big time in the last two elections. You do not control the States anymore with Dem gerrymandering. Try Texas a few years back. The Dems are still choking on that andf will for a long time. Turn the tables on the Dems and they go crazy with all kinds of attacks. Like religion, Racist, anti poor and many others. For some reason those tactics do not work Benician. It is not as bad for Republicans as the Dems say or for that matter as you say Benician. Still control the house, most state houses and the govs. Now what is your solution to that. More negative attacks on people like me and many others. It does work here in California and Benicia. I can take the heat and will come back if necessary to fight fire with fire. I would rather not and just let the Liberals destroy themselves.
From the above article:
“AS WE TUNE IN TO THE DRAMA IN WASHINGTON”,…”where nothing is as it seems.”
Another scholarly viewpoint depicting the scene in Washington D.C. for the community to consider…
A key excerpt from the article below:
“Therefore barring some new and very unlikely ‘statesmanship’ on the part of the Republican leadership – or, more likely, some capitulation on Obama’s part — the Tea Party is on the brink of leading the U.S. government into default, with consequences for world capitalism that are only barely imaginable.
Of course, Obama could always invoke his 14th Amendment authority to insure that the United States honors its debts.
But he has said that he will not, that it would be a legally dubious move that would lead to endless court battles, driving down confidence in the US economy.
He could have done this in 2011 too; and didn’t. There is no reason to think him any more “audacious” now.
How odd that we have a President who feels free to wield drones and assassins overseas with only the flimsiest imaginable authorization, but who resists his Constitutional obligation not to maintain the good faith and credit of the American government!”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/10/11/what-obama-has-wrought/
Beyond the Tea Party Cat
The Privatization of the American State?
A much deeper-troubling analysis of our present “budget impasse and government shutdown” for Mr. Page and the community to consider…
The fiscal ceiling having now been reached, possibly with a deadline, the government is being pressured by its Wall Street handlers –who control decision-making in the US Congress– to curtail and downsize social programs as well as initiate the transfer of public assets and institutions into the hands of private corporations. There is also a movement to cut as well as privatize Social Security and Medicare.
The privatization of public monuments, museums, national parks, the post office, etc. has been raised in recent media reports as a possible “solution” to the debt crisis. But let us not be misled: the process of acquisition of federal public property including infrastructure and State institutions is likely to go much further.
The public sector is up for grabs. Wall Street will eventually go on a buying spree picking up State owned assets at `rock bottom prices.
Ironically, the money transferred by the US government to Wall Street under the bailouts in 2008-2009 can now be used by Wall Street to buy out state property and assets. What this means is that the federal government not only finances its own indebtedness, it is also financing the privatization program (at tax payers expense), leading to the demise of federal government programs.
This process of privatization of the State is nothing new, it has been applied in developing countries under the helm of the IMF whereby state corporations are auctioned off and transferred into the hands of foreign corporations. It has also been applied in Eastern Europe as well more recently in several countries of the European Union.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-shutdown-of-the-u-s-government-and-debt-default-a-dress-rehearsal-for-the-privatization-of-the-federal-state-system/5354066
Economic news you can use…
From the above article:
‘AS WE TUNE IN TO THE DRAMA IN WASHINGTON,”..”It is fascinating to read the reports of public reaction to the government shutdown and the budget impasse.”
A key excerpt from the article below for the community to contemplate:
On Monday, October 14, the real bargaining and ‘end-game’ to the current crisis began. Obama held closed door meetings with Boehner and Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, and with Senate-House Democrat leaders, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Now the real deal details and terms will be hammered out. It will, this writer predicts, result in more spending cuts, especially social security, medicare and Medicaid, as well as an understanding and consensus to cut corporate taxes when the tax code overhaul bill comes to votes in Congress and for Obama’s signature.
One should not forget that Obama has been, and continues to be, a strong advocate of cutting the corporate tax rate from 35% to 28% and providing ‘relief’ for multinational corporations’ tax rates. Obama has also already indicated cuts of $630 billion in social security and medicare in his 2014 budget. This is the starting point for the ‘original process’ negotiations that have been temporarily derailed by Teapublican grandstanding, now coming to an end.
http://www.zcommunications.org/the-coming-debt-ceiling-settlement-the-well-orchestrated-dance-2-0-by-jack-rasmus.html
The repressive authoritarian state–
“As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air–however slight– lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.”
–Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
From the above article: (Paraphrasing) Is a new day aborning?
From the article below a key passage (there are many) for the community to ponder…
“What is new is that these various fundamentalist registers and ideological movements have produced a coalition, a totality that speaks to a new historical conjuncture, one that has ominous authoritarian overtones for the present and future. There is no talk among the new extremists of imposing only an
extreme Christian religious orthodoxy on the American people or simply restoring a racial state; or for that matter is there a singular call for primarily controlling the economy. The new counter-revolutionaries and apostles of the Second Gilded age are more interested in imposing a mode of authoritarianism that contains all of these elements in the interest of governing the whole of social life. This suggests a historical conjuncture in which a number of anti-democratic forces come together to “fuse and form a kind of configuration” – a coming together of diverse political and ideological formations into a new totality. The partial government shutdown is a precondition and test run for a full coup d’état by the social formations driving this totality. ”
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19428-the-ghost-of-authoritarianism-in-the-age-of-the-shutdown
Usual Liberal Socialist wanting a handout.
From the piece:for the GOP, blocking such waste (various forms of welfare) is the central point of the budgetary exercise.
Previously I asked the author to cite a source where the GOP has either proposed a Bill or a committed in a budget platform to eliminate welfare in any of it various formations.
The question remains unanswered.
He doesn’t answer to you. A fly might be asking me a question, too.
From the piece:Given the years Boehner has selflessly devoted to achieving the speakership —and those accompanying precious golf tours to exotic hideways
June 17, 2011
Obama vs. Boehner: Tee-Off Time
By HELENE COOPER
Mr. Obama’s golf game is characterized by long, slow rounds, with a lot of time hunting for balls in the woods. The president, say people who have golfed with him, is meticulous, studied and determined to improve his game through practice, practice and more practice. He has lodged more than 70 rounds of golf since taking office, most of them at the golf course at Andrews Air Force Base
It certainly takes a lot of chutzpah to criticize Boehner regarding his time spent on the golf course while ignoring the amount of time spent by 0bama on his 146 rounds of golf since becoming president (about 3 times a month).
The criticism lies not in the word golf but in the words exotic hideaways. Sorry you wasted your time hunting down the wrong story.
Hank; The difference is who is paying for it. Boehner pays with his own money or campaign funds {permitted under election laws} taxpayers are paying for President Obama and his golf rounds at exotic places.
Great article, you called it for the sad reality that it unforynately is. The “Fat Cats” can obfuscate the truth all day long with their Reaganite cliches of “Trickle Down Economics”, “Taxing the rich destroys jobs”, Welfare momas driving Cadillacs”, but these are nothing more than propagandized tales that they draw in from the Middle Class to vote for these stingy, greedy, rapacious puppets who are whores to the elites. At the end th day its not neccessarily the uber rich or the prostituting politicians, but the rather ignorant and apatheic “John Q Public” who lets themselves be drawn into this vapid “Poppycock”. A rich Republican would rather hang out with a wealthy Democrat, rather then spend time with a foolish ignorant “Bible Thumping” working class Republican who thinks he will be a milionaire some day.
Some actual journalism, and not shrill leftist pap, for the community to consider:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/harold-meyerson-a-tea-party-purge-among-the-gop/2013/10/15/727ef4e8-35a8-11e3-8a0e-4e2cf80831fc_story.html