Keywords or terms: Debt Ceiling; Stalemate; Tax Payers and
Cheats; Rich and Poor; Josh Voorhees; Robert Murdoch; Conservative; Liberal;
Internal Revenue Service; Aggressive Accounting practices; Supply-side
Economics; Congressional Lawmakers; The Presidency
It is time to tell it as it is. It is time to disseminate
the truth about America’s
budget deficit. It is time to call a spade a spade. It is time to remind the Republicans, most of whom are fat cats, that they have been raiding the coffers
of the nation and raping the hell out of the finances of this country. It is
time to remind Republicans and Democrats that unless there is actual tax
reform, where the rich are made to pay just as much as they should and the poor
and middle class are treated like fair tax payers, this ongoing debt ceiling stalemate,
whether it is out of Republicans grand standing or the Presidency’s right to
hold its grounds against assault on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,
Students loans and more, is hardly impressing many of us; and if things are not appropriately handled by our lawmakers, we may be reaching a threshold of
class war in the country. As a matter of conscience, if President Obama has not
held his ground on his party’s position of raising the debt ceiling with
increased revenue, he would have failed in his duty as the President of this
nation. The Republican recalcitrance at this time, is hardly impressive, as a matter of fact, they, the Republican leadership in congress, have lost credibility.
For those who say, I am an alarmist and should temper my
assessment with some civility, here are five good examples of why I finally
said enough is enough:
1) Under
President G. W. Bush, the nation’s debt ceiling was raised nineteen times, most
of the time the money was going to fight wars that no one in government can actually
tell Americans with a straight face, is in our national interest;
2) Many
rich corporations continue to use deceptive accounting practices, sometimes
referred to as aggressive accounting, to escape taxation and actually reap
profit from government coffers to the tune of billions, without anyone in
government, including Internal Revenue Services, blinking an eye-lid, simply because it is within the provisions of the tax code;
3) If
Josh Voorhees is to be believed, Robert Murdoch, an Australian American, whose
aboard is in Australia, an American only in name because of his investments,
has over the past four years, received a tax return from the IRS (the US
government) to the tune of about $4.8 billion, when in fact, his media
conglomerate should have paid corporate taxes at the rate of 35 percent for a
value of $3.6 billion, then someone has to help me understand the grounds of
the Tea Party faction in the Republican Party asking their leaders to soldier
on against the Presidency on tax revenue;
4) President
Obama’s deal of cutting $4 trillion over ten years, including a swap of
increased tax revenue for cuts to entitlement programs for middle class, the
poor and the elderly, which are clothed in the name of Social Security,
Medicare, Medicaid and Student loan’s payout, at a glance, must be very heart
rendering, considering that the rich are already carting away the whole house,
through quote and unquote, aggressive accounting practices;
5) Since
an agreement has not being reached between congress and the Whitehouse
regarding the lifting of the debt ceiling, Senate Minority leader Mitch
McConnell has proposed a fall-back plan that tears up the United States
Constitution by asking the US President to usurp what is rightly the rights and
power of the congress in order to satisfy Republican's narrow interest of protecting the
rich, including corporations as the News Corp, at all cost.
Again, the stalemate in increasing the debt ceiling has
raised some very disappointing proposal from Republican leaders in both
chambers of congress. Contrarily, we have heard from lucid minded Republicans,
who have often shown some steel in their protection of Republican ideology, that
voting against raising the debt ceiling, threatens the fiscal solvency of America.
Further, we learned from the conservative Republican Columnist George Will,
early in January of this year on the ABC’s This Week that, there is hardly a developed nation that
has a debt ceiling and the thought of voting against raising the debt ceiling,
is not only troubling for America’s sovereign debts and the market, but may be
considered politically suicidal. Despite all these affirmation, it seems as of tonight,
nothing has moved the needle from where we were about two weeks ago on raising the debt ceiling, with Republican lawmakers holding the nation to a ransome.
Listening tonight to President Obama’s interview with Scot
Pelley on CBS evening news, accepting the fact that not only social security
checks that wouldn’t be going out come August 3, 2011, if an agreement is not
reached on the impasse, but that veterans and men in uniforms may not receive
their checks, make one wonder, what nation do Republican Leaders consider the
United State: a place where a lawmaker can refuse to work in the interest of
many at the expense of a few rich, 5% of the few holding down on 80% of the
wealth of the nation. Now, you see why many Americans are hardly thrilled about
the impasses on the issue of raising the debt ceiling and my assessment that we
may end up in a class war? How about listening to the fact that due to many
loop holes in the tax laws, the rich corporations and people have just been
raping the nation through evasion of taxes? How about the notion of rich
corporations powering through the lapses in our laws as they move jobs overseas
and keep many Americans at the mercy of a free-market system that ends up bailing
the rich out under the pretext that their corporations are too big to fail? Do
you want me to continue my lamentation over off-shore banking, where many
corporate losses are redirected to America,
while their profits are moved elsewhere to buy new foreign corporations and
investments, while America’s
tax payers pick up the tab over poor business decisions of the rich?
The rich can make a positive impact on the nation’s deficit,
if they pay taxes at the ratio of pre-1970 level. They can make an impact on
the reduction of our budget deficits, if they stop being tax cheats and
actually pay commensurate taxes just like the middle and poor classes. A mind
set shift is required among the Republican Party members, that the trickle down
theology of the Reagan’s years, tagged Supply-Side Economics, is an absolute
failure and aberration of psychological behavior of the rich. The Tea Party
members among Republicans ought to come to the debate table with sincere
inquiries on why there is so much loss of jobs during Republican years in
administration of the White House. There are many opportunities for
conversations over why America
goes into foreign wars that costs a million dollar a second, while fifteen
million Americans are out of work and about four million are set to loose roofs
over their heads in the coming months. If Republican leaders can help the Tea
Party group among them tone down the negativity in their opinions that easily
shuts down debates over how we can better our economy, improve government
revenue base and take care of our health and grand parents, maybe we will be on
the way to truce and not anarchy? If we can help Republicans appreciate that
people complain about what they care about, perhaps they will listen a bit
deeper and a bit longer over why it is insanity to let the nation go into
default on its debts.
The most important thing any lawmaker can do right now is to
help America understand what is going on in our congress, why it seems, we can
never be in agreement over issues that affect all of us. Whining and hauling,
making inflammatory statements like: 1) Obama administration are relying on
budget gimmicks to give the appearance of serious belt-tightening; 2) After years of discussions and months of
negotiations, I have little question that as long as this president is in the
Oval Office, solution is unattainable; are hardly statesman like nor
encouraging to the nation. Americans want to understand their lawmakers, want
to know the essence of the impasses over raising the debt ceiling and will be
more prepared to deal with the short-coming of a recession, if issues that
affect national finances and jobs creation are dealt with transparently by both chambers of congress.
With the right mindset, opening up debates to the whole
nation, including what must be done to close the tax loop holes that allow many
corporations and people to evade taxes, Americans who are mostly at the
receiving end of infighting among lawmakers in congress will be able to breathe
easier, stay mellow and overcome the challenges of long waits for placement in
a job. The whining you see among many in America
today comes out of frustration with congress, why it is not making the right
choices to create opportunities for Americans in America and why the conversations
regarding issues that affect them are often trivialized on the bases of
ideology. A retired old man or woman is hardly interested in ideology fights,
but in their sustenance; knowing that their fixed social security income will
be able to carry them over to the next check; knowing that if they fall sick,
they will be able to see their doctor; and, knowing that the nation still cares
about them, after giving all their productive years to serve the nation and the
budding youths; most of whom are now in positions of authority and clamoring to
cut the old people’s benefit programs, because they happen to be in the
position of lawmaking in congress.
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