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ofthisandthat Commentary |
Copyright © 2010 ofthisandthat.org.
All rights reserved.
All rights reserved.
February 13, 2011
DISAPPEARING MIDDLE CLASS
by Bernie Sanders
Source: In These Times
There is a war going on in this country and I am not referring to the wars in
Iraq or Afghanistan. I am referring to the war waged by the wealthiest people
in America on the disappearing and shrinking middle class of our country.
The nation’s billionaires are on the warpath. They want more, more, more.
Their greed has no end and they are apparently unconcerned for the future
of this country if it gets in the way of their accumulation of power and wealth.
On the floor of the Senate, we discuss a lot of things. But one thing we fail to
talk about is who is winning in this economy and who is losing, and what that
means for parents struggling to survive while working longer hours with
lower wages, and worrying about whether their children will have the same
kind of standard of living they have.
Right now, the top 1 percent controls more than 23 percent of all income
earned in America. The top 1 percent controls more than the bottom 50
percent. It’s not only that the rich are getting richer. The very, very rich are
getting richer. In the last 25 years, we have seen 80 percent of all new
income going to the top 1 percent.
On top of all this, while the millionaires get richer and there are more and
more billionaires, as a result of the Citizens United decision, what we are
beginning to see in elections is unbelievable—a group of billionaires getting
together and deciding where they are going to spend their money.
Billionaires are going to flood states with all kinds of negative, dishonest ads
in an effort to defeat people defending the middle class and to elect people
who will stand up for right-wing billionaires.
The Republicans’ goal—and to their credit, they have been pretty honest
about it—is to bring this country back to where we were in the 1920s. All of
the progressive legislation that started with FDR is on the chopping block.
Despite the great successes of Social Security over the last 75 years,
despite the fact that Social Security today has a $2.6 trillion surplus, they are
targeting Social Security. They are targeting Medicare. In Arizona today,
people on Medicaid who need transplants are no longer able to get them—
that is a real death panel.
Right now, according to a number of studies, we are losing about $100 billion
every year because corporate America and the very wealthy are stashing
their money in tax havens like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. We should
be aware that in 2009, ExxonMobil made $19 billion in profits and not only did
the company not pay anything in taxes, it got a $106 million refund from the
IRS. We should also be aware that since 1997, we have almost tripled funding
for the military. So if we are serious about reducing the deficit, those are
things we need to look at—not at Social Security, not programs everyday
Americans need.
Our job now is to rally Americans to put pressure on a handful of
Republicans—to tell them, go into your hearts, talk to your constituents and
tell me if it is appropriate to hold hostage the future of this country for an
agenda that benefits only the very rich.
If we act, we can win this fight. It is crucial that we do, because if we don’t—if
they roll over us now—there is no stopping them. It is time we organize.
Your help is wanted.
DISAPPEARING MIDDLE CLASS
by Bernie Sanders
Source: In These Times
There is a war going on in this country and I am not referring to the wars in
Iraq or Afghanistan. I am referring to the war waged by the wealthiest people
in America on the disappearing and shrinking middle class of our country.
The nation’s billionaires are on the warpath. They want more, more, more.
Their greed has no end and they are apparently unconcerned for the future
of this country if it gets in the way of their accumulation of power and wealth.
On the floor of the Senate, we discuss a lot of things. But one thing we fail to
talk about is who is winning in this economy and who is losing, and what that
means for parents struggling to survive while working longer hours with
lower wages, and worrying about whether their children will have the same
kind of standard of living they have.
Right now, the top 1 percent controls more than 23 percent of all income
earned in America. The top 1 percent controls more than the bottom 50
percent. It’s not only that the rich are getting richer. The very, very rich are
getting richer. In the last 25 years, we have seen 80 percent of all new
income going to the top 1 percent.
On top of all this, while the millionaires get richer and there are more and
more billionaires, as a result of the Citizens United decision, what we are
beginning to see in elections is unbelievable—a group of billionaires getting
together and deciding where they are going to spend their money.
Billionaires are going to flood states with all kinds of negative, dishonest ads
in an effort to defeat people defending the middle class and to elect people
who will stand up for right-wing billionaires.
The Republicans’ goal—and to their credit, they have been pretty honest
about it—is to bring this country back to where we were in the 1920s. All of
the progressive legislation that started with FDR is on the chopping block.
Despite the great successes of Social Security over the last 75 years,
despite the fact that Social Security today has a $2.6 trillion surplus, they are
targeting Social Security. They are targeting Medicare. In Arizona today,
people on Medicaid who need transplants are no longer able to get them—
that is a real death panel.
Right now, according to a number of studies, we are losing about $100 billion
every year because corporate America and the very wealthy are stashing
their money in tax havens like the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. We should
be aware that in 2009, ExxonMobil made $19 billion in profits and not only did
the company not pay anything in taxes, it got a $106 million refund from the
IRS. We should also be aware that since 1997, we have almost tripled funding
for the military. So if we are serious about reducing the deficit, those are
things we need to look at—not at Social Security, not programs everyday
Americans need.
Our job now is to rally Americans to put pressure on a handful of
Republicans—to tell them, go into your hearts, talk to your constituents and
tell me if it is appropriate to hold hostage the future of this country for an
agenda that benefits only the very rich.
If we act, we can win this fight. It is crucial that we do, because if we don’t—if
they roll over us now—there is no stopping them. It is time we organize.
Your help is wanted.