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There are two Americas, or death, taxes and health care
4 September 2007No, I have not lost my senses. I do believe there are two Americas, to quote John Edwards.
“Today, under George W. Bush, there are two Americas, not one: One America that does the work, another that reaps the reward. One America that pays the taxes, another America that gets the tax breaks. One America - middle-class America - whose needs Washington has long forgotten, another America - narrow-interest America - whose every wish is Washington’s command. One America that is struggling to get by, another America that can buy anything it wants, even a Congress and a president.”
But Edwards IS part of the America that reaps the reward. He lives in a 28,000 sq ft house. And he got it by taking it away from other people.
The two Americas I see are the Governing and The Governed. And it didn’t happen under George the elder or the younger. It started to happen under Roosevelt the second, Franklin. Where government grew and expanded into areas of American social life hereto unseen. Was it needed? I don’t know, I am willing to concede it might have been, I do know it was hotly debated. But it started there.
One America that does the work, another that reaps the reward: If you don’t work you don’t pay taxes. The harder you work the more you earn, the more in taxes you pay, but you don’t receive more in Government help. You don’t need it, after all you are working, hard.
One America that pays the taxes: That would be you and me, the upper middle and upper classes that pay the taxes.
Another that reaps the reward: That would be the 24% of us that pay NO income tax. And that would be the Government which accounts for ~ 33% of us.
From the Tax Foundation:
Overall, we find that America’s lowest-earning one-fifth of households received roughly $8.21 in government spending for each dollar of taxes paid in 2004. Households with middle-incomes received $1.30 per tax dollar, and America’s highest-earning households received $0.41. Government spending targeted at the lowest-earning 60 percent of U.S. households is larger than what they paid in federal, state and local taxes. In 2004, between $1.03 trillion and $1.53 trillion was redistributed downward from the two highest income quintiles to the three lowest income quintiles through government taxes and spending policy.
That paragraph is from the Tax Foundation’s study “Who Pays Taxes and Who Receives Government Spending? An Analysis of Federal, State and Local Tax and Spending Distributions, 1991-2004″
Pretty much says it all. “In 2004, between $1.03 trillion and $1.53 trillion was redistributed downward from the two highest income quintiles to the three lowest income quintiles through government taxes and spending policy.”
That is a huge transfer of wealth. Think about it, a huge transfer from those who have demonstrated the ability to have success to those who have demonstrated the ability to be un-successful. In what is clearly a dis-incentive to those who are successful.
One America - middle-class America - whose needs Washington has long forgotten, another America - narrow-interest America - whose every wish is Washington’s command.
I agree with that also. The list of lobbyists in Washington has grown to more than 34,750. That is a higher concentration than real estate agents in the Farmington Valley!
Are the lobbyists just a good cross section of America? And are they truly representative of what America wants? I doubt it. The rise of the Super Special Interest Group and their lobbyists can not be good for America. Those that will lobby the hardest will be those that have to most to gain/profit. It is an investment you see. A last minute addition to a spending bill calling out special “rules” for a specific industry rarely increases the prosperity of the Nation. A level playing field is what we need. But rarely get, witness the insane subsidies to the Corn Lobby. If you want a real puzzle take a look at the sugar subsidy.
Of all the candidates I think Edwards is the most dangerous. His form of populism is crassly calculated to appeal to class division and ultimately bring him to power.
Populism (from wikipedia): “an ideology which pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous ‘others’ who are together depicted as depriving (or attempting to deprive) the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity and voice”
Why do I keep thinking Hilter when I read that definition? Why do I think of Castro and Chavez? Unlike them, Edwards probably does not have the courage of his convictions, if Edwards has any convictions outside of himself. Edwards is a lawyer and he is using any tactic he can find to gain traction for his client, himself. Hilter was not a populist in action, but a case can be made he used populist jargon and saw, “two Germanys”.
Mrs Edwards said, “Problem with John is we can not make him into a woman or a black”. She is right, what an asute and cynical statement. She may be the smarter of the two. This might be a Bill/Hillary couple. Behind that statement is the acknowledement that Mr and Mrs Edwards will do anything to get power, reaching down to any new low.
Edward’s selected tool, populism starts down starts a dangerous and well trod road. It is the road to serfdom.
Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.
Required as in MANDATORY. Mandatory as in you have to go to the Doctor, it would be required by the law. And what if I don’t go to the doctor? Will I be arrested? Will I be handcuffed and bought in for a checkup, handcuffed to the exam table?
“The whole idea is a continuum of care, basically from birth to death,” he said
Death, taxes and now health care?
This is naked power grab. I worry that in Edward’s grab for power he just might tap in to a vein or raw nerve in American society, unwittingly of course, that leads to no good and as a man without convictions, he’d ride it to the end.
Class warfare is an ugly, raw, drag us all down to the lowest level form of politics. Suitable for the Chavez’s of the world.
Of them all, he is to be feared the most.
How about a cartoon? The Road to Serfdom
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