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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPoliticians are afraid to ask people to sacrifice
From the White House to the Senate to the Congress, all we hear is talk. They keep saying we have to do something about the unemployment and the huge deficits. But nobody has the courage to do it.
Nobody has the courage to say that we should repeal the entire Bush taxcuts. The middle class and those making under $250,000 shouldn't have to sacrifice, they say.
Secretaries shouldn't pay a higher tax rate than their wealthy employers, they say. Yet, no one says that we should raise the top tax rate to 50% until we get the deficits under control.
No one connects the tax rates to the unemployment rate, even though incentives could be built into the tax codes that would favor employing more people.
Nobody suggests that we tear down the war machine that has been built up for the last 15 years. Why shouldn't we return to the early Clinton, post-Cold War defense budgets?
If we are in such a dire condition as the politicians say, why are we afraid to ask people to sacrifice?
Why are we afraid to repeal the Bush taxcuts on average working people? Are we fearful of creating tensions between workers and employers for higher wages to compensate for the loss in income due to repeal of the Bush taxcuts?
I don't see any politician that is exempt from this cowardice.
.
Autumn
(44,962 posts)people sacrifice.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Tell that to all the dead soldiers that came home from Iraq.
kentuck
(111,049 posts)They don't even ask the people to pay for the wars.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Something that will never be pointed out and rewritten as...'Saddam was a threat...WMD blah blah'...in the GOP history books.
kentuck
(111,049 posts)but true.
and one that will be forgotten.
kentuck
(111,049 posts)Food stamp recipients, ie...
This is one area where I am critical of Barack Obama.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)dkf
(37,305 posts)MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)They're totally down with asking me for some of my future Social Security, to pay for tax cuts for the 1%.
kentuck
(111,049 posts)...they have convinced enough people that they mean nothing to the SS fund - it will be paid back from the "general revenues". No need to worry...
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Besides this, both parties want to slash benefits to future recipients.
kentuck
(111,049 posts)It is a battle over less government vs present government. Republicans are on a warpath to cut every facet of government and send it back to state or local authorities. And they are passionate about their cause. Many Democrats do not have the stomach for such a fight.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)kentuck
(111,049 posts)thereby keeping the status quo and sliding deeper and deeper into the hole. They prefer political rhetoric over action.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)yourout
(7,524 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)I believe it is more the employees scared to ask their boss for a raise type thing.
Marr
(20,317 posts)just about any foreign land that happens to be floating on oil-- or anything else that might be profitable for their employers. They're fine with helping big business send your job overseas, telling you to put up with unreasonable searches, spying, and they'll codify the theft of your retirement at the drop of a hat.
They don't even trouble to *ask* regular people to sacrifice-- they just take it. That 1%, however... that's a very different story.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)saras
(6,670 posts)A reasonable sacrifice would be that the 1%, corporate or individual, sacrifice any income and possessions above, say, 100 times the wealth of the poorest Americans. Is that the one they're afraid to ask for?
Initech
(100,027 posts)Not us. Its time this shit stopped - when you can build a car elevator in your sixth house that has it's own lobbyist - you're the one who needs to make sacrifices.
libinnyandia
(1,374 posts)have a clue about how high taxes were on the wealthy not that many decades ago. They don't know that the high taxes did not hurt the creation of jobs.