Obama's Legacy Could Be an America of Aristocrats and Peons, Shocking New Research Reveals

[cheapdate]

232. You barely address the main problem,

Last edited Sun Sep 15, 2013, 12:02 PM - Edit history (3)

which is globalization and the resulting elimination of entire US manufacturing industries and the depression of wages and conditions in the industries that remain.

I wholeheartedly support progressive measures to require wealthy individuals and corporations to pay a larger share into the public treasury. Capital gains and dividend income should be taxed as "ordinary" income. Wealthy individuals should be taxed at progressively higher rates. Massive, accumulated wealth should be taxed.

All of these revenue measures are needed to allow the government to make the investments in education, public health, research, and infrastructure that are necessary, but not sufficient, for a healthy and prosperous nation.

But nothing short of solutions more radical than what you've proposed are going to solve, for instance, the problem of what becomes of the hundreds of communities and the roughly 4 million workers in the former textile manufacturing region of GA, SC, and NC who lost their source of income when the entire industry left the country overnight in the 1980s and 1990s.

These manufacturing jobs, which had been the backbone of hundreds of small towns and communities for generations, left the US for lower wage, foreign countries. This same scenario has been repeated in other industries all across the country.

Everyone isn't going to get a college degree and become an engineer or a computer programmer. Our biggest problem is the loss of manufacturing jobs and there aren't any quick fixes.

Nancy Pelosi and the 111th Congress brought forward a number of legislative proposals to address this problem. Some were passed into law, and others failed to get through the Senate before the 111th Congress expired and the Democrat's ability to move legislation was severely weakened by losses in the House and the Senate.

The Buses, Rail Cars, Ferryboats: Make it in America Act of 2010 (H.R. 5791) for instance passed in the House, but didn't get through the Senate.

The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010 (H.R. 4213) was signed into law July 22, 2010.

The usual players -- the US Chamber of Commerce, the American Enterprise Institute, et. al -- fiercely opposed all of these measures and they used their resources effectively to vilify Democrats and take back the House in 2010.

I'd say that you're the one who doesn't "want to know what the answers are". You're satisfied with incremental half-measures that don't solve the real problems.