The ‘Repo-Demo’ Party’s Three Phase Austerity Plan for America

[Better Believe It]

The ‘Repo-Demo’ Party’s Three Phase Austerity Plan for America
By Jack Rasmus
December 21, 2010

.... the Bush tax cut extension just passed by a political elite increasingly united on economic policy—a ‘Repo-Demo’ Party dominated by corporate interests—is only the first of three phases in a new policy offensive designed to protect the incomes of the wealthy and corporate America for another decade, to be paid for directly by middle- and working-class America. Together, the three phases represent the emerging U.S. variant of a general austerity strategy, similar in objective but different in content to other austerity programs now emerging as well in the Eurozone, Japan and elsewhere.

Phase two: draconian spending cuts

The second phase will likely be implemented in the next three months, before the ceiling on the federal debt has to be lifted. It will take the form of massive spending cuts in the U.S. budget, targeting Social Security and Medicare in particular. (A parallel draconian slash in spending will occur at the state level, targeting Medicaid and education).

.... implementing the pending payroll tax cuts—part of Phase One—will finally put Social Security in the red, creating for the first time the net annual losses conservatives and corporate America have always needed to push a major gutting of the program. The payroll tax cut is thus the first move in what will prove a general attack on social security that will gain momentum in the coming months. Reagan conservatives have argued it would first be necessary to ‘starve the beast’ in order to dismantle it. For the first time, that scenario will exist.

Phase three: revising tax code to help the wealthy

As part of this general revision, the Bush tax cuts will likely be made permanent for the rest of the decade to come. In addition, personal income tax brackets for the wealthiest households will be reduced to no more than three, possibly two, with a top rate for the wealthy or no more than 28%, representing a return to Reagan years.

To pay for the tax code rewrite and even more concessions to wealthy households, investors and corporations, the middle class will pay more. Adjustments to the Alternative Minimum Tax, AMT, for the middle class will be phased out. And the mortgage interest tax credit will be eliminated in stages as well.

Read the full article at:

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6792/the_repo-demo_partys_three_phase_austerity_plan_for_america/

[Angry Dragon]

1. When the income tax first come about it was to tax the wealthy

lets go back to that time if they want to go back and get the country back

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. kick

[pa28]

3. k&r

[socialist_n_TN]

4. This deserves a kick. GREAT article........

When does it become a class war? WHEN WE START FIGHTING BACK! That ain't happened yet.

[girl gone mad]

5. Obama's tax compromise sealed the deal.

We are on the road to austerity. Life is about to get a lot rougher for tens of millions of Americans.

[socialist_n_TN]

6. Bump.

I REALLY like this article.