Responsibility?

Once again the cons prove their personal responsibility line is not worth the paper it is printed on.

Part of the con propaganda is that they stand for personal responsibility versus liberal's reliance on governmental regulation. The individual and their integrity is all that is needed in our country, they yell. We don't need government telling us what to do, or holding us back with worthless regulations and laws.

Of course, this is meant to always decrease governmental laws and regulations that are necessary because of the greed of most people; witness B.P. and the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. We have seen an economic train wreck in 2008 because of the housing bubble and Wall Street speculation orgy that cost millions of us billions of dollars. Some estimate that 1/3 of the wealth of United States citizens was lost! Certainly the middle class was decimated by loss of investments, homes and jobs. All this because "individual responsibility" is better than government legislation. Just "trust us" is what we hear from the Cons.

Trust us for Iraq? Trust us for TARP? Trust us?????

Ronald Reagan of course was famous for a variety of homilies that decried government and law. His most famous said the "worst words in the English language" were, "I am from the U.S. Government and I am here to help".

I suppose the victims of the concentration camps, who greeted American G.I.s now say that the worst words in the English language were the above!

Now, Meg "Whitless", and several other Republican candidates, as usual, we find have personal responsibility "issues". And true to form, these candidates are blaming everyone but themselves. Some "personal responsibility"!!!!

Meg Whitman, I prefer Witless, would have us believe that an illegal worked for her for nine years, warning letters were sent that her husband even verified in writing, but "I never knew". She did "know" in time to fire the illegal when she "knew" when she was preparing to run for governor. And, she fired the "illegal" when the lady came to Witless (heartless) asking for help to become a "legal". Nice!

Of course, all this is "in dispute" because Witless has been denying it vehemently. And, as usual, her denials strain credibility. The word "credibility" by the way, for any cons reading this, means having integrity in our words and deeds to the point that you can be trusted.

Trusted? Yes trusted to run a state that has one of the largest economies in the world. Meanwhile, Witless uses her Ebay C.E.O. experience as a qualification of credibility as a governor. The same Witless who dodged state taxes, was accused by the S.E.C. and paid subsequent fines and was generally what passes for a "success" in American business.

The same "success" that is being played out in today's economy that has raped the middle class, bankrupted millions, made millions homeless, while paying C.E.O.s record salaries.

Is California actually going to elect a C.E.O. governor when C.E.O.s have been cheating us all out of our money, taking bailouts from government as "too big to fail" while continuing the same corrupt behaviors that have resulted in a host of convictions of everything from fraud to worse?

Are you kidding me?

An aside: Did you know that thousands of millionaires took unemployment benefits last year? That's right, people who made over a million dollars in 2009 were laid off and had the gall to apply for unemployment benefits!

This happened at the same time as cons in the Congress attempted to limit unemployment extensions for millions.

The cons have even started to attack unemployment insurance as an "entitlement" program (it is no such thing) that is somehow discouraging people from looking for work. They also are attacking Social Security and Medicare as "entitlements".

This is a lie! These programs are funded by our contributions. They are NOT entitlements like welfare, not even close. We pay for them over our working lifetimes. And, Social Security is NOT in funding trouble. In fact, it can pay its obligations with no changes for at least another twenty five years. This is remarkable considering that the "baby boomers" are now retiring in record numbers. What to do to continue its solvency? Raise payroll taxes, raise taxes on the rich (who hardly pay anything proportionally for their social security and Medicare).

It is interesting that I know several "rich retired" folks. None of them have refused to accept their social security or Medicare. And, judging from the information given above, none of them pass on unemployment insurance either. How interesting is this, that people who don't need the insurance, because they are wealthy, still take it! Why, you may ask: the answer everytime I ask is, "I worked for it, I contributed to it and I will use it".

There is nothing wrong with this response, because the programs are NOT ENTITLEMENTS, but are payroll taxation driven insurance programs!

Oh, I forgot, if we just trusted personal responsibility, everything would work. We wouldn't need Socials Security or Medicare. Just free liberty from government shackles and we will prosper. Tell that to the 30% of Americans who are uninsured right now!

Excuse me but the best response to this, given what we are going through is BULLSHIT!

Finally, to the voters of November 2010. If you are so STUPID to continue to buy this B.S. with all the damage it has done to you, and so "witless" to trust people like Meg Witless, who are trying to buy you...then you do not deserve your liberty and will surely lose it.

And you will get exactly the government you deserve.

Poverty rate anyone?

Cut spending, balance the budget, curtail government give aways, cut unemployment benefits, cut Social Security and Medicare; these are all being touted by the “cons” as what we must do to “save” the country.

Meanwhile the poverty figures were released, and were not as high as was expected. This is scary, considering that 1 in 5 Americans now live in poverty. The poverty rate is worse than in 1960, before the “War on Poverty” reduced what at time was a major embarrassment for the United States.

Today the poverty rate for people of color is above what it was before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. When Martin Luther King marched on Washington the goals were social AND economic justice, because of the huge poverty rate for African-Americans. That rate is now HIGHER for African-Americans than before the March on Washington.

What a disgrace for the “richest country on earth”. And what do the “cons” say in reaction?

Cut government spending is their response.

Now we must remember the poverty rate for whites is higher also than in during the 60s.

The “cons” are also disrespecting poor whites who actually make up the vast majority of poor people in this country.

No country has EVER lasted very long when a huge disparity existed between the rich and the poor. The United States right now is hedging up against a gap that has destroyed other countries in the past.

The first manifestation of the decline is political-social unrest and violence. The incarceration rate for the past twenty years, the rampant gang warfare in cities, is stark evidence of the social unrest in America. The political anger and reaction of the “tea parties” and other splinter groups are evidence of political unrest. This political unrest borders on violence all the time. It is just a matter of time before it boils over.

So, what does this mean? It means that America is really in trouble this time. Because of the “cons” out of touch approach to government, and the deficit their leadership created, government is constrained from addressing poverty in a comprehensive manner. States are cutting their welfare programs to balance their budgets. Cons in Congress are taking advantage and plotting assaults on the new Health Care Bill, Social Security and Medicare. This in the midst of an unprecedented poverty rate that will break us all.

The results will be dramatic and are NOT predictable. This is the problem. The “cons” may benefit in the short run from upper middle class reactions to the recession, but in the long run, the entire political system could be de-stabilized with disastrous consequences.

What kind of consequences: fascism for one; riots for another; mass imprisonments; suspension of Civil Rights; the end of democracy in America.

It can’t happen here you say? There is absolutely no guarantee that our civil society can remain civil in the face of a staggering poverty rate. The results of this inequality cannot be good for America.

We need to suspend ALL the TAX CUTS now. The government must aide the poor and America’s safety net must be repaired or the recession/depression will destabilize our society and culture to the point that we all will lose. We will lose our inner cities, we will lose our freedom and we will lose the American Dream. Free enterprise has NEVER dealt with depressions and poverty in the short run. In the long run, a growing economy has improved the poverty rate and “raised all boats”. We are not there yet by a long shot.

It is a dangerous time in America. The poverty rate proves this. We all know it. The LAST thing we should do is weaken the shredded safety net more.

The choice is a stark one. Adopt the reactionary conservative approach and drive the country into a violent hole, or eliminate the tax cut for ALL, and begin to heal the nation.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

The Con Is Us

So we wake up on September 15 and see “tea partiers” upsetting mainstream Republicans. At least some people are getting it, at least partially. They have figured out, in their blind anger, that the Republican Party has really lost its way with the Bush Tax Cuts and Spending increases. They also are furious with Wall Street Financiers, who still are thumbing their noses at the American people, pulling down record high salaries and bonuses while gutting the American economy.

Unfortunately, as with most “populist” uprisings, white hot anger and irrationality in the end can be easily manipulated by the same moneyed interests that are the target of that hostility.

If you scratch the surface of the tea party funding, you will find radical right billionaires who are pouring money into the movement. They pay for “impromptu demonstrations”, television ads, and all sorts of money driven efforts. These efforts are successfully (at least now) in preaching to the populist anger about the recession/depression.

What is remarkable is the fact that the economy mess we are in is directly attributable to the failed and discredited economic policies of the Bush era and conservative cut tax and raise military spending foolishness.

This whole movement is moving into fascist territory. That’s right, fascist territory.

Populism has a sketchy history. I do not have the time in this space to list all of populism’s failure. Certainly one is reminded of the “gold standard” populism of the 1930s that demanded that getting off the Federal Reserve and back to the gold standard would solve everything. This was of course, nonsense, but had great appeal at the time.

The sad truth is most populism movements are wrong. They depend for their very existence on emotional over-reactions to current events. Usually they are co-opted by other secret interests that manipulate the movements for un-related reasons.

For example, a major benefactor of the “tea parties” is the petro-chemical industry. The hidden agenda in this case is a desperate attempt to de-regulate their industries and the “deniers” movement, seeking to disprove the ravages of global warming.

Simply watch the results that the tea party strives for. They will push hard for de-regulation, and will start (if they gain power), with the petro-chemical sector. This is not by accident, but is the unstated goal of the tea parties.

Of course, this has absolutely nothing to do with the overall stated purposes of the populist tea party movement. But it is the true purpose nonetheless.

So, manipulation is always present with these populist movements. Moreover, another undisclosed motive is the incredible idea that stupid leadership is better than educated leadership.

Populist movements usually push for “simpler times” and “citizen leadership”. Sarah Palin is a good example. She is hardly qualified to be a governor (which she quit), but is now the leader of the tea party. Her brand of leadership is simple, and basic, and uneducated, and basic, and….

This is where the movement begins to bump against fascism. A basic tenant of fascism taps on the yearning of populism for “the good old days”, when things were simpler. The next step of political logic is to seek leadership that is not traditional, or establishment, and turn leadership over to basic, value directed, “pure” leadership. Hitler used this approach brilliantly, to take over Germany. Economic conditions, and a world wide depression aided by the United States foolishly trying to balance the budget in the middle of a financial disaster, contributed mightily to Hitler’s simple solution approach.

Sarah Palin uses this same approach. She represents the simple, the basic, down home values of “common sense” that somehow can solve problems people with advanced degrees are struggling with.

This traditionalism yearning is fascist. It is manifest in patriotic displays (tea parties are regaled with flags, copies of the Constitution; etc), appeals to simplicity, and the hope that a return to basics will cure our ills.

This is of course absolute nonsense. The cures for our economic ills are complex and will take years to fix. There will be great pain in this process and our best and brightest will be tested. FDR had his “brain trust” that threw massive intellectual capital at the Great Depression and World War II to achieve success. Sarah Palin represents the opposite, a simple solution to a complex problem, with the promise of stupid results.

So the con is us. The American People are slipping closer and closer to fascism. We are a nation of 330 million and increasing, but are being duped by billionaire’s right wing fanatics, who are selling fascism as a solution.

I often cringe, as I think of all the World War II combat vets who died defeating fascism and proving that democracy and hard work can ultimately triumph. I think about the Nuremberg Trials that demonstrated the ultimate lunacy of fascism and the terror it invoked.

The United States is facing that threat today. The more the right wing gains respectability, the more fascism they become. It can and is happening here.

The solution lies in regaining confidence in our democracy and our leadership. It lies in more patience and hard work. It lies is re-affirming our faith in the ability to lead ourselves. It also lies in repudiating wealth as a cure for anything, turning away from big corporations pouring billions into fascist solutions. It lies in really understanding that the con is within us, and the great danger it entails.

Doomed by History

Amazing how accurate the saying, "If you do not study history you are doomed to repeat it".

The conservative movement in the United States has been successful, with millions of dollars in propaganda, in fooling the American people into believing that the Democrats are responsible for the Great Recession, successfully forgetting eight years of Bush rule.

This has been no mean feat. In the 2006 and 2008 elections the Republicans were thrown out of power on multiple levels in American politics. For a time, there was talk that the Republican Party was finished.

Desperate to gain traction, the radical right wing, using millions of corporate dollars, manufactured the “Tea Party” movement. This began as an “Astroturf” movement, paid for by the Koch brothers and corporate money, and now has now morphed into a “popular movement” of Fox News and Glen Beck. Ordinary people are buying it!

What has fueled this is the Great Recession, that threatens to become a double dip recession because the federal stimulus has been constrained and maligned by radical conservatives bent on one thing; getting back into power. Obama has not delivered on jobs they say, so try us again!

Any kind of accurate economic analysis and approach to getting the United States out of this mess, has been compromised by a firestorm of attack ads that are meant to discredit “big government” as a solution to the recession. In fact, that is STILL THE ONLY solution to the recessions (s)!

Tragically, through all of this, the welfare of the American People has been thrown under the bus. The very economic free enterprise, de-regulation economic philosophy that has decmimated the middle class, is now being sold to the middle class as a “jobs” approach.

History tells a different story.

In 1936 the American Great Depression was ending. The New Deal, with massive (for that time) government intervention, the passage of Social Security, and the establishment of strict financial regulations, was bringing the country out of a multi-year depression. Franklin Roosevelt, following the convential economic wisdom of the time, to counter the growing conservative criticism of the federal deficit, dramatically cut spending and allowed the new Social Security taxation system to take effect. Projections at the time called for a balanced budget (no deficit) in about three years. Prosperity was right around the corner.

What raising taxes and cutting spending does is to balance budgets. This is similar to a household budget in that you increase your revenue and cut your spending, and you will either balance or run a surplus. Unfortunately, this does not work in a national economy.

You cannot apply the same principles of a household budget to a national economy. There are other people and multiple variables involved in the national economy. That should be common sense. Of course, this is the analogy that conservatives use all the time, except when they go tone deaf about cutting taxes and balancing budgets (fiscally impossible without drastic spending cuts).


Franklin Roosevelt made a horrible mistake in 1936. He cut spending and raised taxes at a critical time, to reduce the deficit that convential wisdom said would fix the economy BUT instead ruined the economy. Consequently, it took another four years to get out of the depression, aided by renewed government spending due to World War II. The facts are, regardless of conservative revisionist history, that the New Deal was ending the Great Depression, conservative principles of budget balancing, just as Hoover had mistakenly done, pushed the country back into the Great Depression. Roosevelt to his dying day said it was his greatest mistake.

Today, we are headed exactly in the same direction. The conservatives, desperate to regain control of the Congress, are screaming that the federal deficit will ruin the country. They have blocked any further government stimulus spending, and created a climate of conventional political wisdom, that dictates cutting spending to end the recession. Of course this includes Social Security and Medicare (that have nothing to do with the deficit). Incredibly, this wisdom also calls on maintaining the tax cuts that created the deficit in the first place!

The Bush tax cuts, for the very wealthy, have decimated the middle class. Wealth has been concentrated in the top ½ percent of the population, jobs outsourced, and welfare safety net programs shredded.

The result has been the destruction of the consumer engine of the United States economy. This is of no consequence to multi-national companies, who have new consumer markets in India and China (and Brazil, and Argentina…and..and). The middle class does not count anymore to multi-national corporations. There are now other massive consumer markets to be mined. Americans simply do not matter anymore to these people. THEY DO NOT CARE..

The result? We are headed into a Great Depression. This one will be different however. In the last Depression everyone suffered. This time the top ½ percent of the American population are doing quite well. Multi-national corporations are prospering.

In effect, the United States is quickly becoming a “third world” country. Deflation is predicted in American markets. As the Depression spreads, it will take down upper middle class families, as the corporations spread their political power and ordinary people suffer. The “ruling class” (sounds un-American doesn’t it but get used to it) has absolutely no problem in doing this. THEY SIMPLY DO NOT CARE!!

The result will be an RULING CLASS oligarchy, like you see in Mexico for example. The United States is headed toward the end of its democracy at the hands of the tea party who purports to stand for “founding values” but is being manipulated by economic elites for their selfish gains. The middle class is done, and with goes American democracy.

What is developing is fascism. That’s right, fascism, with corporate elitist control that hates democracy. All we need is a Hitler. Sarah Palin will do.

The history is there. The lessons are there. The will to actually see, to actually understand, is being blurred and obscured by millions of corporate dollars who are jobbing history for their selfish advantage.

We have failed to read our history and are doomed to repeat it.

World War II was a direct result of the Great Global Depression. Over 75 million people were killed. Our fate will be far worse!

Why Can't the Democrats Get It?

Why the Democrats can’t catch on?

Winning both Houses of Congress and the Presidency at the same time is a great opportunity. In 2006 and 2008 the Democratic Party was given that mandate to govern.

This was especially important to counteract the six years of Republican hegemony that resulted in economic ruin. President Bush and the Republicans in Congress were able to reverse the bedrock financial and home mortgage regulations that dated back to the New Deal. The result was a financial disaster and a home mortgage meltdown of almost Biblical proportions.

Hence, the Democrats swept into power. The American People were petrified as it appeared in 2007-2008 that another Great Depression was about to occur.

President Bush, in a late inning effort to undo years of economic stupidity, rushed a bank and financial sector bailout through, much of it without Congressional approval. Both Presidential candidates gave it their tacit approval, not really appreciating the scope and depth of the crisis.

Herein lies the rub: Republicans never were much interested in the of damage to the middle class from the financial disaster. They were only interested in their Wall Street benefactors, so there was no economic justice concerns in them at all. Democrats, on the other hand, had a tradition of supporting groups for social justice and an economic justice legacy that went back to the Great Depression.

The problem is doing both at the same time. The Democrats message is two fold, while the Republican’s is one dimensional; tax cuts. The Democrats must convey a message that is by necessity complex and grounded in reality, while the Republicans is simple and disingenuous. It is noted that such simple messages are perfectly suited for professional ad campaigns (right down the conservative propaganda alley).

When John McCain suggested stopping all electioneering because of the financial crisis, he did so knowing that his party only need concern itself with the health of the financial elite. The simple solution was easy for McCain to enunciate. The Democrats’ task was much more complicated. Luckily, McCain had the misfortune to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate, and her lack of experience and knowledge derailed his campaign at a critical juncture. Besides, even the most expert ad campaign could not hide the Bush administration’s incompetence.

The Democrats represent the middle class, whose economic position had been slipping for the past 30 years. Unfortunately for the Democrats, during the past 30 years, it’s primary goal was social justice (the Civil Rights Act implementation, voting rights, abortion rights, equal pay issues, and gay rights). Somewhere in there, should have been a realization that the middle class laborer, usually a member of a union, was being destroyed. In short, the Democrats suffered a crisis of too many goals and not enough political clout to do it all. As a result, the people they represented began to leave them.

Republicans, desperately trying to avoid another loss like they suffered during the New Deal, focused on the economy with the same approach that had in reality, damaged the economy and economic justice for the middle class.

Of course, this did not bother them at all, because the political money was with the corporate leaders, who voted Republican anyway. The Democrats played right into their hands because their diverse constituencies demanded more than just economic reforms.

The Democrats, by trying to do too much, have endangered their majority support because economic justice is the most pressing issue of the day and they appear to not be “listening”.

Listening? This is another ad huckster dream. Recently, the Republicans have repeated this endlessly; The Democrats and the President are not listening to the American People. This strikes at the opening that has been present for years; Democrats are trying to serve two policy goals, social and democratic justice. Republicans, who caused the economic injustice in the first place innocently proclaim that it is the Democrats’ fault, and get away with it by hammering away at the goal of economic justice through trickle down economics.

So how is this possible? How could anyone possibly support the Republicans over a Democratic Party whose legacy is economic justice concerns? The Republican Party has always represented the corporations, big business, the rich. The New Deal realized that, and in the shadow of economic ruin, captured the middle class for two generations. So what is different now, given we are in another Recession/Depression that cries for economic justice reform?

What is very different, is the middle class, older white Democrat, who is either living through the decline of the middle class, or who has retired and is watching it affect his children. These older white males are collecting the fruits of the New Deal and Great Society, Social Security and Medicare.

Last summer this was manifest at an anger filled town hall meeting on Health Reform when a middle aged white man declared, “Make sure government keeps its hands off my Medicare”.

This same white Democrat harbors latent and overt hatred of welfare, lumping people of color into “welfare cheats and the lazy”. Moreover, these angry white middle aged men, as Democrats, felt betrayed by their party, as it advocated for people of color (Civil Rights), equality for women, and even for gays and lesbians! This pushed the limits of their limited tolerance to the point that they even voted Republican; the Reagan revolution still lives.

The key point here is retired white men, usually have Medicare and Social Security and take these significant economic justice issues for granted. They have turned on the Democratic Party because it appears to be favoring too many social issues, even Gays, at the expense of their children whose jobs have been outsourced by Republicans. Amazingly, this angry white man is so furious about the social justice issues, enter racism, that Democrats attempts to deal with modern economic justice issues (the concentration of wealth) are either ignored or belittled.

So many times, angry white men I know, go off on the “welfare cheats” and big government give aways to the lazy good for nothings, while ignoring the tragic economic justice losses of the middle class. It is like they won’t blame the actual perpetrators of the middle class destruction (right wing free enterprise fanatics), but turn on Democrats. Read, "What’s The Matter With Kansas".

President Obama’s first year’s in office offers stark examples of this political reality. The President has delivered on both the economic and social justice promises he made during the campaign. Unfortunately, economic realities dictated a “full court press” on economic justice, especially to address the under-employment of the middle class. For example, through extraordinary effort, a Health Care reform was passed, which if implemented has both social and economic justice reforms in it. Polls show a majority of Americans are highly skeptical, and in fact oppose the reform. They simply do not believe there is any economic justice reform in it.

The reason given is that Obama should have been focusing on jobs, and not health care reform. Health Care reform is depicted by Republicans (of course) as social justice reform (another big government give away to those too lazy to have health insurance) and not as an economic reform.

The devil is in the perception, not in the reality. The Health Care Reform actually contains more economic justice reform than it is given credit for. For example, there will be many jobs created with the expansion of health care to millions of Americans. There is a tremendous opportunity for real economic justice. But this will take several years, and America can’t wait. This is understandable when people have been unemployed for almost two yeas.

Bragging about the Health Care Bill, that will not even be implemented for a few years, is little comfort to the middle class who just had its home foreclosed.

So, as we go into a probable train wreck in the 2010 mid-term elections for the Democrats we know why.

Democrats need to simplify, as much as possible, its message to stress economic justice reforms and downplay social justice reforms. A good example of this was the adverse reaction to President Obama’s recent laudable support of the Moslem Cultural Center in Manhatten. Many Democrats I know were distressed that yet another social/cultural justice issue had been added to the Democrats’ plate, while Republicans keep chanting jobs, jobs, jobs.

What Democrats need to do is tell the true story of what deregulation and tax give aways to the rich has done to the middle class. This has to be simple and straight forward and relentless. Republicans are hoping the Democrats don't start using this approach.

However, typical of the Republicans, they just afforded an opening for this approach when they casually blurted out support for extending Bush’s tax cuts past this year. At the same time, they are chanting the need to address the federal deficit. This is so hypocritical than even Karl Rove can’t lie his way out of it. The federal deficit is made up of billions of dollars BECAUSE of the Bush tax cuts; especially for the rich. This strikes directly at the economic justice issue. This should be where the focus of the Democrats’ efforts in 2010 should be.

Economic justice for the middle class does not lie in tax cuts, and corporate tax breaks for the rich. That reality can be the Republican’s undoing in 2010.

Idots

Idots.

That is all I can find to describe the recent polls that blame the President for the economic calamity we find ourselves in.

Really? Or is the the conservative 24/7 press, led by Fox News (who recently blithely gave one million dollars to the Republican Party) who have successfully propagandized the people into believing up is down and red is white?

I prefer the latter. The polls on the actual political savvy and awareness of the average America are not confidence building.

Take the "Mosque" at ground zero for example. Very few have actually looked at the issue, or location for that matter. They just eat up the conservative pundits lies and fabrications.

As for the President. He inherited one of the biggest messes in American History. So far, he has successfully passed legislation far in excess of his predecessor.

Of course, he is expected to cure in one year what Bush did in eight.

Of course, no one is remembering the economic nonsense that got us here.

Idiots!

Taxes!

Taxes…… The word is almost hissed by everyone I know. Ronald Reagan went from selling Boraxo as a washed up B actor to President of United States based on a universal hatred (manufactured and real) of taxes. He reasoned that high taxes were hurting an economy that was suffering inflation and stagflation. Of course, he never actually proved that high taxes caused inflation and unemployment. He did cut marginal tax rates for the wealthy by several points and shifted millions in taxation from his wealthy actor friends to the middle class.

Franklin Roosevelt decided to balance the federal budget in 1936 as the nation had seemingly recovered from the worst of the great depression. He cut spending and cut taxes and the nation lapsed into a double dip recession. He later said it was the worst decision he ever made, which is taunting when you consider all the decisions he had to make to end the depression and win World War II.

California has the dubious distinction of being the birthplace of the “tax revolt”. Wealthy retail and rental owners decided that their property taxes were killing them, and the inflation in home values of the 1970s panicked homeowners into voting for Proposition 13 that slashed property taxes while providing no substitute for the billions that were taken from supporting public services; especially public schools.

Modest changes in property tax law, that would have protected long term home owners, would have worked, but were bullied over by greedy rental owners like Howard Jarvis.

Nobody talked at the time about the plus side to home price inflation; many middle class people became millionaires in the Bay Area because their $25,000 homes were now worth $1,000,000 with absolutely no property improvement. This was false value of homes through no real action of the homeowner.

Hence, the housing bubble essentially started with Prop 13; home values were actually encouraged to increase with no basis in reality, because higher property taxes were stopped. In fact, as time wore on, houses that turned over frequently, were taxed at a much higher rate, while large apartment rental properties, whose value also exploded, were guaranteed ridiculously low rates because they rarely changed hands.

In California, newly married couples, paid thousands of dollars more than their neighbors for houses of exactly the same value, because the other house has not been sold (and re-appraised) . Houses stand in California, mostly vacant now, next to one in the neighborhood whose property taxes are thousands of dollars less than their neighbors. This inequity has NEVER been addressed.

The governor and legislature, realizing that schools could not open with the decreased revenue, shifted support of public schools to income and corporate taxes. This was a huge shift, since before Prop 13 eighty percent of local schools revenue came from property taxes.

This was done in a climate of tax cuts will cure the national inflation problem (which was completely false) so other tax cuts were passed, mostly through California’s Proposition system. The ultimate result of this was to cut taxes while raising state spending, especially relative to school spending. Basically, the bills were NOT paid. The result was a low and inconsistent revenue stream that did not even keep up with the rise in population growth.

For the past forty years California has continued on this path. Meanwhile, conservative think tanks have popped up, mostly funded by the oil lobby, who purport to prove that endless tax cuts revitalize the economy. They, of course, revitalize the petroleum companies, insuring that they make record profits year after year. Low tax rates on petroleum encourages consumption and enslaves us to foreign oil.

The historical record show no empirical evidence that tax cuts stimulate the economy. Tax cuts for the rich and corporations do not result in economic growth. In fact, they retard economic growth because of the greed effect. The rich, who have excess revenue anyway, take their tax cuts and sit on them, or invest them overseas. Corporations do not necessarily expand with their tax cuts. Right now, for example, American corporations are flush with cash but are not hiring or expanding. They are hoarding, ostesibly because they are worried about the economy. One wonders what will happen after the 2010 elections. Could Republican corporate C.E.O.s be sitting on profits hoping to keep unemployment up so Republicans can be elected? The recent evidence of excessive C.E.O. compensation proves the greed factor is alive and well and screwing the middle class.

In 2001 and 2003 huge tax cuts were enacted over Democrat’s fillibusters. Because of this, a time limit had to be attached to them. During the next eight years the economy saw a housing bubble, but no real economic growth. In fact, de-regulation resulted in a financial meltdown that almost put the country into another Great Depression (we call this one the Great Recession).

The middle class has watched as its real income has dropped. Unemployment is at record levels and shows no sign of letting up. And the tax cutters, what do they purpose to undue the disaster they caused? More tax cuts!

American stands at a cross roads. If we buy the garbage the Republicans are spewing, that we MUST cut social programs (Medicare and Social Security) to get “wild spending” under control, and cut taxes, an economic disaster WILL result.

Look at California! The public education system, up through the University of California, has declined massively. Class sizes are soaring, thousands of teachers are laid off, I am sure vouchers will be the next trick. Democracy dies an inch at a time.

Meanwhile, California is considering electing another Republican governor who is promising to revitalize the economy by……cutting taxes.

Even Alan Greenspan, whose leadership of the Fed led us into an economic disaster, now says he was wrong, and de-regulation and tax cutting in fact damages the economy.

If you raise taxes, and cut spending (let’s start with the Defense Budget), you can quickly get the federal (and state) deficit under control. This will lessen the massive governmental borrowing that is going on, and will loosen the lending market, allowing more loans to go to businesses so they can expand. This will be particularly true in innovative business like green energy, that we must grow to start attacking the global warming phenomenon that may kill us all (anyone been to Russia lately?).

California Democrats made a recent proposal to end the budget impasse. This one involved leveling taxes, reducing reliance on income taxes on the rich, taxing petroleum production and basically rescinding a few tax cuts made over the past forty years. A family of four would see about a $250 increase in income taxes. That is $250 a year, and quick math results in about $21.00 a month. That is $21.00 a month!

You would think the Republicans had been threatened with water torture. The first thing out of their mouths was the neat catch phrase, “job killer bill”. Next was “attack on middle class”. What? Of course, they NEVER complain, as their tax cuts have zapped millions of middle class jobs and wrecked the American Dream.

So keep on cutting taxes for California and America. And watch as both become second class entities. Right now the average living standard in America ranks below Mexico! That’s right, Mexico, whose immigrants the Republicans love to hate.

Cutting taxes has NEVER stimulated the economy. There is simply NO empirical evidence (even the Kennedy tax cuts of the early 60s) that tax cuts stimulate the economy.

In fact, there is more evidence that tax cuts harm the economy. Why?

Because the government must pay its bills, even if it doesn’t collect enough tax revenue to do so. How does it make up the difference? One, government prints more money, which is inflationary, and thus harms the economy. Or, the government borrows the money, from a variety of sources, and that borrowing distorts the financial markets and HARMS economic growth.

We have listened for forty years to those who tell us that tax cutting is the ONLY way to stimulate economic growth. For the past forty years, both on the state and federal level, tax cuts have not only NOT stimulated economic growth, but have retarded it.

But, the allure of tax cuts is almost like night light to a moth. The American People keep coming back to it again and again, in spite of the considerable damage it is doing.

Stop it or America dies!