This is how EVERY Democrat who is worth voting for should respond to the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan. Too bad it takes an Independent like Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
Make the rich start paying their fair share. . .
"If we are serious about making Social Security strong and solvent for the next 75 years, President Obama has the right solution. On October 14, 2010, he restated a long-held position that the cap on income subject to Social Security payroll taxes, now at $106,800, should be raised. As the president has long stated, it is absurd that billionaires pay the same amount into the system as someone who earns $106,800.
"With the richest people in this country getting richer and the middle class in decline, it is absurd that billionaires pay the same amount into the Social Security system as someone who earns $106,800."
sanders.senate.gov
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Crossposted at The Progressive Electorate.com
Make the rich pay their fair share in 2012.
That is my new bumpersticker.
More from Senator Sanders
"It is reprehensible to ask working people, including many who do physically-demanding labor, to work until they are 69 years of age. It also is totally impractical. As they compete for jobs with 25-year-olds, many older workers will go unemployed and have virtually no income. Frankly, there will not be too much demand within the construction industry for 69-year-old bricklayers.
sanders.senate.gov
69 year olds competing with 25 year olds to drive down the cost of labor in a race to the bottom. Does anyone realize that raising the age of social security will RAISE unemployment, because more people will still be in the workforce competing for jobs we are sending overseas. The recommendations the Catfood Commission has made are a call for a return to Hoovernomics. It will be 1926 all over again.
Cutting taxes for the rich under Bush took us from surpluses to deficits while it created ZERO jobs at the end of nearly a decade. Politically speaking, tax cuts for the rich might be the worst policy EVER. If bankrupting the Government and destroying jobs is a bad thing for you policy-wise, it is hard to argue that drastic tax cuts for the rich and corporations is NOT the worst policy ever if you like balanced budgets and job creation.
The rich need to start paying their fair share around this place. If America slowly lets the rich get a free ride, as we have been doing since 1980, eventually everything goes to shit, doesn't it. The last decade tells me so, because I have a memory and I get my news from more than one source.
You want to "fix" social security, a system that is NOT broken? Make the billionaires pay into it too. And the millionaires. And the people who are not really rich but have a household that earns more than 200k. The 200k earning households are NOT the problem, these people are more like the new middle class, and the old middle class is the new working poor. The fact is, the GOP plan for everything totally SCREWS the guy who earns between 200k-999k because he has to pay the same percentage as a billionaire, and the difference between 200k and a billion dollars is about a billion dollars.
On tax cuts for the rich.
On tax cuts for Corporations
On taxes and governance in general.
It is time that the rich start paying their fair share in America. They've been getting more and more cuts and more and more of a free ride since Reagan's day. It's time that the rich started paying again, an amount that is equivalent to their massive advantage in the income inequality gap in America. Anything less is just more class war, and I know I am not on the billionaires side because I am not a billionaire or stupid.
So what does this have to do with the filibuster? My prediction is that Senator Bernie Sanders WILL filibuster and hold up in every way possible any deficit commission ideas that hurt working class Americans. Bernie Sanders is up for re-election in 2012. He will be facing the wrath of the Citizens United Oligarchy. So will all who displease our corporate masters.
Our Ayn Randian "Masters of the Economic Universe" want all the power of being super heroes and none of the responsibility. What we need to do is remind them CONSTANTLY of what Spiderman's uncle Ben told him, which I here paraphrase . . .
"To those with great wealth and power come greater responsibility"
Make the rich start paying their fair share. Tax cuts for the rich and corporations combined with spending cuts for everything else is the definition of class war. Fight back. You want a slogan? How about "Make the rich pay their fair share" 3% more is fair. A guy with $1,000,000,000 of income a year can afford 3% more. A guy who earns $30,000 a year IF he can find a job can not, nor can he afford you to cut anything. If you can't understand that you are either a crook, a liar, Republican or an idiot. Sarah Palin is all four.
You heard it here first, folks. I predict that Senator Bernie Sanders will advocate strongly for raising the cap on income subject to Social Security payroll taxes if the Catfood Commission's suggestions make it as far as the Senate. If that fails, I predict that Senator Bernie Sanders will shitcan the whole thing himself, because if there is one thing that it is easy to do in the Senate it is shitcanning in a heartbeat someone else's hard work. In this case it is the hard work of Billionaires who are trying to screw us. Maybe the Senate can get something right after all.
And if all that comes to pass, I predict that I will work my ass off to get Bernie Sanders elected to another term as U.S. Senator.
Make the rich pay their fair share, and more power to Bernie Sanders. Teach me your ways, o master.
You can follow me on Twitter @JesseLaGreca