In 2010, bonuses to individual employees on Wall Street totaled $135 billion dollars. That is more than the total combined state deficits in the nation ($124 billion).
In Wisconsin, where the totally fruadulent debate over balancing that state's budget has sparked unusually lively protests from our typically moribund populace, the projected budget deficit is less than 1% of the bonuses collected by Wall Street executives.
In practical terms, this means that a few thousand individuals will fare better than ever while states across the nation, and the U.S. Congress, are preparing to inflict great harm on hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of people in the name of "fiscal austerity."
"So be it," says John Boehner, our new Speaker of the House.
I wonder if Boehner's revolting disregard for the well-being of thousands of families, so perfectly encapsulated in his dismissive "So be it", will be the thing that finally wakes people up to what is happening all across the country.
Is it possible that people are beginning to grasp the extent of the hypocrisy, fraud and deceit they fell for in the November elections?
Are people beginning to understand that the battle in Wisconsin and in other states across the nation has nothing to do with "deficit reduction"? That it is nothing but a cover for a truly dangerous, undemocratic ideological agenda?
Frankly, I doubt it.
Not only have we as a nation come to accept this tremendous inequality as "normal", we are not even willing to tax our very richest households and individuals at a rate commensurate with their extravagant wealth.
"We all have to sacrifice," Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker intones. "We all" in this instance refers solely to the working middle-class and the already poverty-stricken. Apparently, above a certain income threshold, you are no longer required to sacrifice anything.
"We're broke," say Gov. Walker - as he attempts to pass new tax cuts. His solution to being "broke", among other harmful measures, is to repeal the collective bargaining rights of public sector workers.
"We're broke," says John Boehner, Speaker of the House - after exulting over the extension of $700 billion dollars worth of tax cuts for the very wealthy, every penny of which is adding to the national budget deficit.
His solution to being "broke" is to pass a bill in the House of Representatives that drastically cuts government funding to education, health care, the environment and - naturally - programs that help the very poorest among us.
The budget would also eliminate funding for public broadcasting, currently at $445 million, and cut the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts to $124 million.
That's "million." Many individuals made twice that last year working on Wall Street. These are the same individuals whom we refuse to tax, as we simultaneously make budget cuts that will make the lives of millions of families worse than they already are.
Many of these individuals are also the very same ones who helped to create the financial crisis we are currently living with.
Many of these individuals, according to documentary filmmaker Charles Ferguson and Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, ought to be in jail.
Suppose, in some idealized fairy-tale world in which basic fairness rather than greed was our dominant societal value, the $700 billion in potential tax revenue were actually collected and allocated to the states facing the worst budget shortfalls.
Their deficits would disappear. And we would have $586 billion dollars left over.
That would mean no layoffs for police, firefighters, teachers, construction workers and other essential public sector employees; more money in people's pockets to help support local economies everywhere; more work on urgent infrastructure projects; fewer foreclosures, fewer people applying for unemployment benefits.
It would also buy time for the economy to rebound, thereby creating more tax revenue, and it would give state legislatures some breathing room in order to work together (ha, ha) to address some of the issues causing long-term structural state deficits.
This is not the Republican agenda, however. The Republican agenda is "So be it."
Are we really willing to settle for that?