I just gave you three fast steps to stemming the tide of anger and resentment. To fix the systemic financial inequality problems, you have to change the system. Here’s a few more points.
4. End the Bush Tax Cuts. Cutting taxes while raising expenses for war was stupid, irresponsible, and disastrous. The Bush Tax Cuts were not even intended to be permanent in the first place. Extending this disastrous plan made a bad situation worse. End the tax cuts now, and in fact, raise taxes among the wealthy by increasing the number of tax brackets at the top, going all the way to 50% for those earning millions every year. At the same time, tax capital gains at the same rate as income, and end the special tax breaks that hedge fund managers bought for themselves.
5. End the loopholes. Corporations have bought so many loopholes that many don’t pay any taxes at all. End these opportunities to hide profits in shell corporations, offshore corporations, and excessive executive compensation and make corporations pay for the public services – like roads, bridges, and educated workforce – that allow them to become successful in the first place.
6. End the wars. We were lied into war in Iraq, we were mislead about invading Afghanistan, we’ve got troops all over the place, spending billions of dollars against an idea, that people out there might not like us, and therefore want to do us harm. This is so bone stupid I can’t even. How do you fight an idea with guns? How do you fight the feeling that us having guns in their country is a bad idea, by sending more guns? Is there noone in government anymore who is trained in the most basic of logic? But endless war against ideas sure puts a lot of money into the pockets of those contractors hired to wage that war, doesn’t it? That money comes at the expense of needed spending at home: infrastructure, education, health care, jobs programs, and so forth.
A motivated president and an honest congress could, if it wanted to, do these things in a single year. That’s what we have before the next election.
Are you up to it, Washington DC?
