MANHATTAN CHRONICLES
PEOPLE'S CORNER
TIME FOR AN AMERICAN SPRING?
POLL: 88% of Americans would fire the Congress
RECOMMENDED FROM the NYT
Congress is out of touch
with the American people and continues to give them the exact opposite of what
they want. Poll after poll shows support for raising taxes on the wealthy,
eliminating loopholes and subsidies for corporations, significantly reducing
military spending, protecting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and
putting America back to work by investing in education, infrastructure and job
training.
How can we have a sound economy when manufacturing accounts for only 10 percent
of the economy while the financial industry takes 40 percent of profits?
Congress
simply lacks the will to renegotiate our unfair trade agreements, apply tariffs
to level the playing field, and implement tax policies to encourage investment
in the US, so that we can become an export-led economy again.
Why is the bloated military budget considered sacrosanct? Spending has tripled
since 1997. The biggest military in the world cannot defend itself if its
infrastructure is crumbling and its people are not healthy or educated.
Medicare for all would save hundreds of billions of dollars annually and get
health care off the backs of businesses. Why is it not on the table?
Taxes are the lowest percentage of GDP since 1950. What principle in economics
says that speculators should pay a lower tax rate than people who work for a
living? Why are large corporations and their lobbyists allowed to rig the tax
code with pages of tax breaks so that they pay little or no tax?
Shortsighted policy that is skewed in favor of the wealthy and corporations
will only continue to sink our economy and take us on a path to second class
status. When lawmakers are ready to represent “the people” instead of a very
narrow segment of the population, then we will be able to have serious policy
discussion.
Reader comment
on NYT, 9/16/2011: Approval of Congress Matches Record Low;
by RLS, Virginia,
September 16th, 2011,
10.am
Our political system is dangerously close to being irreversibly broken. The high level of disapproval of the actions of our political leaders is a good indicator of this. We have generated a political class whose major goal is to be elected and re-elected. They thoroughly enjoy the privileges of such positions, which include access to preferential treatment by influence-seeking lobbyists and corporations, special health care, generous retirement, the very things they seek to diminish in the population that elects them. There is a shocking level of cynicism among these so-called representatives. This litany of bad behavior is the only genuinely bipartisan product of our present system. We are in perilous times and from the President and the Speaker down there is no trace of true leadership.
by Jack in Chicago, September 16th, 2011, 10: am; same article, NYT
Until middle-class 60-year-old self-employed widows don't have to pay $1,932.00 monthly for individual health insurance from Aetna, what do you expect???!!! It is bankrupting me. Actions by an insurance company like this should be illegal and unconstitutional. Every few months, I get a letter about the next obscene RATE INCREASE.
by Minerva, in New York, NY, September 16th 2011, 10.02 am, same article, NYT
It is not just time to replace congress, it is time to replace how they work, 100 days a year in their offices meeting with lobbyists, and 140 days a year out collecting campaign donations. The average congressman has to raise $10,000 a day, they have no time, or inclination to listen to people who offer arguments but no cash in opposition to the cash-filled arguments of lobbyists. As Upton Sinclair said, "You can not get a man to understand when his salary depends on his not understanding." Congress will not understand that the Middle Class needs help until we change how elections are financed. Seven cents a day would do it. Support the 7-cent solution. You are about to lose a lot, send a message to congress that you have had enough.
http://virginia10th.blogspot.com/2011/08/7-solution.html
by Hpicot, Haymarket, VA, September 16th, 10.04, same article, NYT
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People's Corner 9/16/2011
