I think Sen. Bernie Sanders sums up the proposed bill to extend the debt ceiling perfectly. My emphasis added.
“The Republicans have been absolutely determined to make certain that the rich and large corporations not contribute one penny for deficit reduction, and that all of the sacrifice comes from the middle class and working families in terms of cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, LIHEAP, community health centers, education, Head Start, nutrition, MILC, affordable housing and many other vitally important programs.
“I cannot support legislation like the Reid proposal which balances the budget on the backs of struggling Americans while not requiring one penny of sacrifice from the wealthiest people in our country. That is not only grotesquely immoral, it is bad economic policy.”
I will just keep on repeating this until it sinks in:
1. The need for rational government will not go away. Republicans right now are irrational. President Obama has betrayed the most basic principles of the Democratic Party, by being unwilling to stand on principle and defend the core values of the party that most benefit the American people. He, too, has lost my respect, and support.
2. The need for revenues will not go away. The 50% tax decrease on the richest Americans that has happened in the past 12 years MUST expire.
3. Corporations MUST start paying their fair share of taxes, by ending all loopholes, subsidies, and hiding profits in off shore accounts.
4. Hedge fund managers and others in the financial industry must see their tax loopholes, which tax them at capital gains rates, ended. They should be paying at the same salary rates as the rest of us working class (or retired, in my case) peons.
5. The criminals on Wall Street, the mortgage banking industry, and the hedge fund managers must be investigated and brought to justice. That their criminal acts are being ignored and swept under the rug is driving the final nail in the coffin of the rule of law in this nation. Firm regulation of these industries must be put in place, to prevent future criminal acts against consumers. The deregulation of the past 20 years was the cause of the criminal acts that have led to our current financial crisis.
Faxed to: Rep. Todd Young, IN-09, Sen. Richard Lugar (IN), Sen. Dan Coats (IN), Pres. Barack Obama, Sen. Harry Reid, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Rep. John Boehner, Rep. Eric Cantor
