The wealthiest 1 percent have never had it so good.
Harry Hope
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090723_the_attack_of_the_1-percenters
Jul 23, 2009
The Attack of the 1-Percenters
By David Sirota
Here�s a truism: The wealthiest 1 percent have never had it so good.
According to government figures, 1-percenters� share of America�s
total income is the highest it�s been since 1929, and their tax rates
are the lowest they�ve faced in two decades.
Through bonuses, many 1-percenters will profit from the $23 trillion
in bailout largesse the Treasury Department now says could be headed
to financial firms.
And, most of them benefit from IRS decisions to reduce millionaire
audits and collect zero taxes from the majority of major corporations.
But what really makes the ultrawealthy so fortunate, what truly
separates this moment from a run-of-the-mill Gilded Age, is the
unprecedented protection the 1-percenters have bought for themselves
on the most pressing issues.
To review:
With 22,000 Americans dying each year because they lack health
insurance, Congress is considering universal health care legislation
financed by a surcharge on income above $280,000�that is, a levy
almost exclusively on 1-percenters.
This surtax would graze just 5 percent of small businesses and would
recoup only part of the $700 billion the 1-percenters received from
the Bush tax cuts.
In fact, it is so minuscule, those making $1 million annually would
pay just $9,000 more in taxes every year�or nine-tenths of 1 percent
of their 12-month haul.
Nonetheless, the 1-percenters have deployed an army to destroy the
initiative before it makes progress.
The foot soldiers are the Land Rover Liberals.
These Democratic lawmakers secure their lefty labels by wearing
pink-ribbon lapel pins and supporting good causes like abortion
rights.
However, being affluent and/or from affluent districts, they routinely
drive their luxury cars over middle-class economic interests.
Hence, this week�s letter from Boulder, Colo., dot-com tycoon Rep.
Jared Polis, D, and other Land Rover Liberals calling for the surtax�s
death.
Echoing that demand are the Corrupt Cowboys�those like Sen. Max
Baucus, D-Mont., who come from the heartland�s culturally conservative
and economically impoverished locales.
These cavalrymen in both parties quietly build insurmountable campaign
war chests as the biggest corporate fundraisers in Congress.
At the same time, they publicly preen as jes� folks, make twangy
references to �voters back home,� and now promise to kill the health
care surtax because they say that�s what their communities want.
Cash payoffs made, re-elections purchased, the absurd story somehow
goes that because blue-collar constituents in Flyover America like
guns and love Jesus, they must also reflexively adore politicians who
defend 1-percenters� bounty.
That fantastical fairly tale, of course, couldn�t exist without the
Millionaire Media�the elite journalists and opinion-mongers who
represent corporate media conglomerates and/or are themselves
extremely wealthy.
Ignoring all the data about inequality, they legitimize the assertions
of the 1-percenters� first two battalions, while actually claiming
America�s fat cats are unfairly persecuted.
For example, Washington Post editors deride surtax proponents for
allegedly believing �the rich alone can fund government.�
Likewise, Wall Street Journal correspondent Jonathan Weisman wonders
why the surtax �soak(s) the rich� by unduly �lumping all of the
problems of the finances of the United States on 1 percent of (its)
households?�
And most brazenly, NBC�s Meredith Vieira asks President Obama why the
surtax is intent on �punishing the rich.�
For his part, Obama has responded with characteristic coolness�and a
powerful counterstrike.
�No, it�s not punishing the rich,� he said.
�If I can afford to do a little bit more so that a whole bunch of
families out there have a little more security, when I already have
security, that�s part of being a community.�
If any volley can thwart this latest attack of the 1-percenters, it is
that simple idea.
_______________________________________________
Harry
Christopher Helms
> http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090723_the_attack_of_the_1-perc...
>
> Jul 23, 2009
>
> The Attack of the 1-Percenters
>
> By David Sirota
>
> Here’s a truism: The wealthiest 1 percent have never had it so good.
>
> According to government figures, 1-percenters’ share of America’s
> total income is the highest it’s been since 1929, and their tax rates
> are the lowest they’ve faced in two decades.
And yet, as a group they bitch more than anybody about how tough
they've got it and how they're constantly being "punished." The top
5%, who don't actually have to work at all, have locked up virtually
all the wealth in this country until it's almost impossible to get a
500 dollar a week job without luck, six years of college, an act of
God and a dad who runs the plant and THEY'RE the ones who constantly
bitch about everything. They've got less to bitch about than anybody.
pyjamarama
> On Jul 24, 7:25 am, Harry Hope <riv...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
> >http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090723_the_attack_of_the_1-perc...
>
> > Jul 23, 2009
>
> > The Attack of the 1-Percenters
>
> > By David Sirota
>
> > Here’s a truism: The wealthiest 1 percent have never had it so good.
>
> > According to government figures, 1-percenters’ share of America’s
> > total income is the highest it’s been since 1929, and their tax rates
> > are the lowest they’ve faced in two decades.
>
> And yet, as a group they bitch more than anybody
Speaking of "bitching"...
Perhaps if you did less of it and worked harder you could break the
cycle of bitterness and envy that's so obviously keeping you down.
You don't really think you have a moral "right" to the legal property
of those more successful than you, do you?
Their success has nothing to do with your failure.
The top 1% now pay 36% of ALL federal income tax receipts (a record).
You should be thanking them, not bitching, whining and mewling about
them.
.
pyjamarama
wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:02:40 -0700 (PDT), pyjamarama
>
>
>
> <pyjamaram...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >On Jul 24, 6:19 am, Christopher Helms <Chrishelms...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> >> On Jul 24, 7:25 am, Harry Hope <riv...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>
> >> >http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090723_the_attack_of_the_1-perc...
>
> >> > Jul 23, 2009
>
> >> > The Attack of the 1-Percenters
>
> >> > By David Sirota
>
> >> > Here’s a truism: The wealthiest 1 percent have never had it so good.
>
> >> > According to government figures, 1-percenters’ share of America’s
> >> > total income is the highest it’s been since 1929, and their tax rates
> >> > are the lowest they’ve faced in two decades.
>
> >> And yet, as a group they bitch more than anybody
>
> >Speaking of "bitching"...
>
> >Perhaps if you did less of it and worked harder you could break the
> >cycle of bitterness and envy that's so obviously keeping you down.
>
You're clearly not, dipshit...
Your obsessive envy and non-stop whining gives you away.
> Or are you just farting nonsense
> about that which you know not shit?
>
> You, um, figure a lot of the top 1% spend a lot of their time farting
> foolish FUD to Usenet, do you, irony deficient rightard maroon?
Might wanna get that flatulence problem looked into, slappy...
You're startin' to stink up the place.
>
> Jaybus Freaking Crisco...
That's some unhealthy attachment to your anal lube you've got there,
nancy.
<yikes>