John Boehner delivers Alternative Proposal to the White House
"Where have you gone Abbie Hoffman, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you..."
"No, no, we are not satisfied, and will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." and this mighty stream consists of 35% to 39.6% in the marginal tax rate..."
Profound irony, isn't it? So many serious issues confronting us, and this somewhat trivial technocratic twist is the sine qua non of our national existence and political discourse. I'm thankful to Crispin because it made me go to the speech and re-read Dr. King's masterpiece of rhetoric and moral passion. And if you substitue the words "ordinary people" for Negro, it is obviously applicable to us all. And, while I don't know if my cynically subtle idealist co-conspirator meant to inspire that awareness, he certainly achieved it. The issue is not the goddamned deficit -- and I am not being blasphemous there at all, because the deficit is a satanic ruse to keep our eyes off the prize. It is in fact the issue of what sort of country we want to be. Despite the professed love -- nay idolatry -- of Ronald Reagan, the right has taken his appropriation fo the phrase from Winthrop who was actually preaching from The Sermon on the Mount and taken it somewhere else. For Matthew's Jesus was talking about the Christian Community that he was willing into being as setting an example and setting a very high bar for success. We seldom read the whole thing -- I know that as a Jeffersonian anti-theist, I seldom revisit the bible. But I probably should revisit the Jefferson bible more often.
13 But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.
14 Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.
15 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.
16 ¶ Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?
it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
17 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
18 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
19 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
20 ¶ Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
21 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
22 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
23 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of thescribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
So, summing up, Jesus, Wintrhop and Reagan were calling for an exemplar of the best for the illumination of the world. Although the concept is modern, it's a call for inclusion and
Boehner, McConnell, Hannity, Norquist and LaPierre Class Picture
charity. In the days of Jesus, all cities had gates; even Rome had gates. Only the most open and secure cities kept the gates open; what Jesus is calling for, what Winthrop, Kennedy and Reagan were calling for, was that lighted exemplar for the world where not only do the gates never close, there are no gates. What the Republicans and Tea Party and the American Right are calling for, demanding, and screaming for is not an open, fair and just community but a gated community, complete with barbed wire, wage slavery and vast disparities in wealth, education, access to justice and freedom. The Christian Right -- including any Catholic Bishop or higher who endorses this -- is calling for it in the name of Jesus; the libertarian Right is calling for it in the name of Adam Smith -- who thought corporations were not only unhuman but potentially and probably evil -- and Ayn Rand whom Jesus would feel sorry for, Winthrop put in the stocks and then send her off to Rhode Island with Roger Williams and the other nuts, and whom Reagna would give a jelly bean and then tell Nancy to "Please sweetheart, keep the mean crazy woman away from me..."
Not that we're looking a lot smarter on the left. People like Howard Dean and Sherrod Brown get it, but the irony is astonishing. We have a president who is articulate and smart and who, if he lets himself go with his soul, can be an inspiring and mesmerizing figure. However, most of the time he makes like Woodrow Wilson and delivers a technocratic and someone delphic pronouncement. There are a lot of ways to respond to the absurdities underlying the Ryan and the Boehner budget proposals and "fiscal cliff" rushing toward us. Referring to the stupidity of this plan, it's inherent unfairness, intellectual dishonesty and disingenuousness, and silliness as "not balanced" is just playing the game on Boehner's turf. There are big issues confronting us, and due to the last 32 years of wealth concentration at the top of the economic scale, those issues must be confronted as what they are -- fundamental questions of justice, economic fairness and levelling. Yes, the re-distribution of wealth and the re-allocation of assets.
DREAM BIG, WORK HARD OR GO HOME!!
I find particularly interesting the fact that we're harkening back to the Clinton tax era as some kind of golden age of equity and fairness and kum by ya! I don't recall it that way...for a lot of Americans it was kind of disappointing. Less disappointing than waking up today and facing this environment, but still...we're facing the conundrum of one of the corrollaries to Murphy's Law -- Before you can do anything, you have to do something else. But, if you want to do big things, dare to demand big things as a standard and an outcome; then find the methods that get there; then figure out the resources needed and get them. Don't change the outcomes based on the resources. If you have a desired outcome, and you have a workable method, then add resources and do whatever is necessary to get the resources. Screw Clinton's tax rates, you use them and validate the Republican position. USE THE MARGINAL RATES AT THE END OF THE EISENHOWER ADMINISTRATION. Certainly that rate marked something of a high water mark in terms of post World War II recovery and the explosion of American wealth, influence and potential. Scientific, educational, social and economic potential was unlimited, and the government was focused on doing things that the country needed to have done. Highways, infrastructure, power, education and so on. At 39.6% as a top rate, we're looking at less than half what they paid in any of those watershed years where the current rate is less than the second bracket in any year but 1964. This indicates a retreat: this enshrines greed.|
Year |
>$10K |
>$20K |
>$60K |
>$100K |
>$250K |
|
1956 |
26% |
38% |
62% |
75% |
89% |
|
1958 |
26% |
38%, |
62% |
75% |
89% |
|
1960, |
26% |
38% |
62% |
75% |
89% |
|
1962, |
26% |
38% |
62% |
75% |
89% |
|
1964, |
23% |
34%, |
56% |
66% |
76% |
As Rock says, stand for something!
The irony is pretty amazing to me. I'm not harkening toward some new version of America. I'm advocating the American at the height of the Pax Americana only with re-allocation of the resources to world-buildind as opposed to bigger holes to hide in and the capacity to produce bigger wholes than the other guy.
Greeters and Escorts for Republican Fashonistas in the Beltway -- Making them feel welcome...
This is where Warren Buffett and Bill Gates could help. They can afford it, and the government couldn't spend money for this. It is political in impact, but it's a-political in intent. SHAME THESE BASTARDS. Here's a thought -- have mimes follow the perpetrators of the Bush tax cuts and the "we can go to war if we have more tax cuts" and just do this thing. Liz Cheney, Ann Coulter and Jan Brewer show up at the Mall, and there's a mime troupe doing " deficits don't matter!" Boehner goes to the links, and there's a troupe of mimes in the parking lot and following his party around the links miming the great "Hell no you don't!" speech.At least, do something to shame this jingoistic, ignorant and moronic twits. Or hordes of Sinatra impersonators with boombox karaoke machines, doing his version of Mrs. Robinson whenever one of these fools raises his/her/its/their heads...
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