Last updated on June 27th, 2012 at 10:13 am
The concept of a right or immunity granted as a particular benefit, advantage, or favor attached specifically to a position is generally regarded as privilege, and in America there is little argument that the wealthy enjoy special privileges unknown to the poor and middle class. However, the sentiment of a growing number of Republicans is that working Americans and the poor enjoy special privileges, and in a noble gesture to equality, they plan to lift the unfair burden from the wealthiest 2% of Americans and put it where it belongs; on the working class and the poor. It is a continuing effort by Republicans to implement their version of shared sacrifice where the majority of the population sacrifices to maintain the wealthy’s privileged status regardless the cost to the people, economy, and the government.
The most recent provocateur of fairness and shared sacrifice is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who said the tax code needs to be restructured to make it fairer to upper-income earners. McConnell’s sentiments are shared by a growing number of Republicans like Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Willard Romney who propose raising taxes on the poor and middle class to make room for massive tax cuts for the wealthy. According to the fair-minded Republicans, raising taxes on those who are already struggling in an economy Bush-Republicans created is necessary to reduce the “ballooning national deficit†by increasing tax cuts for the wealthy, or as Republicans call them, “job creators.â€
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The Republican’s economic gurus like Paul Ryan and his Path to Prosperity budget adds $4.6 trillion to the nation’s debt with tax cuts for the rich, Draconian cuts to social safety nets, and tax increases on the poor and middle class. Willard Romney’s grand plan increases the debt by $3.4 – $5 trillion with tax cuts for the wealthy coupled with revenue losses of $180 billion annually that includes eliminating middle class tax credits (tax increases) for earned income and child tax credits, and college tuition deductions. Romney also includes a 60% tax increase on the poor who earn under $20,000 annually to help relieve the burden from the wealthy who have yet to create jobs. However, raising taxes on the poor and middle class are not Republican’s only means of lifting the burden off the wealthy.
Paul Ryan and Willard Romney plan to put more burden on the privileged poor to relieve the wealthy’s suffering by making drastic cuts to social safety nets such as food stamps, housing and heating assistance, and healthcare because apparently, the 50 million elderly, children, and poor who barely survive on food stamp assistance is too much for the wealthy to suffer and the savings will relieve their tax burden and help inspire them to create jobs as well as reduce the nation’s debt with the trillions in tax cuts. Romney is particularly interested in taking the burden off the wealthy and his tax plan will cost  the government about $5 trillion in forgone revenue over the next decade on top of the cost of extending the Bush-era tax cuts scheduled to expire Dec. 31.
The Republicans’ blissful ignorance of the plight of the poor is stunning, and with 46.2 million Americans living in poverty, and America’s number two ranking in child poverty, they are determined to add to those numbers in an effort to relieve the suffering of the wealthiest 2% of income earners. However, the American people are not entirely convinced that giving the wealthy more tax breaks is the optimum means of reducing the nation’s debt and rebuilding the economy.
For the past two years, Americans overwhelmingly favor raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and corporations to assuage the deficit and create jobs as President Obama has proposed, but Republicans have adhered to their unconstitutional Grover Norquist anti-tax pledge of never raising taxes or eliminating tax loopholes; except when they affect the poor and middle class. Eric Cantor rejects tax increases on the wealthy, but supports raising taxes on the poor to give the wealthy relief and help struggling families understand the need to start contributing to job creators for deficit reduction and economic growth.
It is unclear how Republicans reconcile raising taxes on the poor when most fall under the US Poverty level of $22,350 annually for a family of four, but they must be privy to a metric unknown to most reasonable human beings. Perhaps it is part of the Willard Romney belief that $22,350 is well above his “great middle class income†of $19,900 annually, and with a tax increase of 60%, the poor will still be living the great American dream of “middle class status.†Or it is likely that Republicans are on pace to transform America into the “Chinese model†where a dollar-a-day is the prevailing wage and environmental regulations become a thing of the past to encourage corporations to return to America to rape what is left of the economic life from the nation.
There are few words to describe the Republican’s Draconian attitude that the privileged poor are draining resources from the wealthy who are inordinately burdened and struggling to survive. It should be abundantly clear by now that Republicans will, if they control both Congress and the White House, give the wealthy and their corporations the last vestiges of wealth from the poor and middle class. The simple fact that they are openly talking about raising taxes on those least able to survive one more assault informs their contempt for the great majority of American people who have made their voices heard that raising taxes on the wealthy is not only a means of reducing the deficit, but necessary to create jobs and grow the economy. But that is the entire issue in a nutshell. Republicans have no more intention of creating jobs or growing the economy than they do helping the American people and to think otherwise is folly. For Mitch McConnell to go on a major network news program and express the Republican ideology that the that the poor needed to lift the burden from the wealthy was a watershed moment that gives Romney, Ryan, and Cantor all the support they need to proceed transforming America into a third world nation of peasants existing to support a few hundred wealthy families.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
