One thing that we all got reminded of during the presidential campaigns is that right wingers have successfully spun the narrative that entitlements are what poor people – especially black and brown poor people – get from the government. The goodies that rich people get, like tax breaks and favorable regulations, are part of their birthrights. And the goodies just keep on coming!
Entitlements used to mean that you paid into a program and therefore you were “entitled” to receive that investment at a given time in your life. This is not a “gift” from the government.
The “gifts” that Mitt Romney and other Republicans say that President Obama gave us are programs that working people have contributed to directly (like Social Security) or that we support willingly (like Medicare). It’s about the greater good not the goodies for those who think they are greater that the rest of us.
The other narrative the rightist elite have projected on the national screen is that President Obama is anti-business. Let’s look at the facts.
Since the Obama Administration’s efforts to turn around the Great Recession, it is the corporate sector that has rebounded the fastest. Corporations made a record $824 billion in profits last year as well. The Wall Street stock market has been doing pretty good as well.
CNN Money reported “corporate earnings were $1.75 trillion in the third quarter, up 18.6 percent from a year ago. That took after-tax profits to their greatest percentage of GDP in history.”
Who’s eating the dust left by the financial bulls? It working people; it’s poor people.
Wages in this country have practically flatten in the last 25 years while the wage monsters continue to take bites out of the little bit workers take home by refusing to pay for health benefits, pay into pension plans or to make adjustments for inflation.
When do workers get some breaks? When do we write our own narrative about the dignity of working for livable wages and maintaining a decent standard of living?
The GOP is trying to force entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security on the cutting table to prevent the economy going off the fiscal cliff. The corporate elites don’t have to depend on any of these pots of money for their well-being. They are sitting on piles of money based upon our labor and investments. Add to that our tax dollars for their incentives, tax breaks and other subsidies.
Let us keep a watchful eye on the bargaining that will be taking place before the January 1 deadline. If no agreement is made by the Concrete Congress, $600 billion in tax increases and spending cuts kicks in. All taxes will go up with middle class families increasing by $2000 but the 1 percent will barely feel it.
Congress needs to hear from you this month. Tell your U.S. representative and senator that you are not looking for a gift or a hand-out, you are looking for righteous representation.
