Hannah Bell
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Fri Apr-22-11 12:12 AM
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Budget austerity and democracy |
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A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday documents the vast gulf between the sentiments of the great majority of working people in the United States and the policies of the financial aristocracy who control the Democratic and Republican parties.
The poll found huge majorities opposing any cuts in Medicare (78 percent) and Medicaid (69 percent) and supporting increased taxation on the wealthy (72 percent). Meanwhile, in elite circles, such policies are completely ruled out. There is not a single major political figure in either of the two parties controlled by big business who advocates the views held by better than two-thirds of the American people.
This divergence is all the more remarkable given that there is zero support in the corporate-controlled mass media for such flat-out opposition to the budget cuts. The parameters of the official debate are set by President Obama, ostensibly representing the “left, who proposed $2 trillion in social spending cuts last week, and Republican Congressman Paul Ryan on the right, whose budget plan called for $6.2 trillion in cuts, including the dismantling of Medicare and Medicaid. The “center” is supposedly represented by the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission appointed by Obama, which proposed $4 trillion in cuts.
Hence the support for tax increases on the wealthy across all political affiliations: 91 percent of self-identified Democrats, 68 percent of independents, even 54 percent of Republicans. The only social demographic that did not support an increase in taxes on those making $250,000 a year or more was that high-income bracket itself. The official budget debate amounts to a conspiracy against the American people.
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Sherman A1
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Fri Apr-22-11 03:29 AM
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The Magistrate
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Fri Apr-22-11 03:40 AM
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The idea the United States is ruled democratically becomes harder and harder to sustain....
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Mnemosyne
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Fri Apr-22-11 08:12 AM
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3. So important it posted itself four times! K&R n/t |
Starry Messenger
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Fri Apr-22-11 08:29 AM
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MedleyMisty
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Fri Apr-22-11 02:16 PM
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The people are with us. Stand up or die.
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felix_numinous
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Fri Apr-22-11 03:53 PM
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taxation without representation, while the rich have no taxation with ALL the representation.
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socialist_n_TN
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Fri Apr-22-11 04:08 PM
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7. Yep. So who represents US? The ones who hold this........ |
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SOLID majority view? NOBODY (at least nobody with any authority) that I can see. You don't even have anybody with national clout ARTICULATING this MAJORITY view. Why the fuck IS that?
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DU
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Fri Apr 26th 2024, 06:55 AM
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