Alright, at 70 I know that I can't go deep for the bomb, and will never again put one out of the park against a hanging curve ball, and yeah, I drive the speed limit and stay in the right lane regardless who it pisses off or whoever flips me the bird. I confess to all those things. I am 70, and acting my age.
But up until the day they take me out of this place feet first for my dirt-nap, I am going to shove back every damned time the misinformed, mal-intentioned, well-healed congressional lackeys of big oil, insurance, banking, pharmaceutical, finance and credit industries start their nattering about "entitlements" bankrupting the country.
And, I'll tell you this, at 6' 1" and 190 lbs, my shoves are pretty damned spirited, I ain't that old. I'll admit, that for the most part, I am a surly, cranky old SOB; but that is more the result of diminished capabilities, recovery from cancer, and the god-damned arthritis in my back and knees than it is politics. But, what really locks my jaws and jacks my jibs is being blamed for the federal deficit.
In the first place, I am not all that certain that some deficit is all that bad. It's how you buy big ticket items in real life, such as cars, houses, appliances, and so forth. Unless you're wealthy, you're not going to be able to acquire meaningful property without debt (deficit). I think the same principle applies to government.
But, never mind that; what I am talking about is the tea-bagging, right-wing, whack-job, fundamentalist Republicans yammering about Social Security, Medicare and other "entitlements" causing the current deficit. Don't listen, it is just more of their load-of-crap "message to America" being shoveled, thick and wide, in order to distract you from the real problems and real solutions.
We have a huge deficit because of that dry-drunk sociopath, George W. Bush, and his ungodly host of liars, thieves, mendicants, cut-purses, scofflaws, deep-forest hobgoblins, river trolls, dementers, death-eaters, and fen fiends, who put us into two wars on our national credit card, deregulated the robber barons and crooks of wall street causing the worst recession since the great depression, and imposing criminally insane tax policies that have increased the wealth of the very richest of Americans while destroying the middle-class and forcing working families and seniors into actual poverty or near poverty.
You think I liable the bastards? Fine! Sue me! Truth is the perfect defense and the last thing any of those yahoos want is to be put on the witness stand under oath!
Here's what ought to be done. (1) Raise the payroll tax on Social Security taxes for the wealthiest Americans. (2) Freeze the estate tax at 2009 levels and apply those revenues to Social Security. (3) Put Americans back to work in good-paying, jobs rebuilding America!
So, take a break from Oprah and Judge Judy and support legislation proposed by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) "The Wall Street Fair Play Act" (S. 2927 and representative Peter Fazio (D-OR) "Let Wall Street Pay for the Restoration of Main Street Act of 2009" (H.R. 4191). The legislation would put a very modest tax (.025) on Wall Street financial speculations while leaving the vast majority of ordinary investors largely unaffected and generate over $75-billion a year.
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