TODAY'S TOPICS: Super Committee, Defense Cuts, Bizarro
Universe, Michael Moore, Greenwald, Taibbi, Police Brutality
All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.
All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.
- George Orwell
Super Committee, Triggers, False Equivalencies, and Doing Nothing
Super Committee, Triggers, False Equivalencies, and Doing Nothing
From the beginning the Super Committee has operated in its own bizarre universe. Unfortunately, this universe happens to represent the prevailing inside the beltway wisdom. By that I mean its sole focus has been upside down: we don’t have a spending crisis, we have a revenue crisis. And, even worse, austerity (i.e. draconian cuts to social safety to appease Wall Street investors and right wing nut jobs) costs jobs, rather than creating them…and jobs generate tax revenue, which thereby reduce the deficit (why do you think Clinton had surpluses??? We had less than 4% unemployment).But it gets worse, because the ACTUAL CRISIS is a jobs crisis…a wealth disparity crisis…and a poverty crisis, so cutting spending on the things that alleviate and address these REAL CRISES (as was proposed) is the very definition of insanity.
I suppose what is all the more ass backwards about the Super
Fraud Committee is that they weren't even tasked with doing ANYTHING about
those real crises I mentioned, which in more specific terms include collapsing
wealth, underwater homes, student loan debt, credit card debt, our collapsing
schools and infrastructure (among others), and Wall Street going back to its
free wheeling criminal ways (they never actually stopped).
It is in this insane “universe” that the Super Committee has been operating – made all the more out dated by the explosion of the Occupy Movement and the refocusing on, well, a reality that is FACT and HUMAN based, rather than deceit and profit based one. In some ways this committee, and the entire debate its engaged in, PERFECTLY exemplifies the dying paradigm I keep talking about...the same one that Occupy Wall Street is out protesting. So I suppose, looking at it that way, it is useful.
It is in this insane “universe” that the Super Committee has been operating – made all the more out dated by the explosion of the Occupy Movement and the refocusing on, well, a reality that is FACT and HUMAN based, rather than deceit and profit based one. In some ways this committee, and the entire debate its engaged in, PERFECTLY exemplifies the dying paradigm I keep talking about...the same one that Occupy Wall Street is out protesting. So I suppose, looking at it that way, it is useful.
It’s interesting that FINALLY Obama drew a line in the sand
and promised a veto of any attempts by the Congress to override the triggers.
Of course, where was this strength when it came to things like the public
option and the Bush tax cuts? So while I like to see him stick it to the GOP
and stand up for something, he needs to do a whole lot more of it on a whole
lot more important issues.
And let’s look at those triggers. We’re hearing a lot of
fear mongering from the military industrial complex, but in reality, what we’re
looking at is around a 9% cut in the non-defense discretionary programs
impacted by the trigger (programs for the poor are mostly exempted), and a 9%
cut in defense. A 9% cut to a military budget larger than the rest of the world
combined isn’t exactly the Armageddon being proclaimed.
Plus, consider the context: Since President Barack Obama took office the defense budget has actually grown from $513 billion to $530 billion, according to The Associated Press. Additional spending on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has increased from $153 billion to $159 billion. The Congressional Budget Office estimates (PDF) that the total base defense budget will increase to $665 billion by 2028 if there are no cuts. Because the triggered cuts are spread over a 10-year period, overall defense spending would still grow each year, albeit at a slower rate.
As Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Larry Korb
writes, “Panetta grossly exaggerates when he says it would be
disastrous if projected levels of defense spending are reduced by an additional
$500 billion if the bipartisan “super committee” deadlocks and automatic cuts go
into effect…Since the defense budget has grown by more than 50 percent over the
past 10 years, it can easily absorb a 15 percent reduction — which would be
about half the defense cuts of Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon and less than
that of George H. W. Bush.”
So, as I have argued, I wanted the Super Committee to fail
because the Democrats tried, unsuccessfully, to do just about anything to reach
a deal, including cuts to social security and Medicare (which is criminal)…but
without the defense cuts we’ll at least get in the trigger.
To look at it more closely, in 2013, when these cuts take
effect, you’re talking about a reduction of around $109.3 billion per year from
those agency budgets. There is no back-loading of the cuts; it’s a straight
$109.3 billion per year for 9 years. The reduction in interest payments on the
debt get you to $1.2 trillion. If you take into account inflation, you could
say that the cuts are front-loaded, actually. There are also a few cuts to
mandatory spending. Granted, this isn’t good…particularly when people are
hurting already. On the other hand, anything the super committee would have
agreed upon would have been worse, particularly in giving Defense a free pass.
Media False Equivalencies and Doing Nothing
One of the big, huge lies coming out of the Matrix since the
failure of the Super Committee to reach a deal is that both sides were equally
to blame (and if Obama talks about “Washington” being broken again I’m going to
scream…it’s the GOP who are recalcitrant). Let’s be real clear, say what you
want about Democrats, and I do here all the time, one thing they are NOT is
against compromise!!! My god, they may as well have had their pants down with
thumbs in their mouths…but even THAT wasn’t enough.
It wasn’t more than a few years ago that Democrats would
NEVER have offered up Medicare and social security – particularly in light of
the fact that deficits were caused by wars, tax cuts, and Wall street. Yet,
here they are, offering just that, and yet, here are the Republicans demanding
MORE TAX CUTS for the rich AND deep cuts…and anything less than that is
socialist. And, here’s the media talking about how “Washington can’t
compromise” anymore. What a crock of shit.
Again, the context is what’s critical yet never provided:
this all proves how DRASTICALLY our government has moved to the right, with the
GOP in stone cold fascism/corporatocry/plutocracy land, and the Democrats
inching closer to where the GOP was just 30 years ago (not to say they want the
same things as that GOP wanted, but that they advocate it in order to
compromise with the GOP…which is no excuse).
As David Dayen notes, “There’s an undercurrent of
tut-tutting of liberals who rooted for failure on the Super Committee to be
careful what they wish for. You see, unemployed people will be hurt now because
of the failure to cut benefits for Medicare and Social Security. The “grand
bargain” was so important that the demise of it will harm the economy. The
Super Committee was a terrible, anti-democratic idea based on the notion that
12 legislators could be compelled to reach agreement for an entire Congress,
and be given a fast-track process to implement that agreement without input
from the other 523 elected members of Congress. Its defeat is actually a
triumph of democracy, because it signals that the people can still impact a
closed process of elites.
The emergence of Occupy Wall Street along with the
President’s unveiling of the American Jobs Act changed the conversation in the
country and de-fanged the media bias toward budget deficits. The cuts are
painful and arguably front-loaded, and will have a major impact if the economy
doesn’t fully recover by 2013, when they would take effect. In the near term,
the expiring stimulus measures, which run out in six weeks, are the main
potential fiscal drag on the economy (and no, I don’t think they were pre-ordained
to be extended by a Super Committee agreement). Over the next year, the
sequester will provide a fiscal drag of its own. Combined with the $900 billion
in cuts from the spending cap, you’re talking about over $2 trillion of
austerity, which really will start to hurt in 2012 and especially come 2013.
It’s not clear the economy will be ready."
Here’s the key point, and we should all be watching for what
the President and the Democrats start saying on this soon…and that’s the Bush
tax cuts expiring. Remember, all we have to do is let them do just that and the
deficit is largely addressed – more so than either party’s proposals in this
bogus committee would have ($1.3 trillion to be exact…more than that if you
count other taxes that are going to expire like the alternative minimum)!
I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t want my taxes increased,
nor do people of less economic means. But again, it’s about choices. If the
choice is between Bush’s tax cuts expiring or draconian cuts to what’s left of the
social safety net, that’s certainly the better option.
The problem is that the President is still talking about
extending almost all of the Bush tax cuts, except for those above $250,000 of
income…but the problem is there’s no real way to split the taxes out….which
tells me he’s not committed to ending those tax cuts at all (yet another false
promise). Yes, if all things were equal, he would support raising them on the
rich…but that’s just not going to happen.
By the way, the GOP was demanding a ration of 181:1 in
spending cuts to tax increases…so we should be THANKFUL the Democrats rejected
it…Chris
Hayes offers some important points on this wholecharade…sadly missing from
the rest of the corporate media (aside from most of the MSNBC nighttime lineup.
Banana Republic Facts…and More Context
Let me just again provide some economic REALITIES that stand in stark contrast to the Super Committee kabuki dance and the media’s reporting of it all:
- In just the last generation, the richest 1% almost quadrupled their incomes.
- The average wealth of the 1% is 225 times bigger than the wealth of the typical household - the highest its ever been.
- Three decades ago, CEOs made about 40 times as much as an average worker now CEOs make almost 200 times as much as regular employees.
- Last year, half of Americans earned less than $26,000 while CEOs at top 500 companies raked in an average of $11 million.
- Over the past decade, earnings for middle-class Americans actually fell. In fact, working Americans wages are now a lower percentage of our economy than theyve ever been.
- The divide between the richest and the poorest is worse in America than it is in nearly all of Europe and Asia and much of Africa. Its about as bad as in Rwanda and Serbia and its bad for our economy.
- The 1% is not an accident it is the result of policies our government chose to pursue.
Let me make one more point: the top 0.1% of this country
earn HALF of all capital gains - which are taxed at just 15% (this again is how
wealth is ALREADY REDISTRIBUTED...but upwards in this country). If the Super
Committee was actually designed to address the need of people and the quality
of life in this country then this would have been at the top of the agenda?
The fact is capital gains are one of the key forces driving income disparity in the US. As detailed by Robert Lezner, "Income and wealth disparities become even more absurd if we look at the top 0.1% of the nation's earners- rather than the more common 1%. The top 0.1%- about 315,000 individuals out of 315 million- are making about half of all capital gains on the sale of shares or property after 1 year; and these capital gains make up 60% of the income made by the Forbes 400.
Surveillance State Irony
The fact is capital gains are one of the key forces driving income disparity in the US. As detailed by Robert Lezner, "Income and wealth disparities become even more absurd if we look at the top 0.1% of the nation's earners- rather than the more common 1%. The top 0.1%- about 315,000 individuals out of 315 million- are making about half of all capital gains on the sale of shares or property after 1 year; and these capital gains make up 60% of the income made by the Forbes 400.
Surveillance State Irony
This is from my Privacy Revolt post, but I think its worth pointing out here too:
All the incredible video documenting grotesque police abuse of
peaceful protesters across the country provides a bit of irony: Just as we
citizens are being increasingly watched by both commercial and governmental
interests (like the UC Davis pepper spraying), so too can we now watch them -
and use it to our advantage.
Consider the bigger picture...whether its the knowledge that everything we do on the internet is followed and stored, that we can be wiretapped for no reason and without a warrant or probable cause, that smart grid systems monitor our daily in home habits and actions, that our emails can be intercepted, that our naked bodies must be viewed at airports and stored, that our book purchases can be accessed (particularly if Google gets its way and everything goes electronic), that street corner cameras are watching our every move, and that RFID tags and GPS technology allow for the tracking of clothes, cars, and phones (and the list goes on)...what is certain is privacy itself is on life support in this country...and without privacy there is no freedom. I also fear how such a surveillance society stifles dissent and discourages grassroots political/social activism that challenges government and corporate power...something that we desperately need more of in this country, not less.
Consider the bigger picture...whether its the knowledge that everything we do on the internet is followed and stored, that we can be wiretapped for no reason and without a warrant or probable cause, that smart grid systems monitor our daily in home habits and actions, that our emails can be intercepted, that our naked bodies must be viewed at airports and stored, that our book purchases can be accessed (particularly if Google gets its way and everything goes electronic), that street corner cameras are watching our every move, and that RFID tags and GPS technology allow for the tracking of clothes, cars, and phones (and the list goes on)...what is certain is privacy itself is on life support in this country...and without privacy there is no freedom. I also fear how such a surveillance society stifles dissent and discourages grassroots political/social activism that challenges government and corporate power...something that we desperately need more of in this country, not less.
The result of this video has been millions of hits, calls
for the firing of the Chancellor and cops responsible, an investigation of the
incident, and even greater resolve in students across the state and country to
continue to speak out against ever increasing tuition costs and fee increases
(among MANY legitimate complaints). Granted, we will see if justice is served,
and we all know that video alone isn't enough to convict even the most
glaringly abusive and illegal tactics. Nor does video guarantee real, systemic
reforms to what is clearly an increasingly authoritarian, and militarized
police force.
But certainly, it VASTLY improves the potential that justice
will be realized -and reforms will be instituted. More than anything though,
what this kind of peoples surveillance offers is the ability to educate the
larger public about what is really going on in this country - particularly when
you have the temerity to speak out against "the elites". This
education opportunity, and how it might serve to motivate and inspire more
people to get involved with their democracy and demand change (as well as make
cops think twice about their actions) shouldn't be discounted.
If you want to see what I mean, check out Joshua Holland's Caught on "Camera: Ten Shockingly Violent Police Assault on Occupy Protesters"and consider whether it impacts your opinion on these matters.
If you want to see what I mean, check out Joshua Holland's Caught on "Camera: Ten Shockingly Violent Police Assault on Occupy Protesters"and consider whether it impacts your opinion on these matters.
Bank Transfer Day Success
Just an update on the documented success of that effort: During “Bank Transfer Day” earlier this month, 40,000 Americans moved their money from the nation’s biggest banks to credit unions, voicing their distaste with the action’s of America’s financial behemoths. About 650,000 Americans joined credit unions in October, which is more people than in all of 2010 combined. According to cg42, a consulting firm that does work for the biggest banks, “the nation’s 10 biggest banks could stand to lose as much as $185 billion in deposits in the next year due to customer defections.” Of the banks, “Bank of America is the most vulnerable and could lose up to 10% of its customers and $42 billion in consumer deposits in the next year.”
Michael Moore Proposes 10 Demands to Occupy Wall
Street
Honestly, these are all fantastic and DEAD ON…while I don’t necessarily think there’s a hurry to create this platform, I think this is as good as anything I’ve seen to date, and goes the heart of THE REAL CRISES we face…including our “democracy crisis”
I would go check them out individually for yourself, but
here’s the overall vision statement of the movement itself (at least the one
submitted to the General Assembly by the committee Moore is in)…couldn’t say it
better myself:
We Envision: [1] a truly free, democratic, and just society;
[2] where we, the people, come together and solve our problems by consensus;
[3] where people are encouraged to take personal and collective responsibility
and participate in decision making; [4] where we learn to live in harmony and
embrace principles of toleration and respect for diversity and the differing
views of others; [5] where we secure the civil and human rights of all from
violation by tyrannical forces and unjust governments; [6] where political and
economic institutions work to benefit all, not just the privileged few; [7]
where we provide full and free education to everyone, not merely to get jobs
but to grow and flourish as human beings; [8] where we value human needs over
monetary gain, to ensure decent standards of living without which effective
democracy is impossible; [9] where we work together to protect the global
environment to ensure that future generations will have safe and clean air,
water and food supplies, and will be able to enjoy the beauty and bounty of
nature that past generations have enjoyed.
VIDEO SECTION
From Up With Chris Hayes: Lobbying Firm's Memo Spells Out Plan to Undermine Occupy Wall Street:
Stephen Colbert let the Super Committee and the Congress have it for agreeing on cuts to veterans’ benefits…once again, taking it out on the foot soldiers…
Occupy Wall Street protester and blogger Jesse LaGreca, visits Ed Schultz, and once again proves himself to be an EXCELLENT spokesperson (he’s the guy that dismantled that Fox news reporter):
No Deal Is The Best Deal…watch the great Bernie Sanders EDUCATE Wolf Blitzer…and viewers on what REAL democratic party values are (irony being he’s an independent):
More from Bernie Sanders on the GOP getting everything they
want…but its never enough…just as no amount of money is ever enough for Wall
Street:
One of the women beaten and pepper sprayed by cops while PREGNANT just had a miscarriage:
And, Keith Olbermann’s Worst Persons…including Mayor
Bloomberg and Gingrich:
ARTICLE SECTION
Here’s what attempted co-option of OWS looks like, By Glenn Greenwald
A FEW CLIPS:
That said, people I respect and who are well-intentioned
have advanced reasonable arguments as to why the Occupy movement
would be well-advised to start demanding specific legislative changes
and/or backing candidates, and some have even proposed ideas for how they can and should do that. Some of those arguments are
compelling (though ultimately unpersuasive to me for the reasons I just
described), but everyone participating in the Occupy protests can and should —
and ultimately will — decide for themselves if they think their grievances are
best addressed through that tactic.
But whatever else is true, the notion — advanced by SEIU —
that it’s the Democratic Party and the Obama White House working to bring about
these changes and implant these values of the 99% is so self-evidently false as
to be insulting. Agitating for passage of the jobs bill is a perfectly
reasonable and sensible step, but how can casting that in such starkly partisan
terms be justified when numerous key Democratic officials opposed the bill and
prevented its passage (just as an always-changing
roster of numerous key Democrats — the Villains of the Moment — almost always
act to protect the interests
of Washington’s permanent ruling factions)?
Beyond that, and more important, does SEIU think that people
will just ignore these key political facts? How does anyone think these
protesters will be convinced that it’s exclusively the GOP — and not the
Democratic Party and the Obama WH — who “protect the rich” when: Wall Street funded the Democrats far more than the GOP in the 2008 election; the Democrats’
key money man, Charles Schumer, is one of the most devoted Wall Street servants in the country;
Obama empowered in key positions Wall Street servants such as Tim Geithner, Larry Summers, Bill Daley, Rahm Emanuel, and an endless roster
of former Goldman officials; JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has been dubbed “Obama’s favorite banker” after
Obama publicly defended his post-bailout $17 million bonus;
the President named the CEO of GE to head his jobs panel; the DCCC
and DSCC exist to ensure the nomination of corporatist
candidates and Blue Dogs whose political worldview is servitude
to the lobbyist class; the Democratic President, after vocally urging an Age of Austerity, tried very hard to
usher in cuts to Social Security and an increase in the age for Medicare eligibility; and the Obama
administration has not only ensured virtually no accountability for the rampant Wall Street fraud
that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis, but is actively pressuring New York Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman and others to agree to a woefully inadequate settlement to
forever shield banks from the consequences of their pervasive mortgage fraud.
Woman Gets Jail For Food-Stamp Fraud; Wall Street Fraudsters Get Bailouts, by Matt Taibbi
A FEW CLIPS:
Apparently in this country you become ineligible to eat if you have a record of criminal drug offenses. States have the option of opting out of that federal ban, but Mississippi is not one of those states. Since McLemore had four drug convictions in her past, she was ineligible to receive food stamps, so she lied about her past in order to feed her two children. The total "cost" of her fraud was $4,367. She has paid the money back. But paying the money back was not enough for federal Judge Henry Wingate.
SNIP
Compare this court decision to the fraud settlements on Wall
Street. Like McLemore,fraud defendants like Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and
Deutsche Bank have "been the beneficiary of government generosity."
Goldman got $12.9 billion just through the AIG bailout. Citigroup got $45
billion, plus hundreds of billions in government guarantees.
All of these companies have been repeatedly dragged into
court for fraud, and not one individual defendant has ever been forced to give
back anything like a significant portion of his ill-gotten gains. The closest
we've come is in a fraud case involving Citi, in which a pair of executives,
Gary Crittenden and Arthur Tildesley, were
fined the token amounts of $100,000 and $80,000, respectively, for lying to
shareholders about the extent of Citi’s debt. Neither man was forced to admit
to intentional fraud. Both got to keep their jobs.
SNIP
Here’s another thing that boggles my mind: You get busted
for drugs in this country, and it turns out you can make yourself ineligible to
receive food stamps. But you can be a serial fraud offender like Citigroup,
which has repeatedly been dragged into court for the same offenses and has
repeatedly ignored court injunctions to abstain from fraud, and this does not
make you ineligible to receive $45 billion in bailouts and other forms of
federal assistance. This is the reason why all of these settlements allowing
banks to walk away without "admissions of wrongdoing" are
particularly insidious. A normal person, once he gets a felony conviction,
immediately begins to lose his rights as a citizen.
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