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Oh No! Not Again. My Stomach Still Hurts.
The American Society is subverted. Our priorities are all wrong. Our president continues to lie & yet is fabulously popular – at least for the moment.
In today’s newspaper the Bush Administration denies the worker a minuscule roll back in Social Security taxes (This is hard to write about; it’s so disturbing.) because they need this workingman’s tax to fund their wars of exploitation to satisfy their greed. (I think I need something to eat. – Such suppression, such fear.) Financing their bloated budget with Social Security Taxes allows the Bush Administration to continue: 1. Exploiting indigenous cultures throughout the world, 2. Run an incredibly unbalanced budget, 3. Give the Rich a monstrous tax break.
All the Politicians are drooling over the incredible amount of loot raised from Social Security Taxes. The recent raise in SS Taxes gives the Federalis 7 Billion extra Dollars to squander in 1990 – 55 extra Billion Dollars to buy more guns in 1991.
Unfortunately our government owes over Two Trillion Dollars with an annual interest payment of nearly 200 Billion Dollars – which happens to be the same size as our National Deficit. We’re supposedly in bad shape economically! This leads to the next topic.
If We’re Broke Why Do We Give El Salvador
1.5 Million Dollars a Day?
This disturbing fact was also revealed in today’s newspaper. (It disturbs me so much – I need some more chips. Children are such a great distraction. Wait, I lost my pen. I don’t really want to express such radical ideas. I just want to enjoy my family & friends. “Trivialities!” screams the Political Activist.)
“Whatsamata wit you?” says the Leader. “You tryin’ to stir things up for the rest of us. You have a nice home on the hill. You pay little taxes compared with the average wage earner. You’re a landowner, even a landlord. You should be on my side.
What’s your problem, buddy? You are certainly not one of the downtrodden poor. You must be one of those damned ‘bleeding heart’ liberals – the dreaded ‘L’ word –trying to stir up trouble, just like that damned Jimmy Carter. Why not just leave well enough alone? Don’t worry! We rich will take care of our own bank accounts first. <Wait. That’s not what I meant to say. Let me rephrase that.> Those of us who are wealthy will always take care of the poor – by milking them for all they are worth. <Hey! You’re putting words into my big mouth.> I’ll take care of those that took care of me. <No, No! That’s not what I meant to say.> You remember the trickle down theory – how it trickles down into my bank account. <Uh … er …> I’ll be able to give all those poor people jobs - paying them minimum rage, er I mean wage. Then we raise Social Security Taxes to finance my new wars on the backs of the poor wage earner. <Don’t mess with my words!>”
Saliva is now dripping down the side of Skippy’s mouth as he starts to think about how many bombs and guns the excess Social Security funds will give him. But then he begins to slobber in typical political fashion.
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A Letter to the President
Look Sparky, Spunky, Skippy, or whatever your name is, this is nothing personal. I just get a pit in my stomach, when I hear that we as a nation don’t have enough money to fund social services – even though there is plenty of money. We’re just spending it faster than we make it.
You as President have made as your top priority lowering the taxes for the rich & raising the taxes for the poor. Your Republican administration last year earned $200 billion less than you spent. You used this as an excuse to cut back on Arts, Music, Health, Education, & Welfare. Then I can’t believe you spend $1.5 Million dollars daily – not monthly or yearly, but daily on this tiny Central American country of El Salvador. Yes, I said daily. Further we’ve been spending this much money since the early 1980’s when Reagan came into power.
Almost 1 billion dollars in military aid alone goes to El Salvador with a little over 5 million people. This means we’ve given each person – man, woman & child, $200 to arm themselves. A family of 4 children plus 2 adults has been given $1200 for guns & weapons. And the money continues to pour in even as we speak.
If we are so broke that we need to cut back on social services, why are we spending so much money on this postage stamp country[1]? To understand let’s examine …
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The Worker doesn’t stand a Chance
The recipe is simple. First pump in 1 billion dollars in military aid to the half the population you favor. Watch as a police state is created. Now pump in 2 billion in economic aid to the leaders of the country – those with all the guns. Watch corruption & graft become a way of life. Watch an economic dependency grow – destroying self-sufficiency. Watch this distortion – designed to create dissension, division, & destruction, succeed in making us rich – beyond our wildest imaginings.
Of course the Army we funded is there to enforce our unwritten Bill of Rights, i.e. International Corporations have the freedom & liberty to exploit Indigenous Populations at will – with no interference from those malignant Commie sympathizers – champions of the dreaded worker’s rights – enemy of the all-mighty Profit.
Big Business drooling psychotically: “Why those Commies are trying to help the people organize to demand some basic rights – which cost money – reducing my obscene profits <Hey! Someone is twisting my words!> … my hard-earned profits.”
“Hard-earned on the backs of peasants.”
“Who are you, anyway – some sort of demagogue rabble-rouser? I might have you investigated if you don’t watch out. Beware the Roundup. Besides everything I’ve done is legal. Just ask my international attorney. We’ve provided him with a country villa in France, his own private jet, private health insurance, and a yacht thrown in for good measure. The arrangements had better be legal. I certainly paid enough. See! We do take care of our employees. Join our side, the Corporate world, while you can.”
& So do his Lips
President Bush: “Read my lips.” And he mouths the phrase, “I won’t raise taxes.” But what are his lips really saying?
News brief SBNP Jan. 90:
“While President Bush talks about “a kinder, gentler nation,” Laura Rosetree says everything about his face-- from his straight eyelids to his narrow nose & thin-lipped smile – suggests that Bush isn’t very keen on kindness.
And about those lips. “What they suggest is that Bush controls his speech very carefully, “ said Rosetree, a self-proclaimed expert in analyzing faces to learn what they reveal about personality. He doesn’t say whatever he’s really feeling or thinking,” said Rosetree of Silver Springs, Md. “If you literally read his lips, they are proclaiming, ‘I’m not ever going to get sentimental on you. I’m not going to be a bleeding heart.’ His strong suit isn’t hearts; it’s clubs,” Rosetree said.”
Bush says he will not raise taxes. He should have said that he would lower taxes for the rich – as his top priority as president is to reduce the capital gains tax. He mentions that the poor can take advantage of the capital gains tax also. What he doesn’t mention is that the poor don’t have anything worth selling.
To fund this tax cut for the rich he taps into the worker’s retirement account – generated by Social Security taxes – which are taken directly from the paycheck. A marvelous way of milking the working class to pay for wars of exploitation – as this protection money is automatically deducted from the paychecks of hundreds of millions of workers across the United States.
In contrast those earning money from rent, stocks, bonds, and interest are exempt from this tax. Further due to the cap on Social Security contributions the more money that is made, the lower the tax rate. Conversely fifty percent of the income of those workers earning less than $50,000 per year goes to taxes[2]. And those poor people making over $100K per year are complaining about their high tax rate.
The Administration raids the worker’s retirement account to fund government spending. They say we must cut social services due to the enormous budget deficit and yet Bush has made tax reduction for the rich his highest priority. It’s a great system we live in.
Obviously President Bush wants to redistribute the wealth of the poor into the hands of the Military - who serve the Rich - the Class to which he and his friends belong. He’s allowing the Social Security tax rate to rise, basically a ‘worker’s tax’, while he wants to lower the property gains tax, basically a ‘rich tax’. He wants to reduce social services, which mainly go the working classes, while he wants to increase military spending, which mainly protects the interests of the wealthy.
Simultaneously he says that he’s looking out for the interests of the working class in America. Strangely enough they believe him.
The Social Security tax is called a ‘worker’s tax’ because it is a flat tax of over 15% on the ‘working poor’ – all Americans, who make less that $60K a year – on a paycheck or from self-employment income. Half of the SS taxes come from the direct wage of the Worker while the other half comes from the indirect wage related to the Employer’s labor costs. . [The self-employed pay the full 15.2 % flat tax.] While only 7.6% is taken from the direct wage for Social Security taxes, the employer must match this amount. This money comes out of his labor costs. The labor costs determine his ability to give raises. Therefore the rising Social Security taxes cut into the funds used to raise wages.
The idle rich pay no Social Security Tax – for those who make money on investments such as interest, rents, stocks or real estate pay no such tax. Further there is an absolute cap on how much Social Security taxes high salaried executives must pay. The wealthy, who do any work, pay only a limited amount of Social Security taxes, while wealthy who do no work pay no Social Security taxes. It is obvious that Social Security taxes are a tax on the working poor, not on the idle rich.
Nearly one out of every six dollars that is earned by the average wage earner goes to the government in the form of Social Security taxes. This does not include Federal and State taxes. This is only the Social Security taxes. This money is presumably saved in a special SS fund for redistribution to workers when they retire. Unfortunealty these Social Security Taxes, which are intended for the retirement account workers, goes to the military instead.
Strange as it seems such a huge Social Security fund, which the Media deems a Surplus, has been generated that the Rich are now considering this as part of the general tax fund - which is used to support our enormous military budget - which is used to exploit and dominate 3rd world countries everywhere - which leads us to our next topic.
It makes me want to barf.