We are in a painful recession. Too often it seems like DC hears more about the concern of billionaires who don’t want to lose their tax cuts, and too little about the parent of two who works long hours and barely is getting by. And yet Congress votes on whether the billionaire will have more, and whether the working class parent will lose his or her job. These are the votes presently occurring, and which are being treated like a drawn out political game.
The proposed Federal budget cuts are turning into another political sideshow. The process of the budget is being treated as a chess game, a battle over politics and procedure, and one that may go on for a long time still, narrated by talking heads throughout.
If you are an American in need of a job, or one afraid that your job will be cut in the budget proposals, it isn’t just a DC soap opera. The reverberations of the proposed cuts are drastic and personal. States and cities throughout the country feel the impact of the cuts through the stories of those waiting with every news cycle to hear whether their job, or hope of a job, will be slashed.
The City of Los Angeles is a perfect example of this harm. Los Angeles is already affected by the recession with a whopping 14.5% unemployment.
The proposed federal budget cuts are not abstract to Los Angeles. They would eliminate funding for job creation projects, projects needed to help Vets find work, and they could wipe out training services for youth hoping to find skills, or the homeless, hoping to break the cycle of poverty.
In Los Angeles, the community is not sitting back and letting these proposed cuts happen without a fight. Next Wednesday, March 23rd, Angelinos will rally at the Federal Building in Downtown Los Angeles to say no to such cuts. Cutting jobs is not the answer to recession budgeting. It’s time that our government prioritized working people over billionaires.
If democracy is to work, we have to hope that Wisconsin and Los Angeles, and the other communities that have had enough, send messages strong enough to penetrate the walls of Capitol Hill. It’s time our government support those struggling to get by, and not just those with the money to access power in private backrooms. It’s time we make it know: budget cuts equal job cuts. And America simply can’t afford to cut anymore jobs.
One could argue that tax increases on those that spend the vast majority of their income cost jobs even more so. People in the six figure range aren’t hording their income in savings or necessarily investing it all in the top end of the economy. They are buying the day to day products and services that small businesses provide.
Given that most in these income brackets are fairly financially disciplined they will cut back optional expenditures before they cut investments in their businesses or savings. IE: Tax them at a higher rate and the 24 trips they take to the local Italian restaurant in 2010 may drop to 12 or less in 2011. Multiply that by a few customers and that restaurant may lay off a few employees.
It’s not perfectly analogous but the correlation dopes exist. I’ve seen it at businesses in my neighborhood during the down turn. Should not Gov workers share in the pain with some real cuts to benefits and salaries?
Also isn’t it far past time to stop lumping the low six figure folks in with the high seven figures? Though I am COMPLETELY against progressive taxation rates, for the sake of a rational argument the $150,000 a year 1099/DBA guy should not be lumped in with the $1,000,000 a year Incorporated/Asset Rich guy. They live in different economic realities. Yet the “tax the rich” crowd sees them as twins.
John Maynard Keynes showed that you have to prime the pump in a recession to get the economy going
It’s common knowledge
Even Richard Nixon said: ‘We’re ALL Keynesians, now’
Blame ‘Fearless Leader’ in the White House for not speaking out on this
It’s Conservatives who control the national dialog
We need spending to stimulate the economy
But the coward in thw White House is too busy plotting his re-election and polishing his Nobel Peace Prize to speak out
Barack Obama is a DEAD END