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No one’s happy with where America is today.  Too many problems, not enough solutions, everything moves too slowly in Washington — or action is blocked entirely by politicians playing games.  In this environment, Democrats tell us that they’re going to frame the November elections as “a choice election.”  Good idea.

The problems the Administration and Congress have inherited from the Bush years, and the years of Republican rule in Washington, are enormous.  It will take decades to dig our nation out of this mess caused by deregulation and tax cuts, unfunded wars, and a tax code that favors the über-wealthy.

So, everything seems a mess because it is.  But because our country is in a mess doesn’t mean we should be led by our frustration and anger to put the Republican’s back into power — the party that actually caused the mess.  Republicans are still singing from the same ole songbook:  tax cuts, deregulation, lower tax rates, repeal of the Estate Tax, privatization of Social Security and Medicare, etc.  No new ideas.  So, if we elect Republicans in November we need to be prepared to see these rejected and failed ideas brought back!

LET’S JOG OUR MEMORIES:  The Republican mantra of “tax-cuts lead to great growth in jobs and a healthy economy” has been debunked — actually debunked by W.’s economic record.  According to the Wall Street Journal (not exactly a bastion of Liberalism!) the data on the economy under Bush, “shows the worst track record for job creation since the government began keeping records.” 

While President Carter created 10.5 million jobs in his 4 year term, W. only created a pitiful 1 million jobs in 8 years.  Ron Brownstein in the National Journal Magazine does a great job comparing former Presidents’ records of job creation. 

Remember, the Republicans justified all their tax cuts by saying they would create jobs.  The data proves that tax cuts did NOT lead to a boom in job creation.  Carter created 3 times as many jobs as W., and in half the time.  And, of course, Bill Clinton created 23 million jobs while raising tax rates on the wealthy, which helped eliminate the deficit and create a surplus.  So, tax cuts gave us low job growth, and tax hikes gave us high job growth.  And President Obama is on track to create more jobs in this year alone than W. did in his entire eight.

Under W. there was a growth of 8.3 million people who fell below the poverty line.  The National Journal tells us that economically, “On every major measurement, the country lost ground during Bush’s two terms.”

CNBC recently stated that “we tried Bush’s economic plan, and we wound up with a disaster.”  And according to the Center for American Progress, W.’s supply side economics, “fostered the weakest jobs and income growth in more than six decades…sluggish business investment and weak gross domestic product growth.” 

Most Americans still blame W. and not Obama for our economic situation.  We just need to keep reminding them that even though the mess we’re in is not being easily cleaned up, we don’t want to go back to the party that created the mess in the first place.  In this election, America has a clear CHOICE.

CLN was in attendance at a recent reception for Democratic Senatorial candidate for Pennsylvania — former Admiral and current Congressman, Joe Sestak.  The event was held in San Francisco and was immensely enjoyed by the small and intimate gathering.  Each of the attendees had an opportunity to have a conversation with the candidate, following his passionate and moving presentation.  Overhead was the remark, “He’s the real deal.” 

This race is really of national importance, as the future of Democratic control in the Senate is at stake, as well as the fact that we can’t afford to lose Blue State Pennsylvania.  GOP opponent, Pat Toomey, is a scary right-wingnut who still advocates drilling for oil in the Great Lakes, and is a past President of the far-right group The Club for Growth — an anti-tax organization that fought hard against raising the minimum wage and for repealing the Estate Tax for the über-wealthy.  He is a former Wall Street derivatives trader, who supports deregulation and the privatization of Social Security.  Toomey has a 97% lifetime rating with the American Conservative Union — higher than former GOP wing-nut Senator Rick Santorum at only 88%.  You remember Rick Santorum:  he led the Senate effort to keep Terry Schiavo’s body alive when her brain was gone.  Yup, this guy Toomey is farther right than Rick Santorum! 

Sestak presents himself as a pragmatist who evaluates the facts and takes positions based on what works.  He is a passionate progressive who brings a wealth of experience and leadership from his 31 years in the Navy and as a 3-star Admiral, as well as President Bill Clinton’s Director for Defense Policy in the White House.  The Philadelphia Daily New says “Sestak has developed a reputation within both parties for his no-nonsense style, superhuman work ethic and legislative ambitions in a wide range of issues.” 

He’s truly impressive.

Joe Sestak needs money for the general election.  Toomey has $7M in the bank, and Sestak is playing catch-up.  The good news is that Joe Sestak is currently leading in the polls.  To get involved in this campaign please check the Sestak Campaign website and learn more about the differences between the two candidates by watching the 7 different videos presented. 

We completely enjoyed ourselves at this event, having the opportunity to chat with Joe Sestak and get a personal feel for who he is, and what he hopes to do for our nation.  Morning Di even got a kiss on the cheek from the candidate for her encouraging smiles and nods during the Congressman’s presentation! 

This upcoming election cycle is such an important one, and several of these races may be close.  The future of this Presidency may be at stake, and our side of the aisle needs to get re-energized.  This race is one to follow.

Hey, anybody see The Rachael Maddow show on MSNBC Friday night?  Hooray for Rachael because she’s the first cable or network host to explain to the American people the somewhat difficult to understand fact that drilling for oil off our own shores will NOT lead our nation to energy independence.

We at CLN addressed that sticky (no pun intended) oil issue in a previous posting on May 26 titled OFF-SHORE DRILLING HOAX.  Americans have been bamboozled into thinking that allowing big oil companies to do risky deep water drilling for oil will help our country to be independent of foreign oil.  IT’S A LIE!

As we said in May, and Rachael so eloquently put it on Friday, “The oil drilled for in our country does not belong to the American people.”  IT BELONGS TO THE OIL COMPANIES WHO THEN SELL IT ON THE WORLDWIDE MARKET. 

That oil taken from our national territory goes to the highest bidder, not to benefit our country.  America takes the risk to our environment;  big oil takes the profits.

Yea Rachael!

CHECK-IT-OUT:  The Dallas Morning News

“I’m ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) during a hearing on Thursday morning with BP’s CEO Tony Hayward.  “I think it is a tragedy in the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown — in this case a $20 billion shakedown … I’m only speaking for myself. I’m not speaking for anyone else, but I apologize,”  Barton added, “I do not want to live in a county where anytime a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, [it is] subject to some sort of political pressure that, again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown.”

Okay?!?  So … it’s a tragedy that BP is being made to pay for the damages they’ve inflicted on our courntry?

We learn from Wikipedia that, Texas “Congressman Joe Barton has taken $1.4 million in campaign contributions from the oil industry since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.  And we’re also informed that Joe Barton’s biggest contributor is Texas oil company, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, which is one quarter owner in the Deep Water Horizon rig!

And, “Barton has actively obstructed implementation of clean air standards, work that has earned him huge pay-offs from companies such as Texas Industries which operated a cement kiln in Midlothian, Texas and burns hazardous waste for fuel with insufficient technology to prevent the resulting air pollution throughout North Texas.” 

At last, the masquerade mask is being removed — and we are beginning to see the real face of the Conservative movement.  The true constituency of the righties is international corporations, NOT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.  PERIOD.

CHECK-IT-OUT:  Righties in the Senate are refusing to approve an extension to unemployement benefits for millions of Americans, even though there is an off-set in the legislation that would help pay for the costs.  This off-set is actually a first, as unemployment benefits have historically been approved as “emergency spending” without any budget off-sets.  The off-set in this current bill is a proposed closure of an income tax-loophole for the wealthiest among us, one which we discussed in our most recent post — INCOME INEQUALITY — that allows a mere 15% tax bracket for wealthy investors — while top salary earners pay at the rate 35%.  

The New York Times editorial on Tuesday concludes, “The fact that lawmakers are not willing to ask the nation’s wealthiest to pay their fair share of taxes also makes a mockery of all their talk about deficit reduction.”

Why is it that wealthy investors cannot be asked to pay their fair share of taxes and continue to benefit from lowered taxes, while unemployeed American citizens are asked to find a way for their families to “get by” with no job, no healthcare, and no income?

The number of millionaires in America increased 16% last year — in this economy.  The richest 1% of Americans now hold financial wealth that is six times greater than the financial wealth of the entire bottom 80% of Americans!  Income inequality in the U.S. is now greater than it has ever been in the last 100 years, and is much greater than it was in the thirty years following World War II (by the way, when the tax rates on the wealthy were much higher).  The U.S. now has one of the highest levels of income inequality, and is one of only a few developed countries where inequality has increased since 1980. 

Our country has become a far more unequal and unfair society.

The Southern Economic Journal found in a study that “71% of American economists believe the distribution of income in the U.S. should be more equal, and 81% feel that the redistribution of income is a legitimate role for government.”

Alan Greenspan said in June of 2005, “As I’ve often said…this (increasing income inequality) is not the type of thing which a democratic society — a capitalist democratic society — can really accept without addressing.”

Income inequality disrupts and roils societies by provoking rage, resentment and class tensions.  We believe that these inequalities are actually what is behind the bitter hostilities we hear on talk radio, and are at the heart of the tea party movement.  America doesn’t seem fair any more, and at the moment, the anger and rage unleashed in our nation — by the loss of opportunity to “better our station in life” — is directed at the government.  And, not without reason.

Our government has sold out to corporations and the wealthiest among us.  The wealthy are not paying their fair share in taxes — they pay only 15% on investment income, vs. 35% on earned income paid by the highest tax bracket of working Americans.  The “trickle-down theory” of economics has failed miserably, but our government has yet to dismantle the system.

Republicans are hell-bent to eliminate the Estate Tax on the wealthiest among us, which was promoted in the early 20th century by President Theodore Roosevelt and steel baron and philanthropist, Andrew Carnegie — as a way to attack this concentration of wealth at the top that they thought was a serious threat to democracy.  And even billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have spoken out in support of the Estate Tax.  In 2007 Warren Buffett told Congress that without an Estate Tax the U.S. is at risk of becoming a “dynastic plutocracy.”

Unless Congress revises the law by January 1st (which they are expected to do) the total of estates that would be impacted in 2011 could go from 5,500 last year to 44,200 next year.  And yet, even with that huge increase in the number of families taxed on inheritance that is less than 2% of the 2.5 million Americans who will die next year.  That figure is historically a very low-level — in the 1970s the percentage was 7.6, when the Estate Tax exemption was at $230,000 in today’s dollars.

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle-class is slipping downward.  There is definitely something seriously wrong and desperately unfair with our economic and tax systems.

The number of American multimillionaires rose last year, while American workers continued to suffer.  The unemployment rate is stubbornly high, millions of Americans lost their homes and worker’s wages have stagnated for decades.  The U.S. is unique among industrialized nations in its enormous income inequality. 

Data from the U.S. Department of Labor tells us that if this inequality stays at its current rate, the gap in incomes in our nation “will resemble that of Mexico by year 2043.”  And, the Oligarchy and Corp-tocracy now running our country will not care — after all, they got theirs and too bad for everyone else!

The American people — through their inattention and lack of understanding — are allowing the wealthy ruling class to destroy the American Dream, and that dream is at the heart of what our nation means to us and to the rest of the world.  Yes, the government is at fault — at fault for deregulating corporations and cutting taxes for the top wealthy 1%, and for allowing this powerful upper class to amass so much wealth and power to the detriment of the rest of the American people and our nation.

And yet, when the administration suggests that it would be helpful to return the tax rates on the wealthy to the levels enacted by Ronald Reagan, the Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats scream, “Socialism!”  Alan Greenspan is one of those American economists who feel that our nation must address this income inequality issue if we are to survive and prosper as a country.  Last time we checked, Alan Greenspan is NOT a Socialist!

The American people are angry.  But, they need to focus their anger on the right target.  It is corporations and the top 1% of the wealthy, and their Washington lackeys, that deserve our wrath.  The current diffused and generalized rage against “the government” isn’t targeting those that are, at the core, responsible;  and only until we hold the guilty accountable will we begin to turn our nation in the right direction. 

Only when we realize that our nation has become a ‘by the wealthy/for the wealthy’ aristrocracy, and focus our demand for change on those people, can we begin to save the Amerian Dream.

UPDATE:  Please take a look at Tom Friedman’s column  “This Time is Different” in the Sunday New York Times.  He eloquently makes the point we addressed in a previous post — See post on June 6, TIME TO GROW UP — about energy in America, and just who’s responsible for the current fix we’re in.

UPDATE: 

“Louisiana health and environmental officials are asking federal safety officials to make sure workers cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are being protected…..daily reports of injuries and illness have them worried that workers don’t get proper protection.  They asked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on Friday to investigate.”

Huh?

What happened to the Republican’s “Big Government is BAAAAAD and federal agencies that REGULATE private business is government over reach” mantras?  Or how about their, “Free Markets can solve all problems” idealogy?

Make up your mind, Governor Bobby Jindal!  Looks like Republicans are really Democrats when they find themselves and their state in trouble.  THEN they want the Big Bad Federal Government to step in and save them.

Hypocrites.

It is finally time to get “Beyond Petroleum” and we need to do it together as a nation.  The time for political gamesmanship is over, and leadership from both sides of the aisle on a national energy policy is essential.  Hey, Republicans — are you Americans first, or partisans first? 

If the partisans can’t get-it-together (and SOON!) then the American people need to grow up and start DEMANDING that our government pass a comprehensive and effective new national energy policy to move our nation forward — and off of our dependance on oil.

And, most importantly, we must begin to discipline ourselves and cut back on our own use of oil by buying fuel-efficient cars, and supporting — politically and with our own personal dollars — a massive national move to a country that is truly “BEYOND PETROLEUM!”

Perk up your ears and help us listen for examples of Republicans asserting that they “are speaking for the American people.”  They say it all the time.  Guess it’s one of those political strategies that calls for repeating — over and over again — any untruth, in hopes of fooling the American people.

Here are a few examples.  

Last week Representative Mike Spence (R-Indiana) stated on the floor of the House, “the American people don’t want the American military to be used to advance a liberal political agenda.”  He was talking about the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy in the military.

The problem with Congressman Spence’s claim is that almost 80% of the American people DO want DADT repealed.  It looks like “the American people DO want the American military to be used to advance a liberal political agenda.”  Either that or the Republicans are so out of step with the American people that they are now on the wrong side of popular opinion, and actually think that popular opinion is a “liberal political agenda.”  So, how is it that Republicans can legitimately claim that their minority views represent “the American people?”

Well, they can’t legitimately make that claim, but it doesn’t seem to stop them. 

Here’s our other current favorite Republican claim that they speak for the American people.  “The American people want this Health Care Law repealed.”  The problem with this bald-faced assertion is that the polls show that 55% of the American people prefer to “give the new law a chance to work, and if needed make changes to it as it unfolds.”  Once again, Republicans claim to speak for the American people when in fact their views are in the minority!

Watch and listen and let us know if you pick up any more of these bogus claims. It’s really shocking to repeatedly hear them assert that they are speaking for us, when they’re actually speaking for their base of Tea Partiers!