WHEN WILL THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS SLEEPING GIANT AWAKEN?

-By Marlene Rose



As I watched the hundreds of thousands (some say millions) of Hispanics march in the streets of our cities, I couldn’t help but wonder what it will take to awaken the middle class to begin their own march of millions. We know what this Bush administration is after and it is the destruction of the middle class. Bush is destroying our country piece by piece, most recently with the connivance of all but three of the Republicans whose places were cheerfully filled by three Democrats (the 2 Nelsons and Pryor). The nuclear bomb aimed at the middle class to which I am referring is the $70 billion tax cut (not to mention the permanent repeal of the estate tax which is waiting in the wings.) Bush has proven himself an expert in the field of putting politics over the national interest and has used corruption and cronyism to further the financial gains of himself and his friends. I wonder if anyone noticed that the dollar sank 2% against the euro the same day the Republicans gleefully showered more and more tax breaks on their contributors. It’s also interesting that the stock market declined more than 100 points the day of and the day after the Congressional insanity.


Bills come due! If you spend more than you receive whether it is salaries or taxes, eventually you have to pay up. We are heading toward the plight of Germany prior to World War II when a German needed a bushel full of money to buy a loaf of bread. Our dollar has sunk “only” 35% since Bush took office, but the rising national debt and trade deficit are constantly eroding the buying power of the dollar. It is only because multinational corporations are using cheap labor abroad and here (through illegal immigrants) that costs have been kept down. But even Wal-Mart wants to increase the minimum wage because their customers are having a harder and harder time finding affordable products. As for Americans, the unemployment rate, which ignores discouraged workers who have given up looking for jobs, is another case of figures don’t lie but liars figure. Just ask the millions of Americans who are at or near the poverty line how easy it is to survive.


George Bush has finally realized Steve Forbes dream, a flat tax. But it is an inverted flat tax with the poor paying higher federal taxes than the rich. Bush’s flat tax has led to enormous deficits, increased the nation’s debt and trade deficit, forced the debt ceiling to be raised four times during his presidency (we can now borrow up to $8.9 trillion), stolen the trillions of dollars in the Social Security Trust Fund, and allowed corporations and the superrich to avoid taxes and hide their assets so that any taxes due are deferred into the future. Willie Sutton said he robbed banks because that’s where the money is. Bush says transfer wealth to the already rich because that’s where the power (and contributions) are.


The inversion of the tax rate comes because when Bush speaks of federal taxes, he conveniently ignores payroll taxes. A worker making $1 of taxable income may pay a higher rate than the wealthy. The superrich often live off their dividends and capitals gains that are taxed at only 15% (until 2010 at least, thanks to the tax cut extension.). The $1 of taxable wages is taxed at 10% PLUS 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare resulting in a total federal tax rate of 17.65%. On course, if you earn more, you’ll pay a higher rate than 10% while the wealthy are still clipping coupons at 15%.


Unless Americans awaken to the crisis that Bush has created and vote out the Republicans who have enabled him, we are literally doomed. I don’t mean to be overly dramatic, but Bush and his cronies have been working toward an ownership society in which only the wage earners pay taxes and investors collect their money tax-free. Unfortunately, wage earners don’t earn enough to support this government and the superrich make their money on dividends and capital gains, not work. So our society is heading toward a third world, banana republic economy. The gilded age where there were only two classes, the very rich and the very poor, is not far away.


Only a massive turn out to ensure the defeat of the Republicans can save us. With so much concern about voting machine fraud, it will take a massive Democratic vote to prevent another stolen election. Max Cleland was ahead in Georgia by 5% and then lost by 5% (a turn around of 10% in the first state to use Diebold voting machines). We cannot afford a low turnout. The sleeping middle class giant must awaken or there will be no middle class, only the struggling poor and our corporate masters. That’s not something I want to leave to my children and grandchildren.