How About This Compromise? The 1% Start Paying Their Fair Share But Don't Go To Prison

Today Christine Amanpour had Colin Powell on her ABC-TV show, This Week. He sure used the phrase "the 99%" a lot but wasn't really using it the way that's been current of late. In his Times column on Thursday, We Are the 99.9%, Paul Krugman was, as usual, more in the center of the zeitgeist.

“We are the 99 percent” is a great slogan. It correctly defines the issue as being the middle class versus the elite (as opposed to the middle class versus the poor). And it also gets past the common but wrong establishment notion that rising inequality is mainly about the well educated doing better than the less educated; the big winners in this new Gilded Age have been a handful of very wealthy people, not college graduates in general.

Powell was talking about something else, but not something unrelated: national service-- and not necessarily military service. Powell's ideas are the antithesis of the adolescent Ayn Rand "Selfishness and Greed Are Good" philosophy that has been expropriated by the Republican Party which, ironically, once begged him to run for president on their ticket.

Personally, I always felt that the antiwar protesters of the 60's-- myself included-- were doing another kind of service for the country than the kids who went over to fight for the corporate agenda in Vietnam (like Powell). I would have loved Amanpour to ask him today about the service that the OccupyWallStreet folks are doing for the country. Her mind isn't that nimble.

POWELL: We are able to recruit as many soldiers as we need into the military. So even though it's 1 percent of the population, that satisfies a need for troops in the armed forces and, in fact, we're looking to reduce the size of our armed forces in the months ahead. But the issue here is not the 1 percent that are in the military. It's the 99 percent who are not, and how do we make sure that they find it to be a call to serve.
 
AMANPOUR: So how does one, then?
 
POWELL: Well, there are many things going on in this country. And, you know, it isn't as if the 99 percent are not doing anything. There is a huge, huge commitment to service on the part of the American people. And what we want to do is leverage it, get even more, and then make sure it is directed in ways that, you know, the service is providing a useful outcome for the American nation.

... Amanpour: General Stanley McChrystal, the former commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan, wrote quite a provocative essay recently. I want to read a little bit from it.
 
POWELL: Yes.
 
AMANPOUR: Saying that, quote, "We have let the concept of service become dangerously narrow, often associated only with the military. And this allows most Americans to avoid the sense of responsibility essential for us to care about our nation and for each other. We expect and demand less of ourselves than we should."
 
What do you make of that? There does seem to be a sort of “we can hide in the corners.”
 
POWELL: I'm sorry. Just I don't fully-- I know the point he's trying to make, but I don't fully agree with him, because in the work I do with the America's Promise Alliance, that I founded at the request of all our presidents, some 14 years ago, we are able to get lots of people involved in service. 
 
We see a lot of ways in which people are stepping forward, to mentor kids in school, to read to kids in school, to give more of their resources to people in need
 
And one of the things we've been doing with the America's Promise Alliance is we made one of the key features of our program service to others among young people. So early as possible in the life of a youngster, you start putting in place that virtue and value are service to country, service to community, service to others. And it'll make a difference as these kids grow up.
 
AMANPOUR: What about this tone in the country right now? It's still very divisive. It's still very sort of brash, some say poisonous. I mean, you can barely get anything done on Capitol Hill, just behind me there. What needs to be done, to actually improve the tone and the ability of people to work together?
 
POWELL: The tone is not-- is not good right now, and our political system here in Washington, particularly up on The Hill-- Congress has become very, very tense in that two sides, Republicans and Democrats, are focusing more and more on their extreme left and extreme right. And we have to come back toward the center in order to compromise.
 
A story I like to tell is our Founding Fathers were able to sit in Philadelphia and make some of the greatest compromises known to man-- tough, tough issues. But they did it. Why? Because they were there to create a country, where we have a Congress now that can't even pass an appropriation bill, and we're running this country on a continuing resolution which is what else are they here for but to pass appropriations bills? 
 
And so we have got to find a way to start coming back together. And let me say this directly. The media has to help us. The media loves this game, where everybody is on the extreme. It makes for great television. It makes for great chatter. It makes for great talk shows all day long with commentators commenting on commentators about the latest little mini-flap up on Capitol Hill. 
 
So what we have to do is sort of take some of the heat out of our political life in terms of the coverage of it, so these folks can get to work quietly.
 
AMANPOUR: I get your point about heat and light, but what about the fact that, in fact, it is one of the political parties, although-- or rather the big political influence, which is the Tea Party, which quotes left and right the Founding Fathers? They say compromise is a dirty word, and they try to point to the Founding Fathers and the Constitution.
 
POWELL: They compromised-- the Founding Fathers compromised on slavery. They had to in order to create a country. They compromised on the composition of the Senate, of the House, of the Supreme Court, of a president-- what are the president's powers? Can you imagine more difficult compromises today? 
 
Compromise is how this country was founded, and unless two people in disagreement with each other don't find a way to reach out to one another and make compromises, you don't get a consensus that allows you to move forward. 
 
But the Tea Party point of view of no compromise whatsoever is not a point of view that will eventually produce a presidential candidate who will win.

Whether it's the corporate media or useful idiots, the problem with the kinds of "compromise" on the table in Washington is that the middle has moved so far to the right, that it's worthless for ordinary working families. That didn't happen by chance. Millions and millions of dollars have been invested in moving the center to the right. Look no further than the conflicted corporate shills that were put on the SuperCommittee. Whose side were they on anyway? Norman Solomon, one of the best of the candidates running for Congress this year (and endorsed by Blue America), has a different kind of compromise he's offering. It would save the souls-- and maybe the lives-- of the Ayn Randians. He sounds a lot like David Korten in offering his Economic Agenda For Main Street.

Create New Green Jobs

• Jobs and sustainability must go hand in hand. As co-chair of the Commission on a Green New Deal for the North Bay, I organized public hearings and heard testimony that repeatedly debunked the false choice between jobs and the environment. By bringing together labor, entrepreneurs and environmental leaders, I saw the potential of good green jobs to provide high-quality employment while safeguarding the environment.

• I support major federal investment to create jobs that expand green technologies such as rooftop solar, well-sited wind and tidal energy production.

• By expanding conservation efforts, we can create jobs programs that directly fund retrofitting and weatherization for homes, schools and other buildings.

• We need large-scale government investment in public transportation-– to create vast numbers of new jobs, reduce greenhouse gases and ease traffic gridlock.

Invest in Our Workers and Communities

• We must reinvest in America’s workers and families, to rebuild our economy and our social fabric. I support robust public investment in economic programs that create living-wage jobs. The government should invest directly in the nation’s infrastructure, and in social services that help stabilize our communities.

• I support policies that strengthen small businesses and protect them from the predatory practices of big box stores and other corporate chains which stifle competition and erode the local tax base. Small businesses are key engines for job creation and a core part of local economies.

• I will defend federal housing programs that help cities and counties invest in new affordable housing, create opportunities for first-time homebuyers, and reduce homelessness at the local level.

• I strongly support H.R. 870-– the Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act-– introduced by Congressman John Conyers, which provides for a federal policy of full employment. With a one-quarter of 1 percent transaction tax on Wall Street, the bill would generate roughly $150 billion per year in revenues, creating millions of new jobs.

Stand Up for Workers-- Not Wall Street

• I will never hesitate to stand up to corporate lobbyists and Wall Street in defense of working Americans, the unemployed and under-employed.

• In the early 1990s, I publicly opposed NAFTA before it was enacted. Widespread evidence shows that NAFTA and other international "free trade" deals have hurt American workers, undermining job security and wages, and should be renegotiated to protect the U.S. economy and the environment.

• I publicly opposed the Wall Street banks bailout before it was enacted in October 2008. Rather than subsidizing big investors and rewarding corporate executives for destroying jobs, the federal government should be creating jobs and protecting homeowners from predatory foreclosures.

• I support passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. This measure is vital to restoring workers’ fundamental rights, and will help improve wages and healthcare for all American workers. I support a national living wage and a worker’s right to collective bargaining. All workers should be treated with dignity and respect.

Protect Social Security and Medicare

• I will fight to protect-- and strengthen-– Social Security for current and future beneficiaries. I support Sen. Bernie Sanders' bill to protect Social Security from the budget ax in the so-called congressional Super Committee.

• We must defend Social Security’s cost-of-living allowance.

• Contrary to myth, Social Security is solvent-– and we must stand firm against cuts and privatization schemes that would “fix” what isn’t broken.

• I will unequivocally oppose all efforts to raise the eligibility age for Medicare.

• I will push for reform of Medicare Part D to reduce the costs of drugs while reining in runaway profits of huge pharmaceutical companies.

Quality Health Care for All

• I support single payer health care, also known as enhanced Medicare for all.

• The fact that the U.S. spends more on health care than most industrialized nations is a reflection of the unhealthy power of the insurance, hospital and pharmaceutical industries. Our current system does not serve Americans equitably; it must be reformed and improved.

• I will fight to protect and bolster Medicare and Medicaid, known as Medi-Cal in California.

• I support expanded federal funding for Federally Qualified Health Centers.

• I will fight to ensure that every community has access to quality health care services.

This is what a Blue America candidate for Congress sounds like. There is no reason to hold your nose and vote for the lesser of two evils. These are the standards to which we should hold our candidates. It's why Blue America never endorsed Barack Obama-- and never will-- and it's why we picked these candidates for the House and the Senate.