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They Don't Get It
by James Glaser
Lindsey Graham, the Senator from South Carolina was on television talking about immigration, legal and illegal. The man was knowledgeable about our laws and spoke clearly, but he knew nothing about life for a middle income working man or woman in America. I looked up Lindsey's biography and found the man has been a lawyer and judge his whole adult life. That explained a lot. Now I'm not just picking on him, but he is a good example of the kind of people leading our country. Few Senators have worked "normal" hourly wage jobs. Even back in college most of them were from wealthy or upper class families, and they didn't have to hang sheetrock, or mix cement during the summer months in order to help pay for school in the fall. Graham was using that tired old line about illegal aliens only working jobs that Americans don't want. I am sure the Senator puts construction jobs in the same group as hotel cleaners and farm labor. When you are working white collar jobs your whole life, those blue collar workers all start looking the same. George Bush got the $70 billion tax cut he wanted and every Senator and Representative who voted for it claims that the money went to the middle class. That is because those working for us in Washington think "middle class" citizens are those making over $100,000 a year. They don't even know people making less than that, at least socially. I looked up that tax cut for the middle class at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-profit think tank, and here is what they claim about that tax cut. About 87% of the benefits would flow to the 14 percent of households with incomes above $100,000 and 55 percent of the benefits would go to the 3 percent with incomes above $200,000. The 0.2 percent of the households that make over $1 million a year would get 22 percent of the benefits. To me, none of those people are the traditional middle class Here is what they say about those people, In contrast, the three-quarters of households with incomes below $75,000 would receive just 5 percent of the benefits. Those families making less than $50,000 a year would get only 2 percent. Putting it another way, the average tax cut for those in the middle would be twenty dollars a year, but those who make over two hundred grand would get $14,100, and those making a million will get $43,000. I know, I know, the rich pay more, so they should get back more, but some place along the way, the little guy needs a break more than the rich guy. Twenty bucks is a slap in the face. Twenty bucks only buys 6 or 7 gallons of gas, while $43.000 buys you a car and all the gas you can use in a year. Even if you believe that the tax cut went where it should, why does Washington have to bull shit America by claiming it went to the middle class? They have to know by now that people are going to find out it is a lie. Even though the President's speech sounded good, I'm not buying any of it. George Bush has lied way to many times to the American people. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. George has tried to make fools of us time and time again and I'm not going for anything he says again. I look at the President and all I see is blood all over his hands. The man has killed thousands on innocent people. Thousands of children. When any man kills innocent children so he can get his way, I lose all respect for that man. |
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