Donkey Dharma
Thoughts By and For Enlightened Progressives
I'm proud of being from Western Pennsylvania.
(Google North Braddock when you have a chance.) I think often and
fondly of my working-class upbringing; of the ethnic diversity and
harmonious interaction between disparate groups that, until adulthood
took me to another part of Pennsylvania, I considered the way of the
world at large; and of the fact that, contrary to the pronouncements
of many a cable news chatterer, working-class,
proud-of-their-backgrounds Americans are also quite often
progressives. (Google Charles Owens Rice)
Rightisimos like to accuse progressives of engaging
in “Class warfare!” almost as much as they try to paint
us as “Socialist!” But the chart below demonstrates that
it is the working- and middle-class families of this country that
have paid the price, actual and metaphorical, of conservatives’
tax cuts for the wealthy, and of their readiness to gut regulatory
agencies of all stripes.
\
Lest
you think insensitive policies only a recent development, note this quote from
John Boehner.
We are going to do everything
we can to make sure that this law [the ACA] and this
program never really takes effect.
During
the same interview, Mr. Boehner sought to
ensure funding for the war in Afghanistan by
- reforming the country's entitlement system
- increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement
- tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price index rather than wage inflation
- limiting payments to those who need them
Like so many of his far-right colleagues, Mr.
Boehner gave no hint as to how or by whom any such determination of
financial need would be made.
