Did you know that the United States doesn't have any rich people? There are no millionaires, no billionaires, no nouveau riche. If you listen carefully to the words of such brilliant orators as Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, they never mention the wealthy, never say anything about the monied class.
If you listen very carefully to the recent speeches from the man of 1,000 chins and the man with the bronzed male member, what we have in the United States are "job creators." Rich people -- puh-leezee, this is America, not the French aristocracy of 1788.
Here is where Anita breaks out into song:
"I like to be in America, Okay by me in America, Everything free in America" -- where Bernardo keenly observes, "for a small fee in America."
"I like to be in America, Okay by me in America, Everything free in America" -- where Bernardo keenly observes, "for a small fee in America."
You have to give the GOP credit for adherence to the Prime Directive -- the only good public is a stupid and misinformed public. It sure has paid off well for the Job Creator class of America. Phase 1 began in 1981 with the ascension of the genteel and amiable Lucifer himself, Ronald Reagan, the first step in the nation's climb back to the landed gentry. Reagan gutted social programs, proclaimed welfare queens drove Cadillacs, declared ketchup a vegetable, stated trees cause pollution, and made education (along with fat tub of lard William Bennett) a very, very evil thing, even more evil than that nasty evil empire with its evil headquarters in Moscow. Phase 2 was ushered in by the creative marketing genius of Lee Atwater. If you are going to lie, cheat, steal, misinform, and mislead to get ahead, make sure you do it consistently and convincingly. And use lots of video and pictures, like people sitting in a tank.
And the final phase, Phase 3, was the inevitable mainstreaming of the politics of hate -- it's us vs. them, it's the winner takes all, it's knowing the only good compromise is a non-existent compromise. Using the valuable lessons (or is it lesions) from Phase 1 and Phase 2, the King of Tiffany Despicable himself, Newt Gingrich, marketed Phase 3 into a profitable and influential cottage industry known as Fox News.
Fast forward to 2010 and Social Security (an insurance program everyone pays into) is only known as an "entitlement." (Entitlement is so mainstreamed now it doesn't even register as doublespeak on any scale any more). So is Medicare. But corporate subsidies, economic breaks for oil companies, Big Ag, Big Pharma, defense contractors etc. -- not so much entitlements but "economic engines."
In 2011, we can now add "Job Creators" to the lexicon of a society hastening its descent into a world driven by five-second bytes laced with Orwellian language and insidious totalitarian tactics.
I am no economist, but one day some TV pundit, one who is not as concerned about the theater of the government and as about the governing of the government, is going to publicly state that tax cuts for Job Creators simply do not create one fucking job. Tax Cuts for the class known as Job Creators creates money for Job Creators.
There is really only one thing that creates jobs, and that is demand (Middle English demaunden, Anglo-French demaunder, Medieval Latin dēmandāre) -- period. Demand for goods and services (do I sound like my Econ 101 professor or what?) creates a need for someone to supply those very needed goods and services. Giving more money to people who already have more money than they know what to do with is just not going to create jobs. Or enough jobs. Yes, it will create a few more gardeners, maids, and nannies and maybe a few mechanics to service the Cadillacs driven by the corporate welfare queens. But millions of jobs for a humming 14 trillion dollar economic engine -- that and a few crumpets will get you dinner with Marie Palinette.
John Boehner and the Man of the 1,000 Chins can ramble on and on and on about how tax increases now are the worst thing ever and that more tax cuts to those billionaires will really, really, really create more jobs (insert red slippers and click 3x). And since mumbling tax cuts (like mumbling entitlements and Job Creators) makes such a melodious soundbite, the great Reagan Uneducated Class (RUC for short), now in their 30s-40s, who were trained well in Atwaterian Marketing and Gingrichian Sociology (or rather sociopathology) - still think that giving the top 1% (who earn 24%of the income) more money will all of a sudden make America the land of milk and honey and paved roads and bullet trains.
Skyscrapers bloom in America
Cadillacs zoom in America (without welfare queens)
Industry boom in America
In 1980, the top marginal tax rate was 70%. In 2005, the top marginal tax rate was under 40%. For the top 1%, after-tax income rose 176% in those same 25 years, while for the bottom 40% it rose just 12%. In 2008, the top 10% on the economic scale held 80% of all the financial assets. Seems equitable, huh?
Can someone please ask Chins, Boehner, Cantor, and even Grover Norquist exactly what jobs those Job Creators are going to create with all that extra money to generate enough demand to get the economy going? Salespeople at Prada and Gucci aren't going to allow America to keep pace with a world more interested in their internal infrastructure than external police actions. Everyone (including teabaggers) knows that tax cuts for the wealth simply cannot create enough (or any) jobs to correct the economy of 300 million Americans. Only creating the demand for real services and industries and goods will.
People (and there are millions) who continue to fall for the continuous Orwellian horseshit being pitchforked by the Republicans simply fail to see that the only jobs those Job Creators are creating are permanent (and cushy) jobs (with a pension and health care for life) for McConnell, Boehner, Cantor, DeMint, and the other assorted lunatics of the GOP.
Anita: Free to be anything you choose.
Bernardo: Free to wait tables and shine shoes.