What's Waiting in America

Union-busting in Wisconsin, with threats to bring in the National Guard.  (The Pinkerton Agency stopped killing union members in the 30s, so the Nat'l Guard is all Scott Walker has.)  Defunding PBS, NPR, Americorps.  Annihilating Planned Parenthood, which provides medical services to the poor: breast exams, STD exams, etc.  Weakening federal assistance for graduate students.  Discontinuing Equal Opportunity housing in Montana.  Driving thousands of workers out of their government jobs, into the already swelled ranks of unemployed.

That isn't everything.  If I were to keep going, I'd probably puke on my fucking keyboard.  I worried about what country I would come home to after the elections last fall, and here it is.  This is an all-out assault on U.S. government, a deliberate attempt to dismantle social programs, public-employee unions, public education. Scott Walker, John Boehner, and even President Obama say that the governments are broke, so it's time to start cutting.  Cut everything.  Because when the economy is this bad (and it is bad---not for stockholders, who are seeing decent returns on their investments, but for the un-and-underemployed, for poor families, for 20-somethings who have the highest unemployment of any working generation today), fear works.  If dismantling Americorps will, by hocus-pocus, put food on the table of some voter, he'll say "While you're at it, Peacecorps is looking awfully expensive, too."

What the hell is going on?  The analogy to a home budget doesn't work---a family doesn't have the power to up their money flow whenever they choose.  Right now, most families are lucky if they have any money coming into the home at all.  But a government has that power---it's the reason taxes exist.  Americans are paying the lowest taxes they've paid since the 1950s, hugely lower than at that time of relative prosperity.  Even raising taxes 3%, to 1990s levels, would go a long way to bridging the gaps in government budgets.  Not to mention other ways: tax alcohol, tax fatty foods and soda, tax gasoline, tax cigarettes.  In Wisconsin, adding two cents to the sales tax would nearly cover the budget crisis.  2 cents.  In that same state, 2/3 of corporations within the state borders pay zero income tax.  Of course, the governor is looking to break the unions, not to save money, but the same financial problems face states all across the country.  In Washington state, schools are facing teacher layoffs and significant budget freezes.  Institute an income tax.  Taxes are the price citizens pay to live in a functioning society.  Taxes pay for your roads, your schools, your police, your military.  They build the infrastructure of the country, and through grants of tax money, spur even the private sector toward prosperity.  Grants & contracts for education, science, businesses, pharmaceuticals, military contractors--even spending I don't necessarily support--create jobs and put money into the economy.  Spending cuts do not.

If you think taxes are bullshit, how about this: let's privatize roads.  Company A will buy the road you take to work.  Company B will own the road your house is on.  Company C will build a cheaper road, with lots of cracks and potholes, that takes a longer route to where you work, but it will only cost you $2 at the toll booth instead of Company A's $4.  That's capitalism.  That's private enterprise.  If you don't want to pay taxes, stop driving on my socialized roads.