NOT AGAIN! HAVE THEY NO SHAME?

By Robert P. Bomboy

Who owns this country? When I was young I never in a million years thought I would ask that question, but now it’s at the heart of everything that’s happening around us.

    As I pointed out recently, the 400 richest people in our United States have more money than the bottom 150 million of us put together:  They own a third of the stock market, a third of all the property in America, and a third of anything else that can be owned. They own our country, in fact, and they are using the power that accompanies their money to exert vast political influence, cut their taxes, and derail regulation, as the Trump administration is doing.         
That’s what’s behind the federal budget bill that has now passed the House of Representatives and is on a Harley Davidson motorcycle speeding through the Senate.         
The Senate budget bill would raise taxes on most individuals in the middle and working classes, but not among the wealthy, and add millions upon millions of Americans to the ranks of the uninsured - all to pay for huge cuts in Big Business taxes.         
But we don’t matter to the Republicans in Congress who are ramming through this budget.  What matters to them is the same as what matters to the rich people they serve so faithfully. As the New York Republican congressman, Chris Collins, said in the House:  “My donors are basically saying get it done or don’t ever call me again.”

The general public (that is, you and I) strongly disapprove — by a 2 to 1 majority, points out the Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, citing a new nationwide survey by the widely respected Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “We’re talking about government of the people, not by the people, but by wealthy donors, for wealthy donors,” Krugman adds.
“ Everyone else hates this plan — and they should. It’s nothing but a scheme to make the rich — especially those who rake in investment income rather than working for a living — richer at everyone else’s expense.”

Despite President Trump’s propaganda - according to Congress’ own Joint Committee on Taxation - taxes would rise on average for every group with incomes under $75,000 a year, and would surely rise for many families even in higher-income groups. The only significant winners would be those making more than $1 million a year.

That doesn’t even take into account the health-care sabotage that’s an integral part of the Senate plan. By repealing the requirement that people purchase insurance, the Senate’s version of the new budget plan would cause 13 million of us to lose our health insurance coverage. But it would also drive up premiums for those who keep their insurance, because the dropouts would tend to be those with lower health costs. So that’s an additional, hidden indirect tax on the middle class.

The budget plans now in Congress will increase the federal deficit by $2 trillion or more over the next decade (the official estimates of $1.5 trillion hide the real amount with a witches brew of gimmicks and outright lies) that will result in inflation and much higher interest rates than would otherwise occur.

Experts recognize that Congress actually has no idea what this tax grab for the rich will do to us over the long run. They have nothing more than wishes and prayers to the pagan god Mammon. Estimates from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School  and other prestigious institutions show that the tax bill won't do what Trump and the Republicans are promising.

It’s all lies. Don’t be surprised that out representatives do lie to us, as they did with all their futile efforts to repeal Obamacare. Now, with this end-run through the budget, they’re trying once again to kill our health insurance. As Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s widely respected commentator, says, “The thing about taking away health insurance is that people die.”

The battle is now in the Senate. This is the cruelest, sneakiest, and most dangerous budget in American history. People need to go to the streets again, to Senate offices, and to everywhere else they can be seen and heard, and make sure the rich don’t get their way.

If you want to help, as you have before, make a stand. Don’t bother calling Senator Pat Toomey; he’s rich and he’s with the rich. Senator Bob Casey and the other 45 Senate Democrats will vote against it, along with at least two Independents, one of whom - again – is Senator Bernie Sanders.

As with the battle to save Obamacare in September, it will take only three Republicans to vote with them, possibly from among these good people:

·         Lamar Alexander: Twitter? @SenAlexander  - Email? Google Lamar Alexander and use his email contact form.

·         Shelley Moore Capito: Twitter? @SenCapito - Email? Google Senator Shelley Capito and use her email contact form.

·         Susan Collins: Twitter? @SenatorCollins - Email? Google Senator Susan Collins and click Contact Senator Susan Collins.

·         Bob Corker: Twitter? @SenBobCorker - Email? Google Senator Bob Corker and click on his contact form.

·         Jeff Flake: Twitter? @SenFlakeStaff – Email? https://www.flake.senate.gov/ and click on his contact form.

·         John McCain: Twitter? @SenJohnMcCain - Email? Google Senator John McCain and click Contact Senator John McCain.

·         Lisa Murkowski: Twitter? @lisamurkowski - Google Senator Lisa Murkowski and click Contact Lisa.

·         Rob Portman: Twitter? @senrobportman - Email? Google Senator Rob Portman and click Contact Rob.

BUT, in the end, not one of these fair-weather Republicans voted against the budget bill, costing Americans more than $1.5 trillion and undercutting Obamacare.

Shame!