Last fall, during a town hall in another district, a constituent confronted a Republican Congressman concerning eliminating the temporary Bush tax cuts on the nation’s highest earners. The questioner noted that since the tax breaks had been deemed temporary when passed, and that our deficit had exploded as a result, it was common sense that those breaks should be allowed to end. Also, knowing that he had signed the Grover Norquist pledge, he asked the Congressman how he could justify signing a pledge to an unelected individual that superseded his oath to uphold the Constitution and legislate to keep the cuts in order to honor that pledge. The questioner added the following caveat: “And, sir, please do not insult the intelligence of this audience by uttering the phrase “job creators.”
He claimed that no pledge was of greater importance than his Constitutional oath, and his no tax pledge had no impact on how he voted and was what the American people wanted. The audience reaction was immediate and unfavorable, and grew even more unfavorable when the words “job creators” escaped his lips.
When George W. Bush took office, the nations enjoyed a financial surplus thanks to the previous administration and the relatively low and sensible tax rates (historically) set in place under Clinton. In 2001, then again in 2003, the Bush administration signed legislation that slashed tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, a cut that we were promised would result in the “job creators” creating jobs. After nearly ten years in effect, these rates, which were designed to be only temporary, not only had our surplus been wiped out and our deficit skyrocketed, but the nation was losing roughly 800,000 jobs each month. The only place where jobs were being created were in foreign countries, as CEOs recognized that their bonuses and shareholder dividends would best increase with jobs exported overseas.
In fact, compensation for chief executives at American companies grew by 28 percent in just 2010, and by another 15 percent in 2011. This is all part of a larger and disturbing trend whereby CEO pay has skyrocketed over the past three decades while workers’ wages have stagnated or effectively fallen, while productivity has steadily increased.
Looking at the numbers for the past three decades, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) found that “From 1978 to 2011, CEO compensation increased more than 725 percent, a rise substantially greater than stock market growth and the painfully slow 5.7 percent growth in worker compensation over the same period.”
The net result of tax breaks for those earning more than $4,000 per week, two unfunded wars, and an unfunded giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry in the form of Medicare Part D was to turn a surplus into an unimaginable deficit and a parade of jobs out of the country. Meanwhile, education has been slashed, a situation that threatens the security of the nation in a global economy; our infrastructure is collapsing, while Republican obstructionists vote no at every turn on bills aimed at rebuilding our nation; and cuts to state funding has governors faced with the unfortunate task of cutting programs millions of Americans depend upon to simply survive – all the while the “job creators’” portfolios grow and the middle class shrinks.
One of the fundamental tenets of capitalism is that consumers must have money to spend in order to purchase goods and services. Another reality is that while today’s wealthy tend to storehouse and invest their money in paper rather than create new industries, the middle class and poor spend virtually every penny they make back into the economy. It is that spending by the poor and middle class that creates demand, which creates increased production, which creates jobs, which creates more profits for companies, which drives our economy. Therefore it makes perfect sense to retain lower tax levels on lower earners, who will return cash to the economy, and return taxation levels to more reasonable rates that have historically aided national growth.
Today’s emphatic statement by the president that he would not allow the temporary tax breaks for those earning more than $4,000 a week is not only welcome but long overdue. And despite the nonsense you'll hear from the conservative noise machine, this return to earlier rates is not a tax increase. It is a return to past rates that helped America to grow.
Conservative legislators can no longer be allowed to hold the well-being of this nation hostage for the sake of protecting tax breaks for those who have shown no interest whatsoever for doing what’s right for America, but who have instead sent millions to the unemployment lines so that the wealth of a few can grow even more.
It’s time to end the Bush tax cuts. It’s time to stop rewarding corporations for off-shoring jobs. It’s time to bring manufacturing back to the United States. It’s time to apply stiff tariffs to nations who don’t play fairly on the global economic field. It’s time to launch a national policy of rebuilding that will not only create jobs but prepare this country to compete in the new global future. It's time the real job creators -- the American people -- showed them how an economy is really supposed to work.
Please visit Wanda Rohl's campaign Web site RohlForCongress.com, follow her on Facebook at Citizens For Wanda Rohl, or on Twitter @rohlforcongress.
To learn more about Wanda, the issues that concern her, and to volunteer or contribute to this truly grassroots congressional campaign, visit RohlForCongress.com.
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