08 January 2011 By Dave Lindorff Democracy: de-moc-ra-cy,
government by the people; the common people of a
community, as distinguished from any privileged class According to the latest poll conducted by CBS "60
Minutes" and the magazine Vanity Fair, 61
percent of Americans want to raise taxes on the
wealthy as the primary way to cut the budget. The same
poll finds that the second most popular first choice
for cutting the nation's budget deficit, at 20
percent, is cutting the military budget. That is, 81
percent of us--four out of five--would cut the deficit
by taxing the rich and/or slashing military spending. Only four percent of those polled favored cutting
Medicare, the government-run program that provides
health care for the elderly and disabled, and only
three percent favored cutting Social Security. President Obama meanwhile, appointed a so-called
National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and
Reform (quickly dubbed the "Catfood Commission" by
critics) to come up with proposals to cut the budget
deficit. He named as co-chairs former Republican
Senator from Wyoming Alan Simpson, a troglodyte sworn
enemy of Social Security who publicly declared it to
be "a milk cow with 310 million tits," and Erskine
Bowles, a retired investment banker and former chief
of staff to President Clinton who says he wants to cut
spending, not raise taxes, which, when it comes to
Social Security, means lower benefits for retirees. The writing on the wall appears to be that the
White House, and Democrats and Republicans in
Congress, are looking to raise the retirement age,
currently 66, to 68 or 69, to reduce or at least limit
the inflation adjustment in Social Security benefits,
and perhaps also to increase the payroll tax on
current workers. What they want to do is balance the
budget by screwing with our retirement. What they do
not want to do is raise taxes on the rich and
on investment income, two steps which, if taken, could
fully fund Social Security indefinitely into the
future. Already, the president and Congress have agreed to
extend tax breaks for the rich, even though the vast
majority of the American public wants the rich to pay
higher taxes. A second poll, this time by CNN, reports that 63
percent of Americans oppose the US War in Afghanistan
and want it ended. Only 35 percent say they support
the war (now in its ninth year). Yet the president, who originally promised he would
end US involvement in 2011, is now saying the US will
"end combat operations" in that war-torn country in
2014--a turn of phrase that doesn't even mean the war
would be ended that year (US combat operations
allegedly ended in Iraq last summer, but some 50,000
American troops and many more private mercenaries are
still there today and will be next year too, unless
they are thrown out by the Iraqi government). Even on the matter of cutting military spending,
and with the US currently at war, a Financial
Times/Harris poll found in November of last year that
a third of Americans thought cutting the Pentagon
budget was a good idea, and another third said it
would not be a bad thing, with only just over a third
saying it was a bad idea. Only 30 percent said that
they were concerned that cutting military spending
might pose a security risk. Instead of cutting though,
the Obama administration with Congressional backing
has continued to raise military spending to record
levels not seen since World War II, when the US was in
a state of all-out war and full national mobilization. Last April, while Congress was considering the
Dodd-Frank Financial Reform bill, a Pew poll found
that 64 percent of Americans favored regulations
placing a maximum limit on the permissible size of a
bank. Only 27 percent opposed such a limit. Yet
Congress passed, and the president signed into law, a
bill that allows banks to grow even larger, without
any constraint on size. A Pew Charitable Trust poll released last March
found that 52 percent of Americans favor setting
limits on carbon emissions by vehicles and power
plants, even if such limits meant higher energy
prices. Only 35 percent opposed such limits on
emissions. And yet Congress and President Obama have
refused to offer up with any plan to limit CO2
emissions. Finally, for decades, a majority of Americans have
favored some kind of national healthcare system,
whether a fully socialized plan such as that in the
UK, or a so-called single-payer type plan where the
government is the insurer of all citizens, as in
Canada. In May 2009, as the battle over health care
reform was heating up, a CNN poll found Americans
favored a government health plan by 69-29%. What's wrong with this picture? On every key issue of public concern--protecting
Social Security, reforming and universalizing health
care, re-regulating the banking industry, ending
America's endless wars, cutting the military budget,
and taking serious steps to combat global climate
change, the government in this supposed democracy has
gone against the wishes of the majority of the public. Clearly, whatever it is, this is no democracy we
are living in today. No wonder the American government is so busy
figuring out new ways to spy on and monitor us
citizens, to militarize police departments, to
construct ever bigger prisons, to restrict access to
information, and to control and intimidate the media!
Instead of being of, by and for the public, it has
become the public's enemy. Revolution: rev-uh-loo-shun,
an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough
replacement of an established government or political
system by the people governed.
*Dave Lindorff
is a Philadelphia-area journalist. His latest book
"The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006)
and his other works can be found at
www.ThisCantBeHappening.Net
through which he can be contacted. A founding member
of the collectively-owned, journalist-run online
newspaper
ThisCantBeHappening.Net,
Mr. Lindorff and his fellow jounalists at TCBH are
trying something new: setting up a news organization
run by journalists whose goal is go tell it like it
is, backed not by corporate advertising or government
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