We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Monday, July 3, 2017

It’s not about cutting taxes for the rich

Click here to access article by Jim O'Reilly from his blog Comments on Global Political Economy.
In a recent blog post, Paul Krugman branded the healthcare bill as “pure class warfare, with extra contempt” and said it’s really “all about the tax cuts”. While he’s certainly right about class warfare, I think he overstates the brutality of this particular battle versus the great many preceding it. What I’ll quarrel with here, though, is the idea that the central goal of the conservatives is as simple as cutting taxes for the rich. I believe the driving dynamic is not about monetary taxes but is instead deeply fundamental to the system itself. It is very old.
This retired (and my favorite) banker, who I believe now lives in Denver, knows of what he writes when he argues that healthcare issues are about power. But I also wonder if the US ruling class is getting worried about financing its many military adventures and subversive operations abroad to support their hegemonic aspirations. Thus they are doing everything they can to cut back domestic expenditures to their working class.
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