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Imagine

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Media
Posted on Sun Jan 23, 2011 at 04:39:33 PM EST
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Kevin Drum writes:

If, right now, you were to offer corporations and the rich a choice between (a) passage of EFCA or (b) a return to Clinton-era tax rates on high incomes, they wouldn't even blink. If you put a gun to their head and they had to choose between one or the other, they'd pay the higher taxes without a peep.

Lucky for corporations and the rich, they did not have to choose as the "most progressive Administration and Congress in a generation" did not pass EFCA and extended the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

Imagine that.

< Sunday Afternoon Open Thread | The Benign Neglect Of Tax Policy >

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    Imagine | 23 comments (23 topical)

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    Sadly, the only (5.00 / 1) (#1)
    by NYShooter on Sun Jan 23, 2011 at 05:51:42 PM EST
    Place(s) that the public can discover the truth about anything is here, on blogs, or your public library. Certainly the MSM, or our school system won't tell the story of why the greatest periods of growth, for the greatest numbers of people occurred during the times that unions were strong.

    Even Rockefeller became a billionaire then; imagine that.

    Interesting Comment (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by Politalkix on Sun Jan 23, 2011 at 06:11:49 PM EST
    in the Comments section of the Kevin Drum article

    "I know it is getting into scary liberal talk that Very Serious People get uncomfortable with, but the only reason that labor lost all of this power was because the right wing was able to scare them away from Democrats with black people and other wedge issues. The Dems stood on principle on race (and good for them!) but we're either near or are at the point where it is counterproductive for minorities too to continue to let everyone's civil rights hinge on whatever the financial class wants to tolerate."

    Parent

    Rockefeller became a billionaire (none / 0) (#8)
    by me only on Sun Jan 23, 2011 at 08:05:21 PM EST
    when Standard Oil was broken up.  That was in 1911.  Unionization at that times was about 10.5% of the non-farm labor in the US.

    Today unionization is about 9% of non-farm labor.

    Parent

    Today unionization is about 9% (none / 0) (#9)
    by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Sun Jan 23, 2011 at 08:18:33 PM EST

    More than that in government and about 7% in private industry.

    Parent
    And Yet (5.00 / 2) (#2)
    by The Maven on Sun Jan 23, 2011 at 05:59:28 PM EST
    practically not a day goes by without yet another indication that the Administration indicates its intent to move to the "center" (always conveniently determined by the Beltway media to be further to the right of wherever Obama previously had been) so as to combat the phony perception that up to this point it's been ferociously anti-business and waging a class war.  (Ha!)

    As the right wing keeps moving what only a few short years ago was considered to be loony territory into what is now deemed mainstream conservative, Obama seemingly chases rightward after them, abandoning more and more core principles the Democratic Party once stood for.

    What's especially pathetic is that virtually no one in the mainstream media ever so much as hints at this, pretending instead to paint Obama as still coming from the liberal end of the political spectrum, and thus feeding this false meme.

    Well, (none / 0) (#4)
    by NYShooter on Sun Jan 23, 2011 at 06:18:33 PM EST
     the Right and the Beltway can paint Obama anyway they want because he has shown himself to be the "blank canvas," or more cynically, "empty suit," that many have described him as.

    As long as every source of information: schools, MSM, and/or the Democrats themselves have clamped a censored sign on teaching the public what Democratic values really mean (or used to, anyway,) for most Americans.......paint away.


    Parent

    More and more (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by Maryb2004 on Sun Jan 23, 2011 at 06:54:22 PM EST
    the mainstream bloggers seem to live in hypotheticals instead of reality.  Maybe because reality sucks.

    I think in five years ... (none / 0) (#7)
    by Robot Porter on Sun Jan 23, 2011 at 07:11:40 PM EST
    bloggers may discover socialism and think they invented it.  Or they might just discover Cuba think it's India.

    Anyway, one of those of things.

    ;)

    Parent

    Kevin's a bit slow ... (none / 0) (#6)
    by Robot Porter on Sun Jan 23, 2011 at 07:06:25 PM EST
    He gets to essential the right point.  But, geez, does it take him an age.  And that "age" is mostly made up of mealy-mouthed excuses for taking so long.

    It's like watching a kid work out his first problem with fractions.  

    Paul Ryan wants to privatise Medicare (none / 0) (#10)
    by Politalkix on Sun Jan 23, 2011 at 09:19:14 PM EST
    Link

    "Republicans have chosen House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin to deliver the State of the Union response. Mr. Ryan has outlined a vision of smaller, less-intrusive government, extending to popular programs such as Medicare, which he would turn increasingly over to the private sector."

    Talk about your death panels. (