The Political Bubble's 1%

I just realized that I'm part of the one percent. No, not the 1% that Occupy Wall Street is protesting against. I don't have old money or new money. I make a good living but I'm not wealthy. I don't work on Wall Street and I'm not a bank CEO. I'm talking about the 1% of Americans that are in tune with the country's politics on a day to day basis. The one percent in the political bubble.

I write on this blog as often as I can, some weeks more than others. But over the past few weeks my output has been lower than usual (lower than I'd like) because I've had to take on extra work to save some money for a new roof on my house. So some days I'm off to work and out of the house by 6:30am and don't get home until midnight, which means my usual blogging/reading/cable TV watching time is greatly diminished if not completely absent. And I have to tell you, I feel much less anxious and angry. It's kind of nice to not need to have an opinion or a reaction to Mitt Romney's latest flip flop or Herman Cain's idiotic arrogance or Rick Perry on medical marijuana. But still I knew about it. I tried to keep informed even though I wasn't laser focused on it for hours a day. I was an outlier, but I still considered myself one of the very few that knew what was going on

But I fear the problem we have as a nation, and I used to be part of the problem, is that 99% of us really don't care enough. 99% of the population won't see Rick Perry's strange performance. 99% of Americans don't know who Herman Cain is. 99% of Americans can guess on any of Mitt Romney's policy positions and get it right because he's held all of them. 99% didn't watch the last Republican debate, but on that one, really, can you blame them?

Of course, my 99% to 1% ratio is an exaggeration but you get the larger point. In a representative democracy, when 59% of registered voters didn't bother to make their voices heard in the 2010 midterm elections, it's not representational. The result was the Tea Party takeover in the House of Representatives. 41% voter turnout in 2010 means that 96 million people made decisions for 307 million of us. That needs to change.

Unfortunately, too many are blissfully ignorant when it comes to all things politics and wait until there are two candidates left to choose from before they'll flip a lever or mark an 'x' every four years. Then they go back home and wait until the next presidential election. Meanwhile, they don't hear about voter suppression, gerrymandering, the political scandal du jour, or any of the myriad of stories that happen with their own representatives in their own districts. They don't understand that in today's global economy, what happens in Greece affects us financially as a country. The 2008 presidential election had a bigger turnout than any in history, and still it was only 65% of registered voters. 146 million people - less than half the population.

Until we as a whole become more informed, and I'm talking about real information, basic stuff like Ronald Reagan really did raise taxes or President Obama really is an American born citizen, or even that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and did not have weapons of mass destruction, we are only destined for more of the same.

And on that note, I'll try to make a better attempt to keep up with events as they happen. But it's not a promise - daddy needs a new roof.

President Obama's Weekly Address - October 16, 2010

GOP Rewarding Corporations that Create Jobs Overseas

Market Down? Blame Obama - Market Up? Credit Bush

No... seriously.

Huff Po: Former White House spokesperson Dana Perino said on Sunday that the Bush administration, while presiding over the start of the current recession, nevertheless deserved some credit for the modest uptick that Wall Street experienced this past week.

Appearing on CSPAN's Washington Journal, the last of Bush's press secretaries said it was "not a secret" that the current economic mess started under her boss's watch. But, she cautioned, the public had yet to realize the full extent to which the past president's policies "alleviat[ed] the downturn."

..."You were just speaking earlier about the possibility that since we had a little bit of a better week on Wall Street does that spell a turnaround?" Perino said. "Can all the credit go specifically to President Obama? Well, I would say no. We will just have to take a while to let all of this settle down and let the policies that our administration and the new administration are trying to put in place have a chance to work."

******************

...Cheney agrees that Obama did indeed came into power amid very difficult economic circumstances.

But Cheney says he doesn't think the Bush administration can be blamed for creating the economic woes. Cheney says it's a global financial problem.

So is it an "Obama recession" or not? They can't claim that Obama's policies are sinking the economy if the Bush policies haven't been realized to their full extent.

And the Bush Legacy Project continues...

Morning Joke™ (The Madness Continues...)

This morning on Morning Joke™, Mika and her merry band of morons were poo-pooing the Obama recovery bill which Joe Scarborough categorized as "unprecedented, a total all-out socialist bill as I've ever seen in my life," and that it rewards those who don't make enough income to pay income tax, but still pay payroll taxes and sales tax for "doing absolutely nothing." The video on BobCesca.com via Media Matters is ridiculously fearmongerish.

How is it that with such an intelligent person for a father, Mika Brzezinski so easily falls into the propaganda vomit vat that is Joe Scarborough's mouth?

One of the commenters on Cesca's thread, "GIthe Joe" now "GItheScholar," is an Iraq veteran and was livid about this particular issue. He ranted on his comment (and a good rant it was) but asked for help revising his comments in order to send to Morning Joke™. Seeing as I had nothing on my plate this afternoon, I thought I'd oblige. Here is the letter sent by GI the Scholar, with contributions from Carl of Broadway and information (and a paragraph or two) provided by Bob of the Cesca.

Dear Morning Joe Crew,

I am an American soldier. I have honorably served my country while being deployed to Iraq for two tours of duty. I, and the countless others like me, am eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit because 100% of my income while in a combat zone was non taxable income. The same is true for every soldier, Marine, and airperson that makes less than $88,000 of base pay in a combat zone.

I was extremely grateful to receive this tax credit. It felt like the government was helping me, honoring me for my service to this nation. But we are not the only "do nothing" workers that can benefit from the EITC.

According to the Brookings Institution, "Together, the EITC and ACTC [Additional Child Tax Credit] provided more than $51 billion to low-income workers in tax year 2005, acting as critical wage supplements for working poor families throughout the country. Proposals to expand and streamline these credits to help more working families across all types of communities—urban, suburban, and rural—deserve consideration from policymakers, practitioners, and researchers."

For two years during the presidential campaigns and primaries, all we heard from mainstream media and cable news were phrases like, "Why can't Obama close the deal with rural Americans?" and "Obama isn't 'one of us'." And now President Obama and the Democrats want to give the working poor a tax break and other forms of relief as outlined in the recovery bill, the very people the cable news pundits claimed with which he was "so out of touch."

In tax year 2005, the greatest number of EITC filers lived in the suburbs of large metropolitan areas. In the South and West, rural taxpayers were most likely to receive the EITC. These are the people most likely to need help, and most likely to spend the money to stimulate the economy. Here's another example: For every dollar invested in Food Stamps, the stimulus return is $1.73, but for every dollar in corporate tax cuts, you get a negative return of $0.30 on the dollar.

But we hear from the informed pundits like Mr. Scarborough and Mr. Buchanan that they would rather spend this money on tax breaks to corporations. Buchanan, point blank, asked John Podesta on the February 2nd edition of Morning Joe why "they can't give the $80 billion to corporate tax cuts."

Mr. Scarborough, you shamelessly categorized tax credits the working poor of this country, those who work the fast food registers or pump gas to try and survive week to week, as receiving money from the government for "doing absolutely nothing." But I suppose in your world, these are the plebians who have no name; they live only to serve you. In your world, while sitting behind your desk making a seven figure income may be "work" to you, dodging improvised explosive devices and small arms fire is far from "do nothing" work for me.

Perhaps thinking before opening your mouth would make for a better show.