…and for good reason. The poor and the middle class didn’t cause the financial meltdown, unregulated banks and corporations did. They got the bailout but we didn’t. That’s a big reason why people are taking to the streets all across the country. And we do need economic justice in America, because what we have right now is truly economic injustice.

We have a minimum wage because we need a floor that wages can’t go below. Shouldn’t we also have a ceiling?

For those of you so keen on cause and effect, check out what Republican policies and standoffs with the Democrats have done to job creation.

…but it is. As this article and conversations I’ve had with small business owners shows, right wing rhetoric claiming over taxation and regulation are strangling small businesses is just that, rhetoric. In fact, the Obama administration has consistently offered more and more tax breaks for small businesses as it works to bring down unemployment. And as business owners in the article point out, sensible regulations are the rules that enable them to stay in business. But, ultimately, the economy won’t begin to grow to any appreciable degree until people have the confidence to start spending more freely, thereby boosting businesses both large and small. They’ll do that when businesses start hiring more. So the stand-off continues.

I guess it makes many on the right feel smug and satisfied to name call rather than have a mature conversation. That’s fine. I’ve gotten used to it after debating the issues for years now with people who have fallen under the spell of Rush Limbaugh and his perveted vision of America.

But I do have to answer the long-winded diatribe attached to my last post in which the writer took us all to school on how the wealthy are saving us all by buying a yacht here and there. The points made were generally legitimate, but what was lacking was a sense of scale.

A wealthy person purchasing a yacht stimulates the economy, but so does a middle class person who buys a Chevy. What really creates a vibrant consumer-driver economy are many, many people who have enough money to buy what they need and want, not a few wealthy people doing the same thing. The middle class is what drives the economy. Not the wealthy.

And, I’ll repeat myself once again because many, like the writer, don’t seem to be able to grasp these simple words: I’m not advocating taking everything away from the wealthy, just raising their tax rates very modestly. If that were to happen we’d be paying down the debt and they could still easily afford that yacht.

Buffett, that is. He’s the super-rich guy who’s been wondering aloud why America continues to coddle the super-rich. I think his call for an increased tax on the wealthy is way over due.

I know we’re supposed to feel sorry for the poor, put-upon rich and their tax burden. The local Tea Party’s website points to this striking statistic in an article on the American Enterprise Institute’s website:

“The wealthiest 1 percent of the population earn 19 per­cent of the income but pay 37 percent of the income tax. The top 10 percent pay 68 percent of the tab. Meanwhile, the bottom 50 percent—those below the median income level—now earn 13 percent of the income but pay just 3 percent of the taxes.”

So the bottom half of earners is bringing home 6% less of the total Americans earn than the top 1%. And that’s equitable? And remember, aside from “earnings,” that top 1% controls even more vast amounts of weath in the form of investments, etc. that aren’t taxed as income.

And as for the “job creator” nonsense. Where are the jobs if these wealthy people are so busy creating them?

Increased revenue has to be part of the solution to increasing debt and ever higher deficits. The table was set for our current situation when the last federal budget surplus we enjoyed was given away in the form of tax cuts, primarily for the wealthiest Americans. That has to be reversed.

But I guess I wasn’t surprised when Republican leaders in congress declared that they wouldn’t appoint anyone who would even consider revenue increases to the new debt-reduction super committee. So I applaud Harry Reid for threatening to refuse to appoint anyone to the committee in return.

How these Tea Partiers who are so beholden to the uber rich have the support of anyone in the middle class is beyond me.

So progressives simply want to keep Americans “down and dependent,” huh?  Let’s examine that idea for a moment…

Progressive policies do anything but keep people down and dependent on government.  Take health care, for example.  A single payer, Medicare-style system for every American would free us all from our dependency on private health insurance.  No one would have to stay in a dead-end job just because they had health insurance through their employer.  It would free everyone, regardless of their health, to become an entrepreneur or to pursue whatever dream they may have.  Same with Social Security.  Having that guaranteed income means seniors or the disabled don’t have to worry about living in abject poverty, and additional retirement savings one makes over their lifetime will only enhance their lifestyle. 

Let progressivism set you free!

But Republican ideas to deal with the deficit are bankrupt.  It’s almost impossible to believe that when the government’s take in taxes is at the lowest percentage of GDP in 60 years Republicans demand even more tax cuts.  And their refusal to even consider increased revenue (in the form of higher taxes for the wealthy and for corporations) as part of the solution to the debt “crisis” is an outrage. 

And a note to Tea Partiers:  You’re not “taxed enough already.”  Even an architect of Reagan’s supply-side economic plan knows that.

The B&O tax on businesses in Washington state is a tax on the gross receipts of the business, not the net as some maintained on the program.  And it doesn’t allow deductions for labor or other costs of doing business.  Therefore, if a business pays its workers less and gains a government contract for less money, its gross receipts, and hence, its B&O tax to the state, will be less.

Guess my math wasn’t so bad after all.  My shoes are clean.

Human-caused climate change that is.  As the USA Today editorial I’ve linked to says, we can deny it all we want but that won’t make it go away.  We MUST act now, because the rest of the world won’t without our leadership.  That makes deniers in this country directly responsible for the destructive effects of climate change we’ll certainly see in the future.  Plus, deniers have lost another big arrow from their quiver.

Talk about “climate-gate.”