House and Senate conferees are now starting to come up with a budget, and Republicans are already framing it as an issue of big government. “If they see the conference as an excuse to raise taxes, I don’t think it’s going to be successful,” says Paul Ryan, who declined to identify any exemption or credit his party could support ending. Yet the central issue of our time is the savage inequality of income and wealth thats concentrated more of our nations riches at the very top than ever before. The President, the Democrats, and everyone who aspires to run for president in 2016 (including HRC and Joe Biden) must frame the national conversation around this. Doing so will make clear (1) why it’s necessary to raise taxes on the wealthy and close tax loopholes (such as “carried interest,” which enables hedge-fund and private-equity managers to treat their taxable income as capital gains); (2) why we need to invest more in education – including early-childhood as well as affordable higher education; (3) why it’s insane to cut food stamps, Head Start, WIC, extended unemployment benefits, housing assistance, and other safety nets Americans increasingly depend on, (4) why the Affordable Care Act is critical for helping working families whose jobs are paying less or disappearing altogether, and therefore in constant danger of losing health insurance, and (5) why the minimum wage must be raised to a living wage. (Obama doesn’t even have to wait for Congress on the minimum wage; he can raise it for government contractors through an executive order.) Yet nothing will happen unless or until the rest of us make a ruckus.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 15:08:42 +0000
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