The Undeclared War on America's Middle Class

[one...two...tree 2,762]

To-do list

The cons have almost succeeded in throttling American democracy by screwing over the middle class. To fight back we must battle on two fronts.

First, we must recognize and reclaim the government programs that create a middle class:

* Return to the American people our ownership of the military, the prison system, and the ballot box.

* Fight for free and public education that encourages critical thinking, historical knowledge, and a love of learning in each child. Combat the No Child Left Behind Act and the belief that education is a commodity that can be tested.

* Fight for a national single-payer health-care system based on Medicare.

* Fight for Social Security -- do not let it be privatized or co-opted.

* Fight for progressive taxation: reinstate a rate of 35 percent on corporations and a rate of 70 percent on the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans -- and use the money to pay back the Social Security system and to fund an economic investment program.

* Fight for a living wage and for the right of labor to organize.

* Fight for a national energy program that puts people and the planet -- not Big Oil -- first.

When America has a strong middle class, democracy will follow. The opposite is also true. To fight back, we must also make use of the ballot box. We can achieve the economic programs that make the middle class possible by using the power of our democracy to vote for those politicians who support the middle class. We've been conned for long enough. It's time to take back America.

Thom Hartmann is an author and nationally syndicated daily talk show host.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Did you approve your ToDo list on your sunday meeting of local lefties???..

Hahaha.. Gosh, its always so funny to see liberal ToDo list. As though they ever did anything...

.

Oops My bad, Taking my words back. To do list anly has "To fight" in it, So not a real thing. Then Yeah, Verbal fights (aka verbal masturbation) will suffice.

Yep. Tear down those nasty corporations. Bring em Down man....

Sheep follow others blindly. This is why people are sometimes called sheep. It means that a person follows a group of people. This can be because they trust the group. Or it can be because they are not thinking for themself.

"Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa."

[type2negative 0]

To-do list

The cons have almost succeeded in throttling American democracy by screwing over the middle class. To fight back we must battle on two fronts.

First, we must recognize and reclaim the government programs that create a middle class:

* Return to the American people our ownership of the military, the prison system, and the ballot box.

* Fight for free and public education that encourages critical thinking, historical knowledge, and a love of learning in each child. Combat the No Child Left Behind Act and the belief that education is a commodity that can be tested.

* Fight for a national single-payer health-care system based on Medicare.

* Fight for Social Security -- do not let it be privatized or co-opted.

* Fight for progressive taxation: reinstate a rate of 35 percent on corporations and a rate of 70 percent on the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans -- and use the money to pay back the Social Security system and to fund an economic investment program.

* Fight for a living wage and for the right of labor to organize.

* Fight for a national energy program that puts people and the planet -- not Big Oil -- first.

When America has a strong middle class, democracy will follow. The opposite is also true. To fight back, we must also make use of the ballot box. We can achieve the economic programs that make the middle class possible by using the power of our democracy to vote for those politicians who support the middle class. We've been conned for long enough. It's time to take back America.

Thom Hartmann is an author and nationally syndicated daily talk show host.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Did you approve your ToDo list on your sunday meeting of local lefties???..

Hahaha.. Gosh, its always so funny to see liberal ToDo list. As though they ever did anything...

.

Oops My bad, Taking my words back. To do list anly has "To fight" in it, So not a real thing. Then Yeah, Verbal fights (aka verbal masturbation) will suffice.

Yep. Tear down those nasty corporations. Bring em Down man....

I'll give you just one of a long list of things that "liberals" have done....

fought for and given women the right to vote

or is that just liberal propaganda again?

Yep I read about it... What was the name? suffragists or something like that??... Haha ha.. 1890???..

Well, DAAAA, And Now Dems are fighting for voting rights to felons. Heh Trend???

Wow. Lets also fight for the right of women to pay their half of a restaurant check. (usually actulallu 65%, but half is OK). Since they are allowed to vote.

Sheep follow others blindly. This is why people are sometimes called sheep. It means that a person follows a group of people. This can be because they trust the group. Or it can be because they are not thinking for themself.

"Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa."

Wow Thats all your imagination??? Second day in a row stealing picturtes of animals from wikipedia...

You are no zoophile, are you??? .. Hang in there, your wife will arrive soon.

Anyway, About "Crowd effect". Thats mostly to liberals. Most (especially young) liberals are liberals because they wanna be a part of something. And this is a good "something". They are fighting for good agains bad, waste their parents money, but for the good cause.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I'll give you just one of a long list of things that "liberals" have done....

fought for and given women the right to vote

or is that just liberal propaganda again?

I'd be inclined not to try to explain it, as understanding "liberal" achievements requires the listener to have an understanding of what "liberalism" actually is, which is somewhat different from the popularised idea where Liberal somehow became synonymous with Democrat.

Its meaningless really as both Liberal and Conservative are simply two different philosophies that represent a whole variety of actual political positions. Not that that's important for people who think that Liberalism or Conservatism are in themselves the bane of our society.

You can argue with ignorance, you can't debate it

Steven's sheep metaphor is right on.

Edited September 6, 2006 by erekose

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Wow Thats all your imagination??? Second day in a row stealing picturtes of animals from wikipedia...

You are no zoophile, are you??? .. Hang in there, your wife will arrive soon.

Anyway, About "Crowd effect". Thats mostly to liberals. Most (especially young) liberals are liberals because they wanna be a part of something. And this is a good "something". They are fighting for good agains bad, waste their parents money, but for the good cause.

It'd be a lot more interesting discussing issues with you if you actually thought for yourself. But cheers my wooly friend! Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Edited September 6, 2006 by Steven_and_Jinky

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

First, we must recognize and reclaim the government programs that create a middle class:

* Return to the American people our ownership of the military, the prison system, and the ballot box.

* Fight for free and public education that encourages critical thinking, historical knowledge, and a love of learning in each child. Combat the No Child Left Behind Act and the belief that education is a commodity that can be tested.

* Fight for a national single-payer health-care system based on Medicare.

* Fight for Social Security -- do not let it be privatized or co-opted.

* Fight for progressive taxation: reinstate a rate of 35 percent on corporations and a rate of 70 percent on the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans -- and use the money to pay back the Social Security system and to fund an economic investment program.

* Fight for a living wage and for the right of labor to organize.

* Fight for a national energy program that puts people and the planet -- not Big Oil -- first.

just some questions that come to mind:

-who "owns" the military then?

-why combat the no child left behind act? what's wrong with the belief that education can tested. don't they have tests in school anyways?

- single payer health care systems run by the government are a disaster waiting to happen IMO. just look at social security for an example.

- progressive taxation - rob from the rich and give to the poor. use their money to fund programs for the poor. pssstt - since you are probably middle class due to being in vj (meeting the 125%+ poverty guidelines in most cases) who do you think will be paying for this pipe dream, as that 5% you state will expand to 10%......15%........

- living wages are nice. they still won't help the lazy. my next door neighbor's kids are excellent examples. they'd rather milk the system than work.

- a national energy policy would be nice. but are you ready to double or triple your utility bill?

[type2negative 0]

Wow Thats all your imagination??? Second day in a row stealing picturtes of animals from wikipedia...

You are no zoophile, are you??? .. Hang in there, your wife will arrive soon.

Anyway, About "Crowd effect". Thats mostly to liberals. Most (especially young) liberals are liberals because they wanna be a part of something. And this is a good "something". They are fighting for good agains bad, waste their parents money, but for the good cause.

It'd be a lot more interesting discussing issues with you if you actually thought for yourself. But cheers my wooly friend! Baaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Wow Thats easy position. You are either fighting for idiocy or yu are sheep. What if I just dont give a #####?

Relax StevenAndJinky, Take a candy, Here is donut.

just some questions that come to mind:

-

Please donyt question validity of cause. No curiousity here. Just Fight. Otherwise you will be a "Curious sheep".

[Heracles 417]

You can't be middle class if you earn the minimum wage in America today.

First, we must recognize and reclaim the government programs that create a middle class:

* Return to the American people our ownership of the military, the prison system, and the ballot box.

What is that supposed to mean??

* Fight for free and public education that encourages critical thinking, historical knowledge, and a love of learning in each child. Combat the No Child Left Behind Act and the belief that education is a commodity that can be tested.

This is the whole problem with the US's current 2nd world education system. There is no free lunch. Everyone in the US wants a 1st world education system yet no one wants to pay for it. Hence, the major exodus of highly skilled teachers from the field. What person on a teacher's salary can afford to live in San Fran??

* Fight for a national single-payer health-care system based on Medicare.

Has it's drawbacks. It's not as simple as one may think. A major tax increase would be needed to fund such a plan. I personally back such a move. That is every working 'American', and not the companies, having to pay a good 3% to 4% extra tax to fund a national health-care system..

* Fight for Social Security -- do not let it be privatized or co-opted.

Public owned services are highly in-efficient.

*

Fight for progressive taxation: reinstate a rate of 35 percent on corporations and a rate of 70 percent on the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans -- and use the money to pay back the Social Security system and to fund an economic investment program.

Actually most developed 1st world countries are reducing the tax burden on companies to help generate growth which leads to more jobs. Less money for companies does NOT provide more employment opportunities. The wealthiest 5% of Americans would just move overseas and spend their money there. Hence further accelerate the US's downward spiral into a 2nd / 3rd world country status..

* Fight for a living wage and for the right of labor to organize.

Obviously this suggestion came from an idiot who has never heard of jobs going to other countries. The higher unions push wages the more jobs lost overseas.. I do agree the minimum wage is a bit of a joke and should be increased to at least $7.50 per hour..

* Fight for a national energy program that puts people and the planet -- not Big Oil -- first.

sounds like a lot of BS to me. How about Americans reduce their obsession with driving and build more public transport facilities??

When America has a strong middle class, democracy will follow. The opposite is also true. To fight back, we must also make use of the ballot box. We can achieve the economic programs that make the middle class possible by using the power of our democracy to vote for those politicians who support the middle class. We've been conned for long enough.

Maybe the left should do a little research and maybe even study some 1st year economic books to realize how the real world works.

It's time to take back America

Take it back where, into the stone ages.. Once again I can't stress enough the need for people to research and travel to 1st world countries..

Edited September 6, 2006 by Infidel

[cmartyn 0]

The existance of th "MIddle Class" was an illusion. There never has been a middle class. Middle class is a term that rich people gave the portion of the working class who managed to be able to affort to buy land.

The rich folk adapted to having the middle class around. But now that the baby boom is over and all the well paid work is being offshored. The rich people are cutting us out. They have no use for us any more. Bye Bye Middle class.

Weve even farmed out education, innovation..

An energy policy isnt going to fix that.

Baaaaaaaa.....

[Fuzzness 2]

The no child left behind act makes it so that children who are not "promoted" to the next grade are "placed" into the next grade, making them not ready for the next grade, so then they are placed again, and denies them a proper education.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

First, we must recognize and reclaim the government programs that create a middle class:

* Return to the American people our ownership of the military, the prison system, and the ballot box.

* Fight for free and public education that encourages critical thinking, historical knowledge, and a love of learning in each child. Combat the No Child Left Behind Act and the belief that education is a commodity that can be tested.

* Fight for a national single-payer health-care system based on Medicare.

* Fight for Social Security -- do not let it be privatized or co-opted.

* Fight for progressive taxation: reinstate a rate of 35 percent on corporations and a rate of 70 percent on the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans -- and use the money to pay back the Social Security system and to fund an economic investment program.

* Fight for a living wage and for the right of labor to organize.

* Fight for a national energy program that puts people and the planet -- not Big Oil -- first.

just some questions that come to mind:

-who "owns" the military then?

-why combat the no child left behind act? what's wrong with the belief that education can tested. don't they have tests in school anyways?

- single payer health care systems run by the government are a disaster waiting to happen IMO. just look at social security for an example.

- progressive taxation - rob from the rich and give to the poor. use their money to fund programs for the poor. pssstt - since you are probably middle class due to being in vj (meeting the 125%+ poverty guidelines in most cases) who do you think will be paying for this pipe dream, as that 5% you state will expand to 10%......15%........

- living wages are nice. they still won't help the lazy. my next door neighbor's kids are excellent examples. they'd rather milk the system than work.

- a national energy policy would be nice. but are you ready to double or triple your utility bill?

* The military industry has too much influence in Washington, for one. Secondly, many of the operations done before solely by the military are now being handled by profitable companies who are bilking us tax payers billions.

* No Child Left Behind is based on the premise that through market style competition, school's quality of education will improve. It assumes the free market competition is logically sound and works in all situations. Educators don't get into teaching for the money. They teach because they love to.

* Independent research has been done in states like Massachusetts on single payer healthcare and have concluded that such a system would not only save enormous amounts of money, but would be able to provide healthcare for the underinsured and uninsured.

* Progressive tax is fair. Charles, when we have this many working poor in America, there's an imbalance and you have to follow the money trail as to why that is so. You call it robbing the rich, but you don't call it stealing from the workers when a company underpays them for the work they do. Fairness only works when it is applied across the board. As the article states, places like Walmart can afford to pay their employers a better wage and still be profitable. It's about sharing a piece of the pie - nobody gets rich all by themselves - they're wealth is not in a vaccuum.

Edited September 6, 2006 by Steven_and_Jinky

[Heracles 417]

Educators don't get into teaching for the money. They teach because they love to.

So are you saying they don't deserve to get paid more? Isn't it common sense that considering they are establishing and teaching the next generation of America they should be paid well to concentrate on teaching the kids rather than how to make ends meet???

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Educators don't get into teaching for the money. They teach because they love to.

So are you saying they don't deserve to get paid more? Isn't it common sense that considering they are establishing and teaching the next generation of America they should be paid well to concentrate on teaching the kids rather than how to make ends meet???

True. But by all accounts its not the teacher's who benefit from those schemes. After all many are still using their own money to buy classroom materials. All for teacher's being paid more, the real crime is how someone on a local board of education can earn a 6 figure salary for doing… what… exactly?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Educators don't get into teaching for the money. They teach because they love to.

So are you saying they don't deserve to get paid more? Isn't it common sense that considering they are establishing and teaching the next generation of America they should be paid well to concentrate on teaching the kids rather than how to make ends meet???

I'm saying that you can't dangle the money carrot in front of a teacher to get them to start teaching 'better'. As for teacher's salaries - yes, they should be paid a decent wage, but again, their pay shouldn't be determined by their student's scholastic performance.

[Alex+R 0]

Educators don't get into teaching for the money. They teach because they love to.

So are you saying they don't deserve to get paid more? Isn't it common sense that considering they are establishing and teaching the next generation of America they should be paid well to concentrate on teaching the kids rather than how to make ends meet???

I'm saying that you can't dangle the money carrot in front of a teacher to get them to start teaching 'better'. As for teacher's salaries - yes, they should be paid a decent wage, but again, their pay shouldn't be determined by their student's scholastic performance.

Not to mention all of the smaller problems that make NCLB poorly structured. Just take the impracticalities of having schools with large immigrant populations take standardized tests in English only. I'm not saying they shouldn't learn English--how else will they get through school?-- but when they've arrived 2 or 3 months before, their chances of failing the test are high and that results in a school on "probation." And this has happened.

[type2negative 0]

all accounts its not the teacher's who benefit from those schemes. After all many are still using their own money to buy classroom materials. All for teacher's being paid more, the real crime is how someone on a local board of education can earn a 6 figure salary for doing… what… exactly?

Sounds like a commie. Always annoyed me that at UC people were comparing salary of UC president to some Janitor. Not Fair, 10 times difference. Well yeah, should be 100 times IMO.

Low educated low life lazy commie. Worse then illegals. Ate least illegals work.