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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=dlj725@microsoft.com href="mailto:dlj725@microsoft.com">David Johnson</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=davidjohnson1451@comcast.net
href="mailto:davidjohnson1451@comcast.net">David Johnson</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Friday, October 05, 2012 10:14 AM</DIV></DIV>
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<H3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name"><FONT size=5>Presidential
debates: Obama and Romney not so far apart after all. </FONT></H3>
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<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>by Richard Mellor<BR><BR>I have been a bit
busy today but wanted to make some comments on last night's debate. I made an
effort to watch it but just couldn’t stomach sitting through all of it so did
some reading this morning.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The US
electoral arena is a very closed one, with two big business parties competing
for who gets to plunder the wealth of the country for the next four years. There
are many more candidates from other parties that are running but they never get
any airtime ensuring no alternative point of view is heard.<BR><BR>The victor
last night according to all major media outlets was Romney.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A major part of the first hour was <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“spent on ways in which the two candidates
aren’t so different”, </I>Gerald Seib writes in the Wall Street Journal.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Both candidates and their parties agree
that corporate taxes must be lowered, education must be privatized and that
reducing the national debt is a crucial issue.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>On taxes Romney wants to cut tax rates
20% and counter that by eliminating certain business deductions. Obama wants to
raise taxes on the wealthy and counter this with incentives to business.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Either way you look at it, this is the
working class footing the bill.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We
all know that no matter how they change the tax code, the wealthy that they are
all talking about will find a way around it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><BR><BR>Today’s Wall Street Journal
editorial labeled Romney’s majestic performance as <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“..the best debate effort by a Republican
nominee since Ronald Reagan in 1980.” </I><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The journal criticized Romney for saying
that tax reform like his has never been tried before but that Reagan <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“did it with Democrats”</I> in his tax
reform in 1986. Romney should have made that link, the Journal
says.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>The 1986 Act was sold to us as the legislation
that would make sure everyone paid their fair share of taxes. John Kerry, the
Senator from Massachusetts launched a passionate defense of the Act saying,
<I>“Ordinary citizens, those people without the use of high paid lawyers and
fancy tax shelters ----have had to witness a parade of newspaper headlines
heralding the ---hundreds of millionaires who paid no federal income taxes.
<B>This proposal will make that kind of unfairness a thing of the past”</B></I>.
(My added emphasis) *<BR><BR>Richard Gephardt, the Democrat from Missouri said
at the time, <I>“It makes me angry that 250 families earned over $1 million last
year and paid no taxes….This bill makes sure that does not happen
anymore.”</I><BR><BR>This is the standard line every time they want to use the
tax code to enrich themselves. There are, as Donald Barlett and James Steele
point out in their excellent book, </FONT><A
href="http://www.amazon.com/America-Who-Really-Pays-Taxes/dp/0671871579/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1300903166&sr=1-1"><FONT
size=5>America: Who Really Pays the Taxes</FONT></A><FONT size=5>, two tax
codes, one for the rich and one for the rest of us. And the rich will benefit
not only from lower rates as a swap for eliminating tax breaks, but will still
have their politicians leave plenty of loopholes for them. And anyway, they have
the money and access to lawyers and all sorts of other connections the rest of
us don’t have to find these loopholes.<BR><BR>Romney rails against big
government and talks of how more efficient the private sector is over the
public.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He likes paying insurance
companies as middlemen in the health care industry he said.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The private sector is so efficient in
health care that some 50 million Americans have to rely on the state to provide
it as the private sector refuses.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>And then there’s Medicare.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The private sector would be so <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“efficient”</I> delivering mail, 4000
communities, often rural communities whose only link to the outside world is
their local post office would be closed.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Efficiency to the private sector is profits, not needs.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>It’s difficult for Obama, as he can’t really
take up Romney in any serious fashion because they agree on the
fundamentals.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We heard not a peep
from Obama as one of his major fundraisers, Rahm Immanuel, forced Chicago
teachers on strike.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Obama has said
nothing about the closing of 100 to 150 schools in that city; he was absent
during the Wisconsin events.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And as
a candidate of the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“poor and
oppressed”,</I> what has he said about the incarceration of youth, particularly
youth of color?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Nothing.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And talking about younger workers, both
Romney and Obama agree that pensions and Social Security need to be made more <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“efficient”</I> that these programs are too
generous.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Millions of people refuse
to vote at all in the US and those that do tend to be older so the candidates
say they will <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“shield”</I> current
retirees from the cuts in these programs. This is a standard divide and rule
tactic, during contract negotiations we called it <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“grandfathering in”, </I>it was a way the
bosses would divide employees along age lines so that the cutoff point would
ensure a yes vote for a contract while weakening unity among workers.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Younger workers looking to retire will
be expected to work longer and with worse pensions than most have now---that is
the future these candidates and the two big business parties offer.<BR><BR>The
debate was directed at those undecided voters who wait until the last minute
before making up their minds.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Romney clearly distanced himself from the Tea Baggers it seems, the US
capitalist class has not lost control yet.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>And it was designed not to inspire that’s for sure:</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>Obama: "<I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">We've begun to fight our way back,</I> <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">but we all know that we've still got a lot
of work to do, so the question here tonight is not where we've been but where
we're going."</I><BR><BR>Romney: <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">"We know
that the path we're taking is not working. It's time for a new
path."</I><BR><BR>Ho hum!</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>Here in California, the Democrat Jerry Brown
is carrying out the corporate agenda.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Throughout local races, the candidates assure big business that they can
be relied on to make the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“tough
decisions”</I> and are dead set on being <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“fiscally responsible”,</I> so once again
workers with no party of our own have no candidates that represent our
interests.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><BR><BR>I was talking to
a young guy yesterday who was somewhat inspired by Obama.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He was a person of color so I can really
sympathize with this to a degree as the Republican’s and their candidates are
such distasteful characters and have many more open racists in their ranks. It
cannot be ruled out that the Republican Party could split at some point in the
not so distant future. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But this is
the state of affairs, given the limited differences between the two parties
identity politics tends to dominate. Obama is also the candidate of the trade
Union hierarchy who as usual cling to the coattails of the Democrats despite
betrayal after betrayal. Where did EFCA go?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“public option</I>?” During the Carter
administration when the Democrats controlled both houses and the presidency, not
one major piece of legislation important to Labor was passed.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They were in the same position during
the first two years of the Clinton administration.<BR><BR>The San Francisco
Chronicle reported this morning that Romney won the debate and came of as just a
<I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“regular guy”, a</I>dding that, <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“His tone of voice and choice of words said
irrefutably, ‘I care’” </I>But millions of Americans are not fooled by this
acting job.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So Brad Pitt can appear
to be a Pikey Traveler in the movies, or George C Scott a bumbling general in
Dr. Strangelove.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We know that is
just make believe and that’s what the <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“I
care”</I> image these politicians are taught to portray is------make
believe.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What can they do? “<I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Vote for me I’m going to lower your living
standards so we can make more profits at home and abroad.</I> <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They can’t tell the truth, no one at all
would vote for them. This is why so many Americans have withdrawn from the
political process altogether, they are not fooled. I don’t say this is what they
should do; they should participate in the movement to build an alternative. But
one of the lowest voter turn-outs in the world is not, as the media so often
portrays it, <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“apathy”.</I> “<I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Americans don’t care,” </I>we are told, but
I don’t agree with this.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So many
have determined that the difference between choices is extremely limited,
coupled with the corruption and bribery that takes place, they have simply given
up.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=5>But perhaps the clearest indication of the
similarity between these two Wall Street politicians and why they are so
uninspiring was the comment that Romney made last night to the president, <I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“I’m not going to reduce the share of taxes
paid by high income people” </I>he said,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN></FONT><FONT size=5><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">“They’ll do
fine whether you’re president or I am.”<BR><BR></I>That’s the real deal right
there, and when he is talking about income he’s not talking about wages, Romney
doesn’t earn wages don’t forget, the government allows him a better tax bracket
that way. <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"></I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><FONT
size=5></FONT></I></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><I
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><FONT size=5>* The information here can be
found in America: Who Really Pays the Taxes
</FONT></I></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>